Do you leave your 3880 on? Why?

[ehackett]

I just read Keith fine interrogatory about buying a large-format printer.  Alas, I read it too late: I bought an 3880 late last spring.  I wonder if I should be leaving it on all the time.  I notice at lot of business going on at power up, but do not know if this is costing me ink or wear or what.  So I wonder, do you leave your 3880 on?  Should I?

Thanks and best wishes,

Ed

[Johnny_Johnson]

Thanks for asking the question Ed. I read the same thing and was wondering the same thing.

Later,
Johnny

[hugowolf]

From posts here and on several other forums (fora), about 50% of 3880 users leave it on (allowing to go into sleep mode), the other half power it down manually. I don't see any difference in the 'stories' from either side - I don't see it making any difference.

Personally, mine has been off twice when the power went down and before I had an UPS system. I have never had a problem yet. And the same goes for the 9890.

Brian A

[Some Guy]

I leave mine on and just let it go into sleep mode.  Think the manual says it only draws 0.3 watts in sleep or power off mode.  Maybe if I were to leave it sitting for a week or more I'd power it off and maybe put an ounce of water in the maintenance tray to keep the head moist and toss some plastic over the printer too.

There was some talk someplace about the thing doing some random pressurization and maybe a minor head cleaning in power off.  Dunno as I never heard it act up by itself when in power off or sleep.

I did see in the manual there is a lithium battery in the unit.  Don't know what it is there for, but I wonder if powering off completely would cause it to be needed and maybe it dying off sooner too?

Fwiw, local photo shop has some wide paper Epson and they made a bad mistake of just turning it off with a power strip.  Sounded like the head didn't park and cap itself, and it plugged up bad over a weekend.  So bad they had to send it off to Epson and got an estimate for around $2,200 for the head and some circuit board too.  Haven't got it back yet either (2 months) and sounds like they are waiting for parts.  They are using a Canon 8400 in the interim.

SG

[howardm]

the battery is to keep the RTC (real-time clock) alive

[Ken Bennett]

I have a 3800 and turn it off if I won't use it in a couple of days. The one time I left it on for a couple of weeks, I had the only major clog ever, requiring multiple power clean cycles. As long as I turn it off after use, it has never had another clog.

This is the 3800, of course, not the 3880, and something may have changed with the newer model.

[JohnBrew]

Nope. It doesn't need it. Always ready to go when I start it up - never a problem.
OTOH, my Canon stays on all the time.

[Alan Goldhammer]

I always turn my 3880 off after printing.  Longest it has gone between printing is 3 months and it printed up fine after I turned it on to do some printing.  I have never had any nozzle problems at all and often forget to do a nozzle check because of this.

[Farmer]

There are two differences between leaving on and turning off.

You use a very, very small amount of extra power to leave it on.

Turning it off forces it to update things like writing to the cartridges, which will help to minimise the risk of something going wrong in the event of an unexpected power outage.

Otherwise, there's no difference.

On that basis, I generally suggest you switch it off, but if you prefer to have it ready all the time and use a UPS or are prepared to deal with the effects of a sudden power outage, then by all means leave it on.

[Kelvin Quinn]

I have a couple of 3800's and just let them go into standby, never had a problem.

Recently over the last few day's I was watching an Epson video somewhere on YouTube.

The Epson person speaking said when you power down the 3800/3880 the head

seals it's self to the rubber seal around the capping station and this prevents the

head drying out and prevents dust and debris from getting on the head.

I thought this happened anyway in standby mode, it raises an interesting question.

[digitaldog]

I turn mine off. Never had an issue. 30 feet away lives a 4900 that has to be on all the time or it will clog within a few days. Go figure. The 3880 has been the most reliable Epson I've even owned and I go back to the Epson 1200 if memory serves.

That said, in energy saving mode, the 4900 uses very little electricity, about 6 watts according to KillaWatt. The 3800 would use the same or less I suspect.

[Adam L]

I cover mine with a towel to keep the cat hair away.   My cats regularly jump on the printer to look out the window.   They often hit the on/off button so I get a mixture of both.  Honestly I don't pay any attention to it, it's just worked for me.

[Farmer]

Kelvin - this happens anyway when the printer is idle.  There is no extra capping process due to switching off.

The other benefit of going from off to on, as people have noted elsewhere at times, is that it forces the printer to repressurise on the ink carts which can be helpful.  Not as much of an issue on a 3880 given the short ink lines and less gravity to fight.

[JimGoshorn]

I turn mine off. Never had an issue. 30 feet away lives a 4900 that has to be on all the time or it will clog within a few days. Go figure.

Andrew,

Does leaving it on make it trouble free or just it minimize the clogging issue?

Jim

[Kelvin Quinn]

Kelvin - this happens anyway when the printer is idle.  There is no extra capping process due to switching off.

Farmer

Thank you for your comments. I thought it was an odd thing to say, especially from an Epson Representative.

I could not see the head not ever sitting tight on the capping station, even in standby mode.

Kelvin

[Farmer]

I think perhaps it was just poorly worded and there was no intended inference that it didn't cap at other times, just pointing out that it did when you turned it off.

[Wayne Fox]

Andrew,

Does leaving it on make it trouble free or just it minimize the clogging issue?

Jim

on a 3880, neither.

 I don't think you will see any significance difference in clogging by leaving it on (in fact it may actually clog more).  The capping action of turning the printer off seems more aggressive than the capping while in sleep. But the 3880 is the one Epson that really doesn't have clogging problems for nearly all users anyway,  so I just don't think it makes a difference.  

The other printers, I believe turning them off is better. I have found my 9900 clogs less if I keep it off while not used. If I forget to turn it off and come back a few days later, there usually is a nozzle or two missing (often not enough to bother cleaning), sometimes more. if I shut it down it usually has nothing missing.  Of course that's my experience in a humidity controlled environment.

And the 4900 seems to be in a category of its own ... it's either no problem or lots of problems for users, with no consistency.  I would certainly experiment with leaving it on all the time if it is one of the problematic ones, shutting it off doesn't seem to work anyway.  Seems to have helped Andrew...

[digitaldog]

Does leaving it on make it trouble free or just it minimize the clogging issue?

That and having it automatically make a small test print twice a week from Calendar and it is acting fine. No clogging.

[Wayne Fox]

That and having it automatically make a small test print twice a week from Calendar and it is acting fine. No clogging.

When you say from Calendar, are you referring to something connected to OS X calendar?  Are you scheduling a calendar event to trigger a print job?  Sounds useful ...

[MirekElsner]

I was leaving it on until two weeks ago. Then I watched this video and decided to start shutting it down and watching if there is any difference. It hasn't been long enough to make any conclusions.