That's the great part of the x400 line. The ipf8400 is pretty quite during the cleaning cycles. Our unit does the same and we barely hear it unless it's printing and we use it almost daily. We also sell the printers, so we have a demo that we print from and show to customers when interested. Since they've updated the software and hardware in the x400 line, they made them just as easy (and quite), if not better to work with than the x300 line. Even if you don't keep it turned on and the environment is pretty normal (standard humidity and air pressure, etc), the printer should work fine after a few months of no use. It will detect any possible clogs and would clean it upfront.
The printer does have a scheduled maintenance that is already set up upfront, but you can adjust it to your preference if needed. Hope this helps with any questions/confusions.
