On or Off?

[EdwardM]

Having just had to fork out for a new print head for a Canon ip6700d, I want the new one to be as trouble free as possible. I've heard that with Epson its best to leave them switched on all the time to minimize blockages & ink wastage. Is it the same with Canon? I'd appreciate any feedback.
Thanks,
Ed.

 

[ghwellsjr]

At least with the chipless Canon printers that I have, turning the power off and on causes a purge cycle to occur the first time you print which wastes ink so I leave mine on all the time.

 

[embguy]

I set my Canon i550 and iP4500 to auto power. It automatically turns off after inactivity and turns on when it receives print job. It will take longer to start printing because of the short startup purge cycle. I have my i550 for 6 years without any problem. I have my iP4500 for only 6 months. Since the Canon AIO printers do not have auto power. I leave them on all the time. But I only have the AIO printers less than 1 month to give you any statistics.

Since my i550 are always off most of the time, I do not know whether the Canon printer purges the printhead periodically if you leave the printer always on.

The main reason that I have a clog-free i550 because it prints something every day. My family members always have something to print everyday. Now, we have 4 printers, it will be interesting to find out what happens in a year time...

 

[EdwardM]

My own observations:
The print head sits in its corner doing nothing whether the printer is on or off. If not used for a time (as we know), ink can dry in the nozzles. On first switching on, it does a brief purge cycle as ghwellsjr observes. While it may waste a little ink, methinks it has to be better than starting a print job if one or more nozzles happen to be blocked, which will damage the nozzle heating elements & reduce their lifespan. All things considered, I think I'll switch it off when not in use. Canon seems to think along the same lines, as the ip6700d switches off automatically when being used as a standalone. Auto-off doesn't work when connected to a PC (probably something to do with the built in card reader).

 

[ghwellsjr]

Please note: switching a Canon printer on does not initiate a purge cycle--it waits until you actually attempt to print something and then does the purge cycle.

Secondly, the consensus is that you better print something periodically, at least once a week, to keep the nozzles clear. And you should print something that uses all the nozzles. The ONLY way to guarantee that is to print a nozzle check at least once a week. For example, if you do a lot of text printing with no color, you should do a nozzle check to clear those dye ink nozzles. Furthermore, don't assume that text printing will keep all the pigment black nozzles clear because depending on your font size, you may just be using the top or just the top and bottom nozzles.

Whether you turn the printer off for "long" periods of time or leave it on with no use for long periods of time, you should do a nozzle check to make sure all the nozzles are working at least once a week.

 

[EdwardM]

Will do.
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Thanks for your feedback.