UPS solution for printer?

[gigigogu]

My 2 cents...

The main printer at my office is on UPS, but just to keep it powered until the back-up generator kicks in.

 

[The Hat]

gigigoguThe main printer at my office is on UPS, but just to keep it powered until the back-up generator kicks in.

I have a curious question?
Why would there be a need for a powered printer when all the computers are down..

 

[irvweiner]

George, Yes and No. At 25W the printer in question is obviously an Inkjet. I am not aware of any desktop Laserjets when printing operating at that low a power level.

My Inkjet and Laserjet are both connected to the UPS, when not physically printing their 'standby' power is a few watts for the laser and much less for the Inkjet. And Yes, for a few extra $ I have an additional surge protector in line with each printer

Why do this? Simply, if I am in the midst of printing a 17x25+ sheet of expensive fine art or canvas media (on my Canon Pro 9000 or Epson 3880) I know it will finish. Likewise, if I am printing a letter on the Laserjet I'm quite certain it will finish. The former situation I have experienced once, the latter not yet. If I am not printing at all I know that I have 10-20 mins to finish this email and continue or just shut down normally. Yes, my router/modem is on the UPS plus a small LED lamp! In a power outage scene I can easily turn off the printers if concerned.

In a business office, management must decide if they want/need a safe UPS powered island or not and in your situation must make certain that the distributed office/cubbyhole UPS's are maintained and function properly.

Mr Hat, a very probable reason for the UPS is to permit the continued printing of the many documents stored in the Laserjets memory by the working staff.

irv weiner

 

[gigigogu]

gigigoguThe main printer at my office is on UPS, but just to keep it powered until the back-up generator kicks in.

I have a curious question?
Why would there be a need for a powered printer when all the computers are down..

At office is a mix of laptop and desktos PCs. Desktops are also on UPS. The building has a backup power generator that, in case main power is down, starts running in 10 seconds.
The printer is on UPS for these 10 seconds, in order not to loose print jobs, if any.

 

[Chakonari]

Wow! I thought this topic would die off without any responses. I wanted to keep my initial post short and to the point. Here's the situation for clarification:

Whilst waiting for my Epson R3000 to arrive and I had just finished reading the quick start guide, we had a power cut. One of the things stated in the guide, is that the priming of the ink system takes about 10 minutes and interrupting the process would waste ink. This got me to thinking about the "what ifs" when a power cut occurs. Not only during priming, but in the middle of printing, "Could this lead to cogging?".

We usually have at least 3-4 power cuts during the summer months, as the people who planned the infrastructure here, wouldn't even last 5 minutes playing Sim City. The power cuts generally last several hours. A whole day last year, which resulted in a lot of food being thrown away. Surges are not a problem, and I unplug everything during (the rarely occurring) thunderstorms.

I was unable to find a UPS that meets the requirements to only take care of the printer... and the only other thing that would make sense, would be to purchase a UPS, that could power my PC as well. But it is this kind of reasoning, that got me from thinking about refilling the carts for the Canon MP250 which was gifted to me(2nd hand), to somehow making it possible for me to get the Epson R3000 instead. So a "proper" UPS is just out of the question at the moment. If I could get a small(cheap) UPS, then I would work with my tower, transfer the completed files to a laptop and print from there. Ideally I would get usage meter and play a resource hungry 3d game to select a UPS accordingly.

Some UPSs can damage certain equipment, because they do not output a sine wave, unlike for example, the Smart UPSs from APC. The topic of different types of power supplies and the form of power that is output by UPSs, is a topic on it's own. There appears to be confusion about the general use of UPSs for printers, that arise from the recommendation to not use a UPS for laser printers, due to the amount of power they draw. I also checked Trust's website, who state that only one of their UPSs(not their highest powered one) is suitable for devices other than monitors or PCs - however they don't state why.

n.b.: I have asked Epson's support about this. They could not make a suggestion for a UPS as they do not test their printers under this scenario. They did however say, that a power cut, unlike a power surge, would not damage the printer.

 

[ghwellsjr]

So as I understand what you are concerned about, it is not that you want to be able to handle a momentary interruption in power to your printer, which is what a UPS is for, but rather you want to be able to continue work when your power goes down for several hours. Assuming that you have solved this problem for your computer with a UPS on your tower that allows you to transfer files to your laptop, then I would suggest that you get an inverter that you can plug into the cigarette lighter in your car which will provide you with an unlimited amount of power for your printer (and laptop, if necessary) as long as you have an unlimited supply of gas. If you cannot relocate your printer to your car, you can always get an extra car battery which you keep recharged to connect to the inverter when necessary. In other words, you can make your own backup power source but it won't be a UPS because it won't automatically kick in when the power fails.

 

[Chakonari]

So as I understand what you are concerned about, it is not that you want to be able to handle a momentary interruption in power to your printer, which is what a UPS is for, but rather you want to be able to continue work when your power goes down for several hours.

You misunderstood. I just want to finish the running print and turn off the printer in a normal manner. Sorry for the confusion.

Assuming that you have solved this problem for your computer with a UPS on your tower that allows you to transfer files to your laptop, then I would suggest that you get an inverter that you can plug into the cigarette lighter in your car which will provide you with an unlimited amount of power for your printer (and laptop, if necessary) as long as you have an unlimited supply of gas. If you cannot relocate your printer to your car, you can always get an extra car battery which you keep recharged to connect to the inverter when necessary. In other words, you can make your own backup power source but it won't be a UPS because it won't automatically kick in when the power fails.

I don't own a car. And whilst I do enjoy tinkering and (mis)using things for what they were not originally intended for, an inverter and a car battery would cost me more than a UPS to power PC and printer. But thanks for the idea anyway.