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Do you leave your printer on 24/7?

Prairieboy

New Member
I have a 1608 that uses Mubio inks and the print head plugs if left off for any amount of time so I don't shut off my Mutoh ever. It is a pain to get it going if it clogs.
 

Rooster

New Member
I'm not sure what kind of firmware your mutoh may have so this advice may not apply. My experience with solvent inkjets is limited to my JV33.

With my machine you can turn it "off" and you can "shut off the power".

The front panel input puts it into sleep mode or "off" where the machine uses an absolute minimal amount of power until the firmware fires the printer up and performs a cleaning cycle to ensure the ink is not drying out on the heads or in the lines before returning to sleep.

If you "shut off the power" the printer will no longer perform the intermittent cleanings and you risk the ink drying on the print head and in the lines.

If you use the front panel input you can safely go away on vacation for as long as the ink left in your cartridges will last for the intermittent cleaning cycles. Personally I wouldn't "shut the power off" on my machine for any length of time unless it was after I cleared the heads of ink like I was getting ready to transport it for shipping or decommission. Certainly not with a solvent printer.
 

spot867

New Member
With the ValueJets you can leave off for a short time frame with no difficulty .... just do a nozzle check and maybe a cleaning cycle if a few nozzles are blocked.
 

vladio

New Member
I just started turning off the printer when I'm not using it for an extended period. The power supplies in Encads don't last. I've started using UPS's thinking that it would "filter" out any bad AC but they still would die after a couple years. I was fortunate to find 5 of the high wattage power supplies on ebay (brand new, in boxes) and bought them 8 years ago. I've been through 4 of them. This works for Encad aqueous printers fine but other printing technologies might need power to keep the inks from clogging.
 

Stealth Ryder

New Member
If you set your Cleaning times correctly it will push a minimul amount of ink thru the system which will ensure proper ink flow. The fans will turn off after a pre-designated time... The machine is very forgiving, meaning that even if you let it set idle for a extended period of time a normal cleaning will revive any clogged nozzles provided you have a good Maintenace Assy and the Head is Capping as it should...
 

g&eprinting

New Member
My vj1204 is set to sleep mode on its own.
Sleep mode stops the fan and heaters as well.
Turned off every night though because I do not want to crease the rollers leaving them down.
It is also set on a cleaning schedule on its own.

Some days I do a test print and cleaning just for ease of mind.
 
I have Mutoh VJ 1604. Left it on 24/7. What I do is turn to sleep mode, leave the roller down without media. Turn it back on from sleep mode. It will be in idle mode without turning on the suction fans. Set to economy clean interval to clean once a day 1440min

Never put in sleep mode as it will clean ink every 1hour interval, and waste your ink.
 

HulkSmash

New Member
Why turn it off? Trying to save 12 dollars a month on electricity when it's on standby?

Here's a simple answer - Don't ever turn your printer off.
 

omgsideburns

New Member
Yes... when it's in sleep mode it moves the print head slightly every hour to keep it from getting flat spots on the rollers.. but my printer is weird and really isn't made to shut down.
 

Ken

New Member
What Replicator said with a Versacamm..it sleeps..fires up once a day on its own to shoot a small bit of ink thru the head..it's not really a cleaning cycle. Works for me.
I had left it off for an extended period several years ago and I ended up with some clogged nozzles in the black head. It's still like that. Not enough to notice on the prints.
So I just let the machine do its thing.
Ken
 

GAC05

Quit buggin' me
I turn mine off (1304)
Not to save power or ink.
When I first got it I left it on - set to sleep with some media under the rollers.
It would wake up, clean and then go back to sleep.
Came in one morning and it was crying that it was low on ink and had stopped in the middle of the cleaning cycle. Head was off the cap - could have been uncapped the whole night. I couldn't tell.
Now at the end of the day I run a lite clean of the head and power it down for the night.

If the firmware was smart enough to re-park the head when the low ink flag pops up I might leave it on at night, but it is not and leaving it off seems to be working out fine.

wayne k
guam usa
 

bob

It's better to have two hands than one glove.
Why turn it off? Trying to save 12 dollars a month on electricity when it's on standby?

Here's a simple answer - Don't ever turn your printer off.

MTBF [Mean Time Between Failure] is calculated as power-on time, power-off time is free. A power-on state is considered to be in-use time.

Just because it's not printing does not mean that it's not doing anything at all. If electronics is powered on then by definition, they're working. Depending on the particular mechanism, various mechanical and electro-mechanical components may also be energized and/or held under tension.

There is little upside to leaving a printer on all of the time as well as at least a statistical chance of failure. Conversely there is even less downside to turning it off when not in use and it's rather difficult for a machine to fail when not in use.

I only power on my printer when I'm about to print something and then power it off when I'm finished with it. I've been doing this for years and, strangely enough. I never seemed to be plagued by any of the litany of printer problems constantly heralded in these waters.
 

SignaramaFL

New Member
I never turn my printer off (unless I'm soaking the heads for a deep clean) because it has scheduled cleanings that it does.
 

HulkSmash

New Member
MTBF [Mean Time Between Failure] is calculated as power-on time, power-off time is free. A power-on state is considered to be in-use time.

Just because it's not printing does not mean that it's not doing anything at all. If electronics is powered on then by definition, they're working. Depending on the particular mechanism, various mechanical and electro-mechanical components may also be energized and/or held under tension.

There is little upside to leaving a printer on all of the time as well as at least a statistical chance of failure. Conversely there is even less downside to turning it off when not in use and it's rather difficult for a machine to fail when not in use.

I only power on my printer when I'm about to print something and then power it off when I'm finished with it. I've been doing this for years and, strangely enough. I never seemed to be plagued by any of the litany of printer problems constantly heralded in these waters.

Cool story bob. How do you have conversations with people you know in real life. They must take a few Advils before sitting down with you.
 
J

john1

Guest
Always leave mine on, it goes into sleep mode and it runs 2 cycles a day to keep the heads flowing since i don't print but a few hours a week. Not up to par with most of you guys yet ;)
 
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