Question Not using my VS540 for 6 months

for that amount of time, you will be best off to flush the lines and lock the head in place.
Basically, you want to put the printer back into the configuration it was in when it arrived in the box

you should contact VanderJ
They will have all of the flushing fluids needed for placing the printer into storage

 

6 moths is a rough amount of time for a printer to sit like that. You could risk it and just keep it plugged in but most likely will have a fight on your hands to get the head firing again when you get back. Also, if anything gets jammed or an error occurs, the machine could pause with the heads uncapped and then they will just completely clog. The proper way to do it would be to empty the machine of ink, flush with cleaning solution and re-fill when you get back.

 

You're just asking for headaches and large repair bills if you're going to try and store it for that long without flushing it first. You'll want to do a head wash. I don't remember for sure, but I think that will require 8 cleaning cartridges, but you won't have to worry about how long it sits.
If your goal is to sell eventually, you might want to print a nozzle test and sample file before you ink it down so you can show a buyer how it was printing without having to ink it up and you can let them know that it was stored per the manufacturer's guidelines. You might want to touch base with a local Roland dealer just so they can corroborate your story.

 

I have the same printer and it's been sitting dormant, but plugged in for over 6 months.
I pull it out from time to time to do nozzle checks and print something to ensure the heads are still good.
By reading the other posts, this probably isn't the best practice, but for the sake of conversation I wanted to share my experience.
Cheers!

 

I am curious what the chances are the heads don't work properly after even if it is put away properly?

 

If you are 100% sure all the ink was flushed out then you should be able to fill it back up without fail every time. Usually when it fails it's because people don't check the lines after to make sure the flushing process actually worked. Sometimes 1 line might just not flush properly and you have to manually finish it off. There is a very small chance that the heads get damaged during the manufacturer's flushing process but the chances are higher when you manually flush it with a syringe.

 

It helps if you have new caps/dampers