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s80600 owners, leave your machine on or off when not using?

Dan Berg

Dan Berg

New Member
Just had a short conversation with my Epson tech. about turning my Epson off when it is not being used. I still have virtually no work for this thing. Maybe several jobs for an hour or two a week. I have it off all the time but turn it on every morning just to do a nozzle check. After my last service call it has been doing a clean on every startup. I asked the tech about turning that function off and all she said is that is in the menu?? She also told me I should just leave the printer on 24/7 so it can keep ink moving. What are you 40, 60 and 80 owners doing with your printers?
 
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ikarasu

Active Member
Keep it on. You may want to cry when you see all the cleanings it does between prints, and its just spitting all that ink into the waste bottle... but would you rather waste a few hundred bucks in ink a year, or have to buy a new $3000 x 2 head?


Thats the downside to solvent printers - It needs ink flowing. If you print for an hour a week... you're probably wasting more ink than you're using in cleanings
 
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ikarasu

Active Member
All machines are meant to be running 24/7.

They go into their own "sleep" mode where they don't take up much power - but it allows them to run critical operations such as cleanings.

Doesn't even matter the technology... UV needs to stay on for the pressure vacuum / cleanings, solvent for cleanings, latex for cleanings...

I don't think I've ever had a printer that has said not to leave it powered on. You can unplug a latex and leave it for a month or two ... But it'll require some manual head cleanings.


If the machine is running a cleaning, it's doing it to keep the head in good shape. Heads being the most expensive part on a machines it doesn't make sense not to keep it on. You save a few bucks in electricity only
 
balstestrat

balstestrat

Problem Solver
ikarasu said:
All machines are meant to be running 24/7.

They go into their own "sleep" mode where they don't take up much power - but it allows them to run critical operations such as cleanings.

Doesn't even matter the technology... UV needs to stay on for the pressure vacuum / cleanings, solvent for cleanings, latex for cleanings...

I don't think I've ever had a printer that has said not to leave it powered on. You can unplug a latex and leave it for a month or two ... But it'll require some manual head cleanings.


If the machine is running a cleaning, it's doing it to keep the head in good shape. Heads being the most expensive part on a machines it doesn't make sense not to keep it on. You save a few bucks in electricity only
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Well technically it makes no difference if you leave it on or pull the plug on latex. It just doesn't do any cleaning either way. As long as we leave the white out of this which does its own stuff.
 
Dan Berg

Dan Berg

New Member
balstestrat said:
Well technically it makes no difference if you leave it on or pull the plug on latex. It just doesn't do any cleaning either way. As long as we leave the white out of this which does its own stuff.
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I have sleep mode set to 15 minutes but the fans stay running. Why would the fans be running in sleep mode, the main reason I shut it off was those fans.
 
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Reactions: BVG
BVG

BVG

New Member
Dan Berg said:
I have sleep mode set to 15 minutes but the fans stay running. Why would the fans be running in sleep mode, the main reason I shut it off was those fans.
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We have the same issue on our S80600, the high rpm fans keep spinning even in sleep mode.
 
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netsol

Active Member
so, i guess the fans are doing this by design, (whether you agree with it or not)
just keep the machine on & protect the 2 expensive print heads, or i can guess what the next post will be about.
"i saved a dollars worth of electricity and destroyed 2 print heads"
i certainly am more guilty than most of re-engineering ALL my equipment, but, i recognize that i do these things AT MY OWN RISK
i would assume those fans that you speak of maintain a healthy vacuum keeping the ink on printhead surfaces from evaporating and turning to cement on the surfaces of the piezo's
 
Print1

Print1

Tech for your cutter, printer & logistics needs
balstestrat said:
Well technically it makes no difference if you leave it on or pull the plug on latex. It just doesn't do any cleaning either way. As long as we leave the white out of this which does its own stuff.
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Depends on the machine. That’s a pretty broad statement. Majority of machines need to be left on for various reasons
 
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unclebun

Active Member
The high rpm fans can stay on if you don't remove the vinyl the way the machine wants, when it wants. You can usually get them to slow down by closing the vinyl clamp, then reopening it.
 
Solventinkjet

Solventinkjet

DIY Printer Fixing Guide
The amount of ink spent on cleanings is well worth keeping the head working. If the cost of waste ink is breaking the bank, something is not setup correctly. As a dealer I've had floor models that don't get used very much and only sit there doing cleanings for the most part. In my experience, if you're emptying your waste bottle more than once every 6 months, your settings are too high or some sort of other issue is draining your ink.
 
Saturn

Saturn

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ikarasu said:
I don't think I've ever had a printer that has said not to leave it powered on.
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I didn't see this in my Epson or Mutoh manual, nor did the setup/tech mention it—I'd think it would be front and center if it were that critical. 10-color mode is the only time the Epson manual specifically talks about being left on. I am onboard with leaving the S80600 on overnight if you are in 10-color mode with white ink—I can confirm things go smoother that way. Shake that white ink every day too.

Maybe folks are assuming there's more magic happening when the machine is asleep than I am. The only thing I've observed the machine does while asleep in 9-color mode is keep the board/cpu fans spun up*, and occasionally (not even once a night, if you're checking) running a cleaning cycle. There are no ink circulations done or even available in 9-color mode, only cleans.

My concern with leaving it on when not in use, is that I get a power outage, or some other gremlin appears that I'm not there to resolve it. My Mutoh did occasionally have a vacuum or wicking issue that would only show up while in sleep mode... so that might play a factor in my bias. I have no problem running the 80600 unattended occasionally—running a roll overnight.

I get several cleaning cycles in a regular 8-10 hour day while my machine is on, so for me the other fears outweight the chance of squeezing in more cleans—It's sure not about saving dollars on ink and electricity. If I only had one job a week, or every couple weeks, leaving it on to do it's thing would probably make sense, but I'm running something 5-7 days a week, 365 days a year.

I don't think there's anything harmful about leaving your Surecolor on 24/7, I just choose to weigh the pro's and con's a little differently than most folks (apparently.)

*Regarding the fans that stay on, I had hoped SignMeUp would be willing to offer up their 3DPrint files mentioned in this post. The psychological effect of not hearing them while the machine is asleep might be enough to have me join the majority... ;p
 
Print1

Print1

Tech for your cutter, printer & logistics needs
Thermal fluctuations staying at a constant is beneficial to any digital machine, it’s good to power cycle periodically for clearing cache and what not but sleep and hibernation vs powering down is far more beneficial.

Factor that in with faster start up times. If you look at an operator waiting 10-15 minutes x 5 days a week x 52 weeks a year adds up quickly. If you have an operator waiting you are not making money, even 10-15 minutes from start up, to clean to print everyday, that’s like 65 hours of downtime per year.
 
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frankzilla

New Member
Leave some sort of material loaded in the machine with the clamp lever down and media selected. It should not have any fans running.

Also +1 for leaving it always on. Put your sleep cycle to less time and then just leave it. It powers on to do the cleaning and cycling as needed. Otherwise, the ink heads will be more trouble over time.

The new R model does something slightly different where it is completely capped with a shut-off clean procedure before powering it off and you can leave it off for a week at a time, with the recommendation of powering on at least once a week to do a cleaning and then back to hibernate. They should have designed the S series to do the same.



Attach files
 
balstestrat

balstestrat

Problem Solver
frankzilla said:
The new R model does something slightly different where it is completely capped with a shut-off clean procedure before powering it off and you can leave it off for a week at a time, with the recommendation of powering on at least once a week to do a cleaning and then back to hibernate. They should have designed the S series to do the same.
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It's because of the different ink. Can't do the same with solvent.
 
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