Question Is it better to turn off printer to save ink

[paulsiu]

My mom's Cannon MX860 appears to waste ink even if she doesn't print anything. For example, she prints may be a few pages per month, but the cartridge appears to empty faster than expected. There may be two things at work here:
1. Ink evaporates from the cartridge even if you don't use it.
2. Printer has a tendency to do periodic self-cleaning.

I am pretty sure that when you turn on the printer, it will attempt to clean the print head and use up some ink. Is it better to keep the printer turned off to wasting ink through the periodic self-cleaning?

Paul

 

[corkyg]

Periodic self cleaning is a common design feature for such printers. If they have been off for a while, it usually happens when they are turned on.

 

[paulsiu]

That's what I thought, so if you turn on the printer each time to print and you print often, then turning it on an off will actually waste more ink since each power up means self-cleaning is activated.

If it's not use for a long time, then turn it off?

paul

 

[killster1]

That's what I thought, so if you turn on the printer each time to print and you print often, then turning it on an off will actually waste more ink since each power up means self-cleaning is activated.

If it's not use for a long time, then turn it off?

paul

id say yes , i unplug mine since its a waste of power to be turned on / plugged in.

 

[13Gigatons]

My old printers used less ink if left powered on but it was a waste of electricity. I guess you have to pick one or the other.

Keep Your Printer Turned On

By leaving an inkjet printer on, you avoid triggering a maintenance cycle each time you use it. According to our test results, that can yield big savings from your ink costs because many of the printers we evaluated used as much ink to clean the print heads as they did for actual printing.
When we kept the printers on, we saw a noticeable reduction in ink consumption even on some of the most ink-hogging models.
Worried about the cost and environmental impact from the extra energy? Inkjets consume very little power when not in use, so your ink savings should considerably outweigh those concerns.