Question Laser printer: off or on when not in use (for weeks or months)

[Spaz888]

My new Brother AIO consumes approximately 4.6 W in standby mode. Approximately 0.8 W in deep sleep mode and 0.02 W when power is off.

There's mixed opinions on whether or not you should let the laser printer manage it's power settings or manually turn it off.

In the past, my sister didn't print much either and when I inherited her printer, I replaced the cartridge with a generic one after the OEM ran out. It ran fine for a few times but it was left dormant for about a year, then the prints were smoky and had a fine grit feel to them, despite no evidence of toner leaking or the drum error message saying drum needed replacing. Brother support was uncertain, they suggested to buy a new toner first and then drum if that didn't resolve the printing issue.

After I bought a new Brother AIO (MFC L2710DW), I donated the older MFC AIO.

What's the general consensus for someone who doesn't print often? Fully power off or not?

 

[BoomerD]

I have a Brother HL-L2395DW AIO printer. It's on all the time. So far, none of the problems you've described. I MIGHT print 1-2 pages per month.

 

[OlyAR15]

I leave my printer off all the time. I only turn it on when I need to print something, which is rare, and afterwards I turn it off. No problems doing so.

 

[sdifox]

I leave it off, turn on when needed

 

[pauldun170]

My 15 year old laserjet has had it's power button touched....
5 times?
It's always on unless mother nature decided to cause a power outage.

 

[Hans Gruber]

My Canon color laser multifunction printer displays two green lights. The low power operation mode and the wifi light.

 

[mindless1]

My Brother MFC-8890DW AIO has wifi which I don't need so I turn that off and save a little power, but will leave it on to go to sleep if I anticipate printing more in the next couple days, otherwise turn it off.

I'm not so sure that your experience with the generic cart was due to non-use for a year, might have been coincidence and it was just a low quality drum.

My general strategy is buy OEM cartridges and drums then when toner runs out, refill them (some need a reset gear (can be bought with toner) if it's the original starter cart or need the gear reset if a retail cart) with bulk toner until the seal or the drum is shot then start over buying a new OEM cart.

I usually get about two refills out of an OEM cart before it's looking like I need a new one and more... maybe 5 or so refills, before the drum needs replaced (drum rating is 25K pages but I probably get closer to 35K), but again this is with the OEM Brother drum not a generic aftermarket. Granted on smaller Brothers the drum may be built into the cart now, haven't investigated that in recent years.

 

[JWade]

i have a dell color laser printer, i leave it on all the time, it goes into power saver mode if it isnt used for 5 minutes