Laser printer: turning-off every night

[gevorg]

I just got a color laser printer, Brother HL-4040CN, to use as a low-duty printer in my bedroom. The thing is when it goes to sleep mode, its fans are still running. Barely audible during the day, but a bit annoying during the night.

I'm wondering if its okay to keep it off at nights. Are there any disadvantages in that? Like the toner gets wasted more at every warm-up, or the printer's life itself goes down quicker. Any thoughts?

 

[KeypoX]

well it will blow up if you turn it off

 

[wseyller]

Each time you turn a laser print on and off it will engage the components in the laser cartridge to rotate to go through a cleaning cycle. This alone may not waste toner but it would wear down the component especially the OPC Drum. Depending on the cartridge it is possible some components can wear down to the point were it causes a defect before the end of life. Other variables can play a factor in this. Printing one page....printer stops..print one page...printer stops insteading of long continuous print jobs can wear the components, because before each print job the printer will rotate the components for a cleaning cycle. Also printing to only one side of the page only for example could wear the components because the wear is concentrated to one area.

With color lasers the machine will go into calibration when the machine is powered on or after replacing the toner cartridges. Typically the printer will apply a patch of toner to the OPC drum for each color. An optical sensor will read the patch of toner so it can adjust for color differences. This obviously would waste a small amount of toner.

I would be hard to say what affect powering the printer on/off would do to it over years of time.

 

[Peter]

There is no such thing as a "cleaning cycle" in laser printers.

 

[corkyg]

Agree with Peter. Lasers are best left totally OFF unless being used. I use mine maybe once a week. Turn it on for that use - then turn it right off. There is nothing to be gained by leaving it on.

 

[Modelworks]

Its fine to cut it off at night.
The only reason its doing anything when on and not in use is because people want quick 1st print times.
Turn it off when its not expected to be used.
I've got laser printers that are 10 years old and work fine, that have been cut off and on more times than I can count .

 

[wseyller]

Originally posted by: Peter
There is no such thing as a "cleaning cycle" in laser printers.

You obviously don't know what you are talking about.

After power on until the end of the initial motor rotatation, the printer will clean the drum surface of potential and the wiper blade removes any toner on the drum The printer will clean the transfer charging roller by apply a negative electrostatic charge to the transfer roller which cause the toner to repel from the roller.

And I do agree to leave the printers off when not in use. Your better off saving electricity. Now some laser printers have a power saving mode which normally works quite well.