Should I Power Off My Printer When its Not in Use?
There is a lot of conflicting information out there on whether or not you should power off your printer when you are not using it. Recently, I contacted Canon’s Customer Support with just this question as I had just purchased an expensive printer.
The official answer from Canon is, yes, you should power off your printer when it is not in use.
Reasons:
- Prevent the Printhead from Drying out: Powering off your printer will “park” the printhead so it is capped and will not dry out. Some people claim just the opposite – that if you leave the printer on it will continue to cycle ink and this will keep it from drying out. While that may be partially true, it is better to leave the printhead parked when not in use for any length of time (even a few hours). If you aren’t going to be using it for days it is even more important to do this.
- Save Ink: If left on, modern inkjet printers will periodically perform cleaning cycles. This uses up ink. Although powering on the printer will also often cause a cleaning cycle, for the vast majority of users, less cleaning cycles will need to be run if the printhead is capped by powering off the printer.
- Save Power: With all the talk about “going green”, another benefit to turning off the printer will obviously be power savings. Even though most printers have an automatic power saving mode, it is quite obvious that less electricity will be used if the printer is completely powered off.
Summary: Do not leave your printer powered on all the time for longevity, quality, ink savings, and power savings.
And here is a copy of the email I received from Canon with their official response:
Thank you for writing to us. We value you as a Canon customer and
appreciate the opportunity to assist you with if you should keep the
PIXMA Pro9000 Mark II turned on or off when not in use.We recommend powering off the printer so that the printer parks the
print head in the corner to prevent it from drying. This is especially
true since you may not be using it for weeks at a time.The printer will use a cleaning cycle when powered up, but cleaning
cycles would also be performed regularly if it was left on. Therefore,
we recommend powering it off using the power button on the printer.We hope this information is helpful to you. Please let us know if we
can be of any further assistance with your PIXMA Pro9000 Mark II.Thank you for choosing Canon.
My question specifically mentioned the Canon PIXMA Pro 9000 Mk II, which is a mid-level wide format photo inkjet printer, however this should apply to most all desktop inkjet printers.
Thanks!
But surely the print heads are parked and capped when the power is on. When i turn my canon off from the machine i hear nothing at all.
The only problems ive had is when its been turned off for a length of time, the print head dries out
Of course Canon will say to turn it off. Every time you turn it off it goes through a cleaning cycle. That means more ink is used and you will need to buy ink more often. Ca-ching
For what it is worth: I owned a Canon printer for years and always turned it off when not in use (after 8 years, I purchased a new Canon Printer-MX922 with more features).
Being a consumer, my usage of printing was very minimal (I may not print anything for 1-2 weeks). The ink cartridges would last me over 6 months. When I did print copies- it may run into 80-125 pages. Never had a problem-so I think its best to TURN OFF THE PRINTER WHEN NOT IN USE.
All these tips are amazing.I also want to buy a wireless printer and these tips will definitely helps me in take care of my printer because caring of printer is not so easy task.
yes, it is very important to keep off your printer when it is not in use used it may damage your inner part of the printer and the other reasons which are given in this blog are also appropriate.
If I want to better to leave the printhead parked when not in use for any length of time. I have an issue in canon printer error 5200 this types of error generate when goes to the print.
Personally owned printers should be turned off but the printers who are used for the official purpose cannot be as anyone could have worked at any time.
I just replaced a Canon IP4300 that went belly up after 9 years of excellent service. I also have a Canon Pro 100.
As a replacement, I chose a Canon MX922. After getting the MX922 running, I found it did not shut down overnight. The other two did so when connected to my PC.
Here is what Canon said:
“Thank you for contacting Canon product support regarding leaving the PIXMA MX922 on. I can provide information on that.
We do normally recommend that the printer stay turned on. Turning the printer off and on has the printer going through a cleaning which may cause you to go through too much ink.
Please let us know if we can be of any further assistance.
Thank you for choosing Canon.
Sincerely,
Technical Support Representative”
I did a lot of googling, finding both on and off as the answer. I see both answers even from Canon.
Now I am not sure if the answer is model specific, dependent on who you, ask or who gives an answer..
I had the older printers connected by cable only.. They turned one when there was a PC print request.. They turned off in 15 to 30 minutes if there were no print requests.
The MX922 never turns off.
I am now running both wirelessly. The Pro100 does not turn off when run wirelessly.
The power on lamps make for expensive night lights.
Wow, this is a fantastic post. I also want to buy a wireless printer and these tips will definitely help me to take care of my printer because caring of the printer is not so easy task. Thanks for posting.
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Many of the options talked about above can be set for a particular Canon printer in the printer utility.
it is capped and will not dry out. Some people claim just the opposite – that if you leave the printer on it will continue to cycle ink and this will keep it from drying out. While that may be partially true, it is better to leave the printhead parked when not in use for any length of time.
if you leave the printer on it will continue to cycle ink and this will keep it from drying out. While that may be partially true, it is better to leave the printhead parked when not in use for any length of time If you aren’t going to be using it for days it is even more important to do this.
in my canon pixema MP996 printer during head cleaning the printer curent off . the printer is not starting what to do to start printer . what option i should use give sugttion
First I apologize if a slightly different post shows up. I think I sent that one to the wrong place.
siraj ul aziz : Your MP996 during head cleaning powered off (shut down) and now will not power up (start up). I hope I got that right.
This is usually bad news unless it is just the power to the printer.
I suspect you will need a new printer as the power supply may be one of the problems and repair may cost more than a new one.
I had a similar problem and wound up with buying a new printer.
One morning when I started printing, my 9 year old IP4300 powered up into its usual startup routine. Midway thru it, a puff of smoke came up from the print head area. The printer shut down and would not start up again.
Good Luck!