Colour Laser - switch off or use power saving?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Peter Boulton
  • Start date Start date
P

Peter Boulton

Hi,

Just got myself an Epson C900 colour laser. Quick question....

I will probably only use it occasionally (e.g. once every few days). Is
there any point in leaving it powered on all the time? I believe the
sleep mode power consumption is <8Wh. Presumably that means around a
tenth of a standard light bulb?

Or is it better to leave it permanently on and let it sleep?

Possibly a silly question, but there you go, it's important to me!

TIA

Pete

P.S. Very impressed with the quality. There is a new model just being
launched here at the moment I think, so you can currently get the C900
at a good price!
 
Hi,

Just got myself an Epson C900 colour laser. Quick question....

I will probably only use it occasionally (e.g. once every few days). Is
there any point in leaving it powered on all the time? I believe the
sleep mode power consumption is <8Wh. Presumably that means around a
tenth of a standard light bulb?

Or is it better to leave it permanently on and let it sleep?

Possibly a silly question, but there you go, it's important to me!

TIA

Pete

P.S. Very impressed with the quality. There is a new model just being
launched here at the moment I think, so you can currently get the C900
at a good price!
Click to expand...

Shhhhh, too many here will tell you color lasers can't produce photo
output that anyone but a drooling moron would consider
'acceptable'..lol.

I just got a Dell 3100cn, another of the new crop of inexpensive color
lasers. There is no reason to keep it on if you only print every few
days and can deal with the extra 1 or 2 mins to initialize when you do
switch it on. The only possible 'issue' would be over the long term
(months and years) does the toner become affected by humidity. Modern
toner is not hygroscopic and is a non issue: I have an Epson
ActionLaser 1500 that's easily 6 years old, rarely used, only turned
on when it's needed, the cart in it is easily 3 years old, still
prints perfectly whenever I do turn it on. Your Epson should be just
as good. In fact, if left unused for months the biggest issue on print
quality is likely to be ... the paper. All paper is hygroscopic (will
absorb moisture) and over time this will change it's properties
significantly: "Old" paper can have issues with toner fusing properly
and even more significantly, can often cause misfeed issues with laser
printers and copiers.
 
I have owned dozens of lasers,and about 6 color lasers.I have found I have
fewer troubles with the ones left on!My printers may go for a week without
printing,then print a job of 500 to 1000 prints.
 
Coup wrote on 12/02/2005 20:29:
Shhhhh, too many here will tell you color lasers can't produce photo
output that anyone but a drooling moron would consider
'acceptable'..lol.
Click to expand...
<snipped..>

In fact, if left unused for months the biggest issue on print
quality is likely to be ... the paper. All paper is hygroscopic (will
absorb moisture) and over time this will change it's properties
significantly: "Old" paper can have issues with toner fusing properly
and even more significantly, can often cause misfeed issues with laser
printers and copiers.
Click to expand...

Thanks for that. I'm that drooling moron! No really, near photo
quality, if that's how one describes colour laser output, is fine for
me. I mainly need it for colour flyer / Powerpoint type stuff - the
digi-pics is just a bonus. And I'm happy to trade slightly worse
results for better reliability, less frustration and lower running costs
than an inkjet.

Interesting point about the paper aging. If the printer sleeps in the
same room as the paper supplies, does leaving the printer on all the
time have any benefit to paper moisture?

I have a feeling I may be being a bid pedantic here, but might as well
start off on the right foot!

Thanks again.

Pete
 
Peter Boulton said:
Interesting point about the paper aging. If the printer sleeps in the
same room as the paper supplies, does leaving the printer on all the
time have any benefit to paper moisture?
Click to expand...

8 watts is seldom seen as a big contribution to space heating.

I have a feeling I may be being a bid pedantic here,
Yes.


but might as well start off on the right foot!
Click to expand...

In practice I've never heard of people having problems with paper
ageing.

So long as it's not stored in a conspicuously damp place, it'll probably
be just fine !


Cheers, J/.
 
I vote for leaving it on - and also for doing a printed test page at
least once a week. I believe it was designed with that in mind.

PJ
 
I vote for leaving it on - and also for doing a printed test page at
least once a week. I believe it was designed with that in mind.

PJ
Click to expand...

Don't forget to genuflect 3 times while facing Mecca when you do this.
Considering what remains "powered on" during sleep mode, it would be
fun to ask either of these guys EXACTLY what they think keeping the
unit powered is actually "doing" to make the printer perform better...
the answers will be instructive: as to their misinformation as to what
is being powered, and how these printers actually operate....
 
Interesting point about the paper aging. If the printer sleeps in the
same room as the paper supplies, does leaving the printer on all the
time have any benefit to paper moisture?

I have a feeling I may be being a bid pedantic here, but might as well
start off on the right foot!

Thanks again.

Pete
Click to expand...

As a practical matter the paper issue rarely comes into play with
most printers, unless the paper has been sitting there say.. 6
months...otoh as anyone with a big commercial copier which runs much
faster and, like mine here, does auto-duplexing. Paper handling
becomes much more complex and faster, even 2 month old paper is FAR
more prone to jamming when running at 50 ppm and duplexing....
 
Don't forget to genuflect 3 times while facing Mecca when you do this.
Considering what remains "powered on" during sleep mode, it would be
fun to ask either of these guys EXACTLY what they think keeping the
unit powered is actually "doing" to make the printer perform better...
the answers will be instructive: as to their misinformation as to what
is being powered, and how these printers actually operate....
Click to expand...

I'm sure you know so much more than the engineers that have been
designing inkjets since long before they came out..

Why would anyone ever want to ask the manufacturers anything?

Just ask coup. He has all the answers.
 
Fred said:
I'm sure you know so much more than the engineers that have been
designing inkjets since long before they came out..

Why would anyone ever want to ask the manufacturers anything?

Just ask coup. He has all the answers.
Click to expand...
He also knows this thread is about Colour Laser printers, and not inkjets.
 
Harvey said:
He also knows this thread is about Colour Laser printers, and not inkjets.
Click to expand...

Oh, and just for your reference 'fred' - if your going to try and hide as
another poster (PJx), it's a good idea to change your name, your email
address, and for good measure the client your posting with, and ideally the
service your using to post through - otherwise people might think your
trying to hide something about yourself.
 
He also knows this thread is about Colour Laser printers, and not inkjets.
Click to expand...

LMAO

This one can't even conceive of a color printer that isn't one of his
beloved inkjet torture devices....
 
He also knows this thread is about Colour Laser printers, and not inkjets.
Click to expand...

Oh BTW, I hadn't checked the headers: PJx and Fred are the same
nym-shifting imbecile so his first answer was about inkjets too....
 
You will probably get views from both sides on this.

Some will tell you that power cycling is hard on components and so
leaving them in some state of use is better than cycling them on and off.

Others will tell you that leaving the components powered wears than over
time.

Others will tell you, it depends.

My suggestions are these:

If your frequency of use will be that low, I would shut it off for
several reasons.

1) It wastes power, even if it is only 8 watts.
2) The unit is more vulnerable to damage due to power spikes if you have
dirty power
3) Components due have a life span when they are left running, be it due
to heat generation or other break down considerations. There is
probably a point where they average out relative to whatever (if any)
additional stress is created by power cycling. A well designed circuit
is not negatively harmed by power cycling.
4) There is a minor risk of fire should the power sleep mode not
properly engage or should the printer wake up due to an extraneous
command.

If the manual doesn't suggest specific recommendations, I would shut it
down fully if the frequency is every three or so days. Even with more
frequent usage I would certainly shut it down at the end of the day's
use. Sleep modes are usually designed to be used as a way to save
electricity during the day's usage, so it is rapidly available when
needed but isn't wasting either large amounts of electricity nor wearing
out components when not being needed.

My personal approach with most hi-tech, unless the manufacturer suggests
otherwise, or something must be available remotely, is for everything
to be off they will be sitting over 4 hours without use.

Art
 
Hi Douglas,

Out of interest, what types of problems came up with the ones which you
shut off regularly that did not occur with the ones left on? What
components or other elements work more poorly? Which problems would you
specifically attribute to shutting the printer off between several days
of usage?

Art
 
Thanks Art, that's a good, well balanced answer. Appreciated.

Pete (OP)

(P.S. I also appreciated the other replies on this thread, apart from
the net-police sniping bits, which are just so unnecessary!)
 
Arthur Entlich said:
My personal approach with most hi-tech, unless the manufacturer
suggests otherwise, or something must be available remotely, is for
everything to be off they will be sitting over 4 hours without use.
Click to expand...

I understood in 1985 from DEC, that if electronics without hard drives
was to be used within 24 hours, the best policy was to leave it on.
Since then, power consumptions have dropped and reliabilities increased.

I agree that there's no right answer to this. Power cycling is
undoubtedly traumatic. Good design can I agree reduce trauma, but
little can get around the inrush currents of capacitors or the power
required to spin up drives. It's also true that good design can make
systems tolerate remaining powered up pretty well.

My take is that you'll never know what's best for any particular device
because you'll never know the full spec of all the components. Even the
manufacturer may not know all the details.

As to manufacturers recommendations, are these made to support
sustainable use of electronic equipment, or are they optimised to sell
more kit (either by enhancing the manufacturers reputation and / or
encouraging the present kit to fail just outside warranty) ?


Cheers, J/.
 
I agree that as designs and specs change, it is hard to know what's
best, and I also agree that today it is truly difficult to know the
motives of a manufacturer. I fully agree that hard drives do not like
being spun up and down regularly. I learned that when I was using power
save on my computers and the hard drives kept failing. However,
printers don't usually have hard drives, and the sleep mode likely shuts
all mechanical motors off anyway.

I prefer to have equipment that doesn't need to be "on" in whatever
fashion that is, to be off when I'm not around, just for safety. I do
recognize that many electronic items these days don't really fully shut
off with the switch anyway. I have TV's CD players, etc, that are
always mildly powered because they respond to the remotes to turn them
on, so obviously some circuits are kept up and running all the time.

My computer system is now over 5 years old, used daily and shut off each
day at least once. Other than the early failures of the hard drives,
which were used with power save and were shutting down every 15 minutes
without use, the only hardware failure I have had in all those years was
a used floppy drive, so i'm pretty happy.

My TV, which is turned on and off several times a day, is getting on to
25 years old now, and still going.

I guess it comes down to gut instinct.

Art
 
Arthur Entlich said:
I prefer to have equipment that doesn't need to be "on" in whatever
fashion that is, to be off when I'm not around, just for safety.
Click to expand...

I tend to draw a line between kit in metal boxes that won't propagate
fire easily and plastic housings that might. I thus leave tower boxes
on all the time running the www.ud.com/cancer client or somesuch, but
turn of monitors PDQ.

Over the years I've seen three monitors and a few PSUs go up on smoke,
and I don't want to go with them.

I do recognize that many electronic items these days don't really
fully shut off with the switch anyway. I have TV's CD players, etc,
that are always mildly powered because they respond to the remotes to
turn them on, so obviously some circuits are kept up and running all
the time.
Yes.


My computer system is now over 5 years old, used daily and shut off
each day at least once.
Click to expand...

We have some working kit (AST premium 10 MHz 286) that has been in
regular use dating back to '86. Seldom powered down though.

Other than the early failures of the hard drives, which were used
with power save and were shutting down every 15 minutes without use,
the only hardware failure I have had in all those years was a used
floppy drive, so i'm pretty happy.
Click to expand...

We've had our fair share of drives go, but I put that down to low cost
and poor quality.

My TV, which is turned on and off several times a day, is getting on to
25 years old now, and still going.

I guess it comes down to gut instinct.
Click to expand...

Yes. Certainly no good formal methods here.


Cheers, J/.
 
Back
Top