Elmo said:
You mean you never actually read the owner's manuals for the inkjet
printrs in question? You just decided that you must know better based
on your hunches, therefore why bother with reading the manufacturer's
specifications.
There's a lot of "my thinking was..." going on in the world, and that's
how old wives' tales come about. Then you get to have kids, and you
pass your "wisdom" on to your kids, then they turn out dumb as stumps as
well.
Well, aren't you just full of yourself.
Of course, you probably don't know a darn thing if it isn't in the
"manual" and obviously there was no manual that came with you that
explained common decency in dealing with another human being, or at
least I suppose that would be your excuse.
As it turns out, indeed most inkjet printers should be shut down when
not in use because they need proper shut down to allow the heads to park
and seal in the cleaning/parking station, so be it "dumb" luck, or good
intuition, the poster seems to have it correct. Further, some inkjet
printers still trickle a very small voltage through the circuits to keep
certain counter information in memory.
That's correct.
What does the manual say?
You have a TV and a VCR, right? Do you power those off? By power off,
I mean do you actually cut ALL power from going to those devices when
you're not using them?
No, you don't. When you hit the power button, they go to sleep. Their
internal circuitry is still alive and consuming power; they're keeping
time, channel memories, etc, and they're listening for a remote control
or internal timer code to tell them to turn on the rest of the
circuitry, fire up the tube, start the tape rolling, etc.
But they do still have a power button, and don't just "go to sleep"
after an elapsed time. And televisions and VCRs, should they turn on
due to a flaw in the IR circuits will likely just waste a bit of
electricity. (I have a VCR that will turn itself to "power on" mode if
strong sunlight hits the IR sensor under some situations). TV and VCRs
don't have a heater unit that is used to fuse toner in them. Further,
depending upon how long after last use the unit goes into sleep mode, it
could waste considerable electricity.
Look at your TV and VCR manuals, and see how much power they consume
when "off".
So you don't actually turn OFF your TV and VCR when you're not using
them, right? You don't go and hit a power strip switch or anything, or
some master power button (sometimes called a "vacation" button) on the
TV, right?
The laser printer is no different. When sleeping it's powered all the
way down except for the same bare minimum current required to keep the
circuitry alive that looks for a print job coming in. When a print job
comes in, the rest of the machine powers up and prints the job. Then it
goes back to sleep again after a few minutes.
There are a number of potential benefits to turning the unit off fully.
One, it obviously saves some minimal electricity, and if one had half
a dozen peripherals which each use 6 or 8 watts (printers, scanners,
etc) it could mount to a wasteful bit of power. Secondly, there have
been numerous design flaws over the years with laser printers which have
lead to fire risks and fires. Could the printer start up on its own due
to such a flaw, or a power glitch? Possibly. Power spikes can do more
damage to equipment which is in "sleep mode" than in the full power off
position. The thing may emmit enough RF interference to interfere with
other household devices. I have a CD player which keeps a trickle
voltage going through it, because it has a remote control.
Unfortunately, the design is such that it emits RF interference through
the house, so I have it on a power "bar" and turn it off there. I
really don't need the remote feature to open the CD drawer, after all, I
have to place a CD into it, so it's no great hardship and I wish it did
have a true off switch.
I won't get into an argument as to whether turning the power switch on
and off shorten component life or not, because it very much depends upon
the circuits. And indeed some peripherals need a certain current flow
to maintain memory values, so I agree the manual may be a good source of
information (if it goes into that much detail). But assuming the manual
trumps all other knowledge or information is potentially shortsighted.
Modern HP printers don't even have an on/off switch. The most they ever
power down is to sleep mode--just like the most your VCR ever powers
down is sleep mode. Some current is ALWAYS going through the thing.
For extended absences, unplug the thing. Otherwise, leave it plugged in
and let its internal circuitry decide when to turn the fuser and motors
on and when to leave them off.
An actual power switch isn't needed nowadays, and is overkill.
A power switch costs money to include and install, and today every
penny's savings, whether or not it has value in the design, becomes
secondary to the "bottom line". Personally, I like true power interrupt
switches, and nearly everything I own has them. I feel the benefit is I
am given a easier choice.
Art
