Updated

What are the results of ink use if the printer is not turned off between print jobs, and is there a way to disable/suspend the maintenance function? —Mark B. Nelson Kirkland,  WA

In our pilot tests, leaving the printers on between uses made some printers use much less maintenance ink, as we reported in "The High Cost of Wasted Printer Ink." But in ongoing tests, we don’t know on a model-by-model basis what difference leaving a printer on will make. And there is no way with settings available to consumers to make a printer skip automatic maintenance cycles, nor have we been able to find out from the manufacturers any specific advice on how to use less maintenance ink. Printers certainly vary in their frequency, duration, and timing of maintenance cycles, and that’s why we test them.

—Consumer Reports

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