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What is Duty Cycle on A Printer?

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Printer duty cycle is the highest number of pages your printer can print in a month without little to no compromise to your performance.

Ensuring your recommended monthly duty cycle is critical for businesses looking for optimal performance, maximum speed, and elite print quality. If you are wondering, “What is duty cycle on a printer?” You are in the right place! Today, we will explore why the printer duty cycle is important and provide tips for managing your monthly duty cycle.

Printer Duty Cycle Basics

Businesses looking to ensure their printers perform at the highest level are instructed to keep up with their printer duty cycle. This measurement can provide insight into your printer’s health and the longevity you can expect using it. A monthly duty cycle helps you stay on top of your printer’s health, making it an essential component of any printer maintenance program.

Having this information about your printer monthly can help you make important decisions about your equipment, like whether it is time for a maintenance check with a certified BDS print technician or time to upgrade your equipment. Staying on top of your printer cycle duty is critical, but some businesses need guidance on what schedule to stay on.

Why Monthly Printer Duty Cycles Work

When creating a schedule for your duty cycle, we recommend monitoring it monthly to avoid any surprise issues down the line. For example, if you wait six months to perform your printer duty cycle, it may be too late to recognize that your printer has been printing ineffectively, producing low volumes at slow rates. If caught early, you have enough time to intervene and remedy the issue before it becomes irreplaceable.

To determine your monthly print cycle, your printer will be pushed to operate at maximum levels to measure its performance under those conditions and decide on its advanced capabilities. Generally, you should stick below 10% of your duty cycle monthly to avoid any issues with your printer. Anything over this percentage can cause significant damage to your device.

Print Duty Cycle vs. Recommended Monthly: What is the difference?

Printer duty vs. Recommended Monthly Print Volume image

Often, businesses confuse print duty cycle and the recommended monthly print volume your printer suggests for optimal performance, because they are very similar, but different. As we mentioned, print duty cycle is the highest number of print jobs your printer can handle without shutting down and experiencing considerable damage.

In contrast, your recommended monthly print volume is the number of pages your printer’s manufacturer recommends printing monthly for better performance. Any printing device that sits around and is not used enough is no good, as it can cause internal damage to your printer, slowing down the speed and large print-volume capabilities.

Generally, your monthly print volume will be a bit lower than your monthly print duty cycle because your print duty cycle measures the maximum number of print jobs your printer can handle, not the amount you should regularly print. Printing your recommended monthly is critical to ensuring smooth printing for your device.

Staying on top of your print duty cycle and your recommended monthly maintenance is crucial if you want ultimate productivity and efficiency in your office. It is one of the best maintenance services you can provide to your printer.

Does BDS Offer Other Maintenance Tips, Tricks, & Support?

As the #1 trusted local New England and Florida print partner, BDS provides local communities with the best printer technology support and maintenance. Whether you need a print technician on-site to remedy difficult paper jams or a quick tutorial on operating your Kyocera TASKalfa series device, we can help!

Our expert team has over 40 years of success providing cutting-edge solutions and printer maintenance support to help businesses, enterprises, and organizations of all sizes thrive! Customer service is a hallmark of BDS’s success, so we take the time to create customizable solutions for your business to ensure your satisfaction.

Additionally, we offer an impressive range of printers, including laser printers, MFPs, and Inkjets, to local businesses looking to elevate their print infrastructure to the next level! You can depend on us to remedy any maintenance or service issue, provide expert support through the sales process, and be your reliable, trustworthy resource for all printer-technology-related things.

For tips, tricks, and support optimizing your current print devices, follow BDS on YouTube, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok for daily resources.

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Written By:BDS
July 10, 2024

About BDS:

BDS is an authorized office technology provider/reseller with corporate headquarters in Marlborough, MA, and offices throughout New England and Florida. Since 1978, we have supported local customers in Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Vermont, Maine, and Florida with copier and printing solutions.
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