How often to print to keep printer working well

[AZContraDancer]

I have purchased an Officejet 7612 printer.
I expect to be printing occasionally.  The printer would be idle between 2 and 6 weeks at a time.
I live in Phoenix AZ, the land of low humidity, sometimes less than 10% RH.  My house is warm during the summer- 85 degrees during the day this week.

Question:  
How often do I need to use the printer to prevent problems with the printheads, ink drying out, etc.?
   What sort of document or image should I print to keep all the cartridges / printheads in good shape?
   How many pages should I print each time?
Thanks!

[greenturtle]

Hi,

Thanks for using the HP Forums.

Typically, as a rule of thumb (for myself), we just print once a week, 2-3 pages with mixed text and graphics (web pages).

Our printer have no issues and it has served us for sevral years.

Hope this info is useful.

Thanks.

[sabretooth04]

Well here's my $0.02 on this and what I have heard.

You should use the printer once every 2-3 weeks.

I have not heard of any automatic cleaning cycles from any HP printers.  However, Brother printers take this into account and automatically come on and perform maintenance .   I've have had mine do this 3 times in the last 6 months while I have been in the room.  Don't know if it has done more at night.  But it works.

But in your case, I would shut the printer down so the cartridges are capped for storage.