The present invention provides a liquid application device, an inkjet recording apparatus and a recording apparatus, which are capable of performing an adequate application initial operation according to the length of waiting time and power-off time, as well as a method of controlling the liquid application device. In the present invention, information on an end time of the previous processing for collecting liquid is read from a nonvolatile memory, current time information indicating the current time is obtained, and information on a lapse of time from the end time of the previous collection to a start time of the current application. Thereafter, the number of preliminary rotations R of an application roller is decided based on the information on the lapse of time with reference to a look-up table. Sequentially, the application roller is rotated by the decided number of preliminary rotations R to perform preprocessing operation.