ET 8550 paper jams

[glasseye]

Anyone had this problem? Mine did it this morning. Error 034004. HORRIBLE noise on attempted restart. Clack-clack-clack!

Jam occurred in the duplexer at rear. Attempting double-sided printing for the first time.

Any reports on double-sided printing success or failures?

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

What type of paper are you using - is the paper curled - are the corners bent - or is there any other problem with the paper ? What are you printing on the front side - e.g. text or an image ? How old is the printer - since you state that youd try duplex printing the frist time ? Is the printer still under warranty ? Does the problem reoccur ?

 

[glasseye]

Plain paper, 8 1/2 X 11 in flat and pristine condition.

Not sure what side was printed first, but the removed, jammed page contained graphics - about 20% of page area.

Printer is under warranty - less than a month old. Epson tech support told me what the problem was and how to clear the jam by removing the duplexing unit at rear.

Haven't dared to try duplex printing since. Too traumatic! Not really needed in my use case.

Printer now seems to operate normally. Hopefully no long term damage.

Thanks for your interest.

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

Thanks for your feedback, please be aware that prints of images and graphics add quite some solvent to the paper which can lead to some effects - the paper bulges, the paper looses its stiffness and similar which can cause malfunction in the duplexer , it may not catch the leading edge correctly etc and causing some havoc there. I cannot judge if your printer should be replaced and that unit would perform better or you rather restrict duplex printing to text print ( causing much less ink coverage) or you don't do automatic duplex printing at all. It may help in some cases as well to change the paper brand

 

[glasseye]

The graphics contents being the problem makes perfect sense ISF. The paper would certainly buckle somewhat with a heavier ink load. On further inspection, the problematic page was about 30% colour graphics. The previously-fed double-sided pages were text only and printed fine.

Thanks (as usual) for your expertise.

 

[The Hat]

Haven't dared to try duplex printing since. Too traumatic!

Another problem you may not be aware of, when printing duplex, make sure you print with the curl side of the paper up, because most lasers have a similar issue if the paper is not in the cassette the right way up..

 

[glasseye]

Another problem you may not be aware of, when printing duplex, make sure you print with the curl side of the paper up, because most lasers have a similar issue if the paper is not in the cassette the right way up..

How do you tell? It looks flat to me, coming out of the package.

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

users are typically not made aware of the problems when trying to print duplex with images on both sides. Printer models behave differently - it may work on one model but not on another printer, I even have seen paper sheets completely rolled up on rollers in the duplexer unit - or folded in half. You may test with a thicker paper like 90 gr instead of the typcial 80 gr paper or you do manual duplex and let the sheets dry for a while before you print the backside.

How do you tell? It looks flat to me, coming out of the package.

It doesn't matter for some paper packages, some have an up-arrow on the outer side or a mark or some text on top - something like 'this side up' but there is no common approach.

And there is another problem - the rollers in the duplexer may pick up some moist ink from the printed images and transfer traces of this ink onto the next pages.

 

[pharmacist]

You can play with to lower the ink density when doing duplex printing combined with the amount of seconds to wait (to let the ink soak into the fibers) before the duplex unit takes the paper back into the printer for the other side to be printed on.

 

[glasseye]

Given the problems, especially with graphics, I think I'll abandon duplex printing. I've never needed it and it was my wife who decided to try it. If we have an all text big job, I might revisit it.

The output tray....Should it retract automatically after the several-minutes timeout elapses and the printer goes to sleep? Mine stays open. I have to close it with the touchpad.

I LOVE this printer, probably my tenth Epson, including a 9800. Prints are beautiful. It's really quiet, unlike my HP Z3200 which I can hear from the other room, through a closed door.

Still can't make the BW "toner" function work, though. Prints come out neutral grey whatever I do. Even if I select the "sepia" preset.