Epson L220 - Stains at the bottom edge

[The Hat]

I have an Epson L220 which sometimes leaves some black stains at the bottom edge of the pages.

It looks to me like the bottom of your print head has pick up extra ink and is depositing it on the end of your paper, try soaking a paper cloth in Windex and placing it on the platen area and then move the print head over it a couple of times by hand...

 

[Paloma]

@Ink stained Fingers

Hi. Yeah, the “envelope” option is on the “paper type” menu, I thought it was in the “document size” one. Thanks for the images.

I tried printing with the “envelope” setting. What I noticed is that it takes longer and it uses more ink, probably taking into account that an envelope absorbs more ink. It is similar to printing in high quality. But definitely it is too much ink for my regular paper and it is very slow. Do you say the printer increases the platen gap when set to “envelope”, or it is just a supposition?

I tried printing some 80 gr pages. Some little inks appear in some pages, in some of the documents I printed, not everyone of them. More or less the same that has happened lately, with 75 gr paper. So I am not sure we have something here, maybe not…

I had shadows and irregularities, not anymore. The shadows were like the same words printed partially below the actual words, with less intensity. In the third Epson service, they supposedly replaced the printhead, and the problem improved only temporarily. Then, after the fourth service, the shadows and irregularities were replaced by the big blank stripes I showed you in my first post. These stripes vanished after 3 months or so, on its own. So, at this moment, the quality of the printing itself is good, normal, as far as I can see. Let alone the little stains at the bottom edge which appear once in a while, and are smaller than they used to be, some time ago.

I don’t know why they replaced the printhead. Epson doesn’t inform anything, they skip my questions, and I lost my trust in them long time ago.

But after making a complaint, they accepted a replacement of unit, just because the consumer law is on my side. I made the complaint when the printing quality was worse than ever and after four services. That is why I asked if you think it could be about a manufacture flaw. Would you change the printer if Epson offer it? I guess a new one is not going to do the same stains, but who knows…

 

[Paloma]

A couple of possible solutions to the stain; a temp solution would be to print onto a longer paper, legal or foolscap? - then cut the bottom off.

What might be easier is to run the paper over the 90°edge of a table, etc to give it a 'downward' curve. Of course, if you are printing double sided, then you must do the reverse when you put it back in to print the back.

Good luck.

Actually these might be the same problem - the missing lines may be due to ink on the face of the printhead preventing correct jetting, then that ink is touching the end of the paper as it flicks up as printing is completed. Head cleaning (Epson routine) should fix that.

Thanks for the recommendations.

When I tried the software head cleaning, it didn’t do anything to the stains.

Maybe the two problems are interlinked… maybe. Although now I have only one problem, the stains at the bottom edge.

 

[Paloma]

It looks to me like the bottom of your print head has pick up extra ink and is depositing it on the end of your paper, try soaking a paper cloth in Windex and placing it on the platen area and then move the print head over it a couple of times by hand...

Hi, The Hat.
I have never touched the printer. But Epson had it in its hands four times already, and I think they always did a routine cleaning. Do you think I should do this cleaning every time I notice the stains?

 

[The Hat]

To honest with you, if it were my printer and those black blobs keep reappearing on the page bottom then I’d look for another printer, I just couldn’t tolerate that, if you can’t fix it then change it...

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

I regret that we can't find a solution for your aggravating problems, you should continue to monitor and try to identify circumstances at which these ink stains occur in a repeatable manner or more frequently - e.g. only if you print some text at the bottom or you print in the morning or ---- whatever , but beyond that you may follow @The Hat 's advise above.

 

[Paloma]

@Ink stained Fingers, @The Hat

You seem to be very knowledgeable about printers, and you have seen hundreds of messages in this forum about printer’s issues.

Have you ever seen this particular problem of stains at the bottom edge? I mean, do you see it as a rare problem?

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

it is not reported frequently but you are not the only one with such a problem. It is typically related to 75gr paper or some
problem with the cleaning unit or even photo paper curling up

 

[Paloma]

Thank you very much for all the information.

Epson at my city offers me an L380 or the money. Maybe I buy an HP or Canon, now that they have ink tanks, to try a new machine, and a different technical support… I only know that Epson’s print faster.

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

Based on your experience with Epson - product and support - you may take the chance for another model - you have the choice.