DCP 9020CDW fuser unit, damaged again

[jjimjam]

I have a DCP 9020CDW with 2 broken fuser units. The first one lasted about a year. The second one lasted about 4 months. They have both failed in the same way. The heat roller has a soft black plastic like cover on it which has split and become damaged. I don't do anything unusual. I just put new paper in the tray and use refilled brother toner cartridges. I only ask, because I actually like this printer a lot. But I can't keep replacing the fuser. Nor am I likely to buy another similar LED Brother printer. The fuser units are quite expensive and I'm starting to feel like I'm being stupid for repairing it.

Does anyone have any suggestions or experience of this problem?

thanks

 

[FROGGIT]

Hi, I have the same problem. Low mileage DCP 9020CDW, that's about two years old and the Fuser unit is 'US'. Have put a replacement in, but having trouble resetting the maintenance 'fuser reset' function. Now just makes a lot of noise and doesn't print. Have reseated all the wires (two of the pins - Dual White cable connection - are rather loose, which a bit concerning!). Fellow sufferer I'm afraid. Interested to hear if anyone has a cure or diagnosis. We usually have the printer on all the time due to its wireless functionality, I can only surmise that its over heating, making the roller delaminate.

 

[jjimjam]

I'll try to upload a photo of my broken fuser roller. We can check we a talking about the same problem.

I noticed that the wife has started using copy paper in it. Perhaps that's too nasty for this printer.
I wonder if a sharp foreign object has passed though. I can't see anything though.

Sorry, can't help with replacement problems. I think I followed a youtube video.

 

[karenm]

I have a DCP 9020CDW with 2 broken fuser units. The first one lasted about a year. The second one lasted about 4 months. They have both failed in the same way. The heat roller has a soft black plastic like cover on it which has split and become damaged. I don't do anything unusual. I just put new paper in the tray and use refilled brother toner cartridges. I only ask, because I actually like this printer a lot. But I can't keep replacing the fuser. Nor am I likely to buy another similar LED Brother printer. The fuser units are quite expensive and I'm starting to feel like I'm being stupid for repairing it.

Does anyone have any suggestions or experience of this problem?

thanks

hi, i have had similar problems, the first lasted 6mths, still under guarantee, so was replaced. the one I have got now the paper is all creased down the left hand side. Is this a fuser problem? I like this printer myself.

 

[jjimjam]

hi, i have had similar problems, the first lasted 6mths, still under guarantee, so was replaced. the one I have got now the paper is all creased down the left hand side. Is this a fuser problem? I like this printer myself.

The paper comes out embossed for me. An irregular lumpy embossing, in a band down the paper. It's always been down the left hand side for me, but I guess it will happen wherever the roller is damaged. You say creased though, which sounds a bit different.

The roller becomes lumpy, because toner powder gets under the roller's plastic cover.
You can see the fuser roller if you open the back door of the printer. Inside is the fuser unit which has a pair of rollers - one brown, one black. The black one is the problem.

 

[ranss10]

Just started with same problem. When you look at the black roller there are four plastic fingers that sit against the roller with a sharp corner where it rubs on the roller. This corner has rubbed through the black membrane and peeled of a 2mm wide strip under the plastic finger. This is what leaves the embossed pattern on the paper. The rest of the roller is fine where the other fingers rub. Have just used the correct paper and machine only done 1500 prints now 2years old. Will contact Brother or someone who services them to find out whats happening and get back if anything useful.

 

[jjimjam]

Thanks for joining this thread ranss10. It would be great if you reported back after talking to Brother.

 

[ranss10]

Well full marks to Brother. Customer services gave usual story of being out of guarantee and gave me the number of local service engineer but did say I should contact Brothers complaints dept. Emailed complaints who responded within the hour. I the sent them photo of the mark on the Fuser roller and the usage printout. Next reply was that they would carry out a free home inspection. The Service Company came out in a couple of days with a new unit. All now working OK and most important, no charge. Just hoping that this one will last and they have upgraded the part(wishful thinking maybe).

 

[ThomasL]

Hi! Brother service here in Sweden just replaced my fuser unit (guarantee, half a year, 1100 printed pages). It seems to be a well-known problem. Mechanical marks/tracks down the page, typically on the left-hand side of the paper. I asked if I will need to replace it twice a year in the future. He answered vaguely that software updates and general product development might fix it in the future. Luckily, I have 3 years guarantee...

 

[HL1440]

He answered vaguely that software updates and general product development might fix it in the future.

If I visit the Brother DCP-9020CDW Support and Downloads Page (English, EU page), I get a pop-up tab on the bottom stating "For optimum performance of your printer, perform an update to the latest firmware. This may help to prevent paper wrinkle or smudge printing." This sounds like some of the issues people have been having in this thread. The firmware date and version is 23/12/2015, (T/1.07/M). Does this help anyone, or been there, done that, didn't work?

 

[ThomasL]

If I visit the Brother DCP-9020CDW Support and Downloads Page (English, EU page), I get a pop-up tab on the bottom stating "For optimum performance of your printer, perform an update to the latest firmware. This may help to prevent paper wrinkle or smudge printing." This sounds like some of the issues people have been having in this thread. The firmware date and version is 23/12/2015, (T/1.07/M). Does this help anyone, or been there, done that, didn't work?

I did the update recently so I will probably know in about half a year from now...

 

[apastor]

Hello, Sorry about my poor English.

Same problem in Spain. Two images of the fusser:

Brother Spain refuses to repair the printer (it's under warranty!) if I do not buy previously a pack of original cartridge (280 €), and sent them the bill.

English Brother support page:

Spanish Brother support page:

Translate maliciusly "prevent paper wrinkle" => "mejorar la alimentación del papel".
Really, "Mejorar alimentacion del papel"="Improve paper feed"

This is all :-(

 

[Atomic Shrimp]

I've had this problem on two different examples of this printer (one at home, one at work) - in the most recent case - actually I suspect both cases - the damage seemed to happen after the printer was left waiting for paper.

Someone printed a job that required more paper than was in the tray - the printer sat there saying 'add paper' with a fan running for hours; the printer is in a different room, so nobody noticed - and I think the fuser unit was being kept hot all of this time, softening or melting the plastic on the roller.

I wonder if more recent firmware might manage the power for the fuser unit more intelligently in the case that a job is interrupted midway due to supplies running out. If not, the workaround for me is to make sure that any time you print anything, you attend the printer promptly to ensure it finished and that the printer has gone back to sleep

 

[jjimjam]

I last replaced my fuser unit in September 2016 and it's still going strong (3rd time lucky!).
Just starting to feel confident that the problem has been fixed by the firmware upgrade I did at the same time.

 

[ikerodl96]

I have the same problem on my printer, how did you manage to fix the problem, did you buy new fusers? They are very expensive. I love this model of printer, but of course fixing this problem is taking me down a bitter road..... Thank you very much in advance.

 

[FixermanUK]

A company in Australia claim to supply improved fuser units. May be worth investigating.

 

[ranss10]

My fuser problem was back in 2016 and reported above. No problems since. Only thing I do is to update software/ firmware whenever Brother say and use good quality paper as cheap thin stuff just wrinkles from the start. The printer is used at home so doesn’t get hammered. Reckon Atomic Shrimp post above sounds plausible.