Brother Blurred, Fuzzy, Light Print – MFC 8510, 8710, 8910, 8950

 

Troubleshooting the  Brother Blurred, Fuzzy, Light Print on the MFC 8510, 8710, 8910, 8950

Estimated at 100,000 prints and copies the  Brother MFC- 8510, 8710, 8910, 8950 Series Fuser (Fixing) Unit    is a new design from the old style hot roller models.  With a new design comes new issues. These fusing assemblies now use a heating element covered by a fixing film sleeve. The  Brother Blurred, Fuzzy, Light Print happens when the sleeve doesn’t rotate at the same speed as the paper or fails to move altogether. When this happens you get poor print quality. Some people say the print is blurred or fuzzy. Others say it’s light or distorted. Whatever the word you want to use, the print just doesn’t look right. Now you might ask why change what has worked so well before. Well, the fixing film sleeves feed envelopes better and heat up quicker. I’m sure they have other reasons but those are the main two I can think of.

Note: When the sleeves start to drag you can also get paper jams in the fusing unit.  

Troubleshooting the  Brother Blurred, Fuzzy, Light Print

Most people’s first thought is to change the toner cartridge or drum unit. Eventually, they end up calling in for service after they spend a bunch of money on consumables they don’t need. So, below I will give you a little troubleshooting advice on how to diagnose the problem to verify which part of the machine is having the print quality issue.

Last updated on March 28, 2024 1:03 pm

Brother Blurred, Fuzzy, light print MFC - 8510, 8710, 8910, 8950

1. Half Test – The best way to isolate a print quality issue is to perform a half test. Tell the machine to print one of the report pages from the control panel. As the page starts to feed through the machine open up the front door when it gets fed half way through the machine. Note : It might take a few attempts to do this properly. If done properly, you should have the page either stopped two or three inches in the fusing assembly or just before the fusing assembly. When you pull the paper out the image should be written on the page but not fused. If you rub your hand on the print it should rub off. If the print looks good on the paper before it is fused then the fusing unit is the problem. If you were able to stop it two or three inches in the fusing assembly you should see how the top part is fuzzy while the bottom part looks clean and crisp. Now if the print is blurred before it is fused then you will want to check the toner or drum.

Conclusion on the  Brother Blurred, Fuzzy, Light Print

HP and Canon starting using heating elements about 15 years ago. OEM fusing assemblies from these companies rarely have the problem. With that being said, third party or refurbished fusing assemblies for the 4200, 4250, and P4015 have these problems. If your like myself and have done a large number of PM’s on these machines you know what I’m talking about. Brother just started using this design so they have some bugs to work out. I know they already have added ribs to the lower pressure roller to add more traction for the sleeve. So if you order in a new fusing assembly and you see wrinkles in the lower pressure roller, don’t worry they are designed to be there. Below I’ve provided a link to order a new fusing assembly and also there is a link to help with the removal and replacement of the fusing assembly.

Replacement Instructions Link

MFC 8510, 8710, 8910, 8950 – Brother Fuser Replacement Instructions

Click below for buying options and additional details. These fusing units fit on a wide variety of Brother DCP, MFC, and HL – Series Machines. In the details find all the makes in models this fusing assembly fits in.

Last updated on March 28, 2024 1:03 pm


7 Comments
  1. Reply
    LISA AXELROD/EXPRESSDOCS July 9, 2015 at 12:31 pm

    WAITING FOR SERVICEMAN TO ARRIVE TO FIX COPIER/PRINTER/SCANNER. DID NOT CALL YET AND PART HAS ARRIVE. HOW DO I FIND OUT WHEN HE IS COMING?
    THANK YOU, LISA AXELROD

     
  2. Thanks a lot for Your advise .We figured out fuser create a problem. Is any way to make fuser work ageing or need to be change lower or upper roller or something else
    Mike

     
  3. so the final upshot is to replace the fusing unit at a cost of about $180? I do a lot of duplex copying. would this cause the fusing unit to fail prematurely?

     
  4. The half-test will definitively tell you if it’s the fuser or not. In every case I have seen of “blurry” text so far though, it’s been the fuser. Obviously if the text in the half-test before the fuser is crisp and the fused text is blurry, something is up with the fuser. In the cases I have seen, the film sleeve has either been almost completely immobile and the paper just pulls through the non-moving sleeve or the sleeve turns ever so slightly (and not at the same rate as the paper feeds). The toner smears when this happens and you get “blurry” text.
    You can take a crack at replacing parts in the fuser but for each of our clients Brother has goodwilled a replacement fuser via a 3rd party printer technician. Since this was the case I didn’t bother taking the fuser apart and attempt any replacements in there.
    FYI – most of our clients don’t do much duplexing (if at all) and the page counts weren’t very high. Usually fusers went out right around the 12-18month mark or thereabouts.
    Good luck.

     
  5. Hi we have brother MFC-8510DN. and it prints fine and scan is also good. Only problem is when doing copies. The copied result is blurry and not clear.
    Any idea why is that happening?
    Thanks

     
  6. Yep, worked just like you said. Will try Brother Customer Service

     
  7. 14.5 months for me, Brother says warranty expired at 12 mos. Guess everyone needs to get extended warranty, or a brand that has been using the heated elements for longer….

     

Leave a reply

Shopping cart