Xerox Drums issues Resolved???

[DigitalDiva1]

So I as well as most everybody else on "the Planet" have been reporting Versant drum issues. I was to the point of maybe looking elsewhere for printers. Long story short, I have a very busy period every year and I have to front load on supplies to make it thru that period. I, knowing how bad the drums have been requested 30 drums to make it thru my rush season. At the time of me receiving these, ( Yes, I received 30!) I was down to one drum. So we get started running and eventually change out all four drums. These drums now have 18%. 22%, 16%, & the last one was changed out but is at 75%. I have not seen numbers like that in 2 years for drum life. I also have some of the "New" toner packaging as well, although I still have plenty of the old packaging. I know people are ready to complain at the drop of a hat but I figured I would give credit when it is due. Anybody else with better results lately?? ps, I am not associated with xerox, except for being a customer.

 

[SoggyWinter]

I just had Versant drums and toner ship without dealer escalation.

 

[Mike619]

Not sure what your issue with the drums are. I know I have had many myself. Repeating dots, repeating bands of color, deletions of color. That's about the three issues that I've had. I have actually had some luck with wiping the drum down with a lint free cloth. This has worked well when there is an issue with a dot that is repeating. The way that I figured this out was, at one point, I was having a repeating dot, so I decided to take the drum out and take a look at it. I saw a little piece of crud on the drum and wiped it off. Put the drum back in, ran the job. No problem. I have been doing this regularly now for about the last several weeks every time I have a repeating dot and it's worked every time. I wipe the drum and then I get thousands more clicks out of it before I need to change it out.

Sometimes, I would get a band of deletion from outboard to inboard on one particular color which I associated with a drum problem. So I would take the drum out, and very gently, wipe the transparent cleaning blade that rubs against the bottom of the drum. I would wipe all of that excess toner out of there. That seem to fix that problem as well.

The only time I really get rid of a drum now is when I have that full band of color that goes from inboard outboard and it's starting to happen every few sheets or more often.

I want to say that I'm not responsible for anything you do with your machine. If you take any of this advice, great, if you break stuff, it's on you. Only discussing what I do. There's My little disclaimer. Lol!

I also want to say that I'm definitely not an expert with any of this. I just kind of figured it out myself with no one really recommending any of this to me. These are things that I have had luck with.

 

[DigitalDiva1]

I would say you accurately described most of the usual problems. Many drums we retired after only 10% life used on them. I never tried any of your methods but I may just to see if I can get the full life out of a drum. I definitely do not claim to be an expert on these machine. What you described sounds more like the "chunky toner" problem that Xerox said they were having. We sent back about 20 cartridges to be reground. My problems just seemed to go away with my last shipment of drums. I and many other people would have liked some of these suggestions before (even from xerox) especially if they are not under contract. More than anything the communication from xerox was non-existent.

 

[Mike619]

I would say you accurately described most of the usual problems. Many drums we retired after only 10% life used on them. I never tried any of your methods but I may just to see if I can get the full life out of a drum. I definitely do not claim to be an expert on these machine. What you described sounds more like the "chunky toner" problem that Xerox said they were having. We sent back about 20 cartridges to be reground. My problems just seemed to go away with my last shipment of drums. I and many other people would have liked some of these suggestions before (even from xerox) especially if they are not under contract. More than anything the communication from xerox was non-existent.

Yeah, the service techs really don’t do much to help you as far as tips go with stuff like this. They just seem to be largely a bunch of parts swappers. sometimes I literally just take a bad drum out, put it back in the wrapper in the box, and then put it back in the press several weeks later and whatever problems I was having with it somehow resolved. Lol! I started doing this more invasive stuff because I came to the realization that, if I was going to get rid of the drum anyway, I may as well try some fancy stuff to bring it back to life. Some of it seems to work. I have found my Versant 180 to be quite a fantastic press. The only hiccup is the necessity to swap out the second BTR more frequently than probably it should be. I think when you run a lot of coated stock and carbonless paper, it builds up a bunch of crap on the roller which then scores up the cleaning blade that cleans the roller and then they put it in a new part. but if you’ve got a service contract, it’s really not an issue.

 

[TJPrinter]

More than anything the communication from xerox was non-existent.

The lack of any communication from Xerox is what caused me to lose trust in them. The Versant is a very nice capable machine with a few small issues like every other brand. But this toner and drum issue was out of control for too long.

Drums do seem to be lasting longer now (knock on wood) and I haven't had any significant toner delays so hopefully Xerox has corrected the manufacturing problems or as they call it supply chain issues.

 

[DigitalDiva1]

2nd BTR's was the first issue, and yes we run alot of coated. I can say for sure one thing that has saved me in this whole mess is the xerox techs that I have. They know I am on tight deadlines and always responded in less than 24 hours and had me running. It got to the point that I have a spare BTR on hand, which is a huge relief just knowing I can pop it in and keep going. I was down to one drum going into a weekend where I had about 40,000 clicks to do by monday and my tech hunted down 6 drums for me on a friday afternoon. By monday morning I had one but completed the job on time. Huge Help.

 

[Mike619]

2nd BTR's was the first issue, and yes we run alot of coated. I can say for sure one thing that has saved me in this whole mess is the xerox techs that I have. They know I am on tight deadlines and always responded in less than 24 hours and had me running. It got to the point that I have a spare BTR on hand, which is a huge relief just knowing I can pop it in and keep going. I was down to one drum going into a weekend where I had about 40,000 clicks to do by monday and my tech hunted down 6 drums for me on a friday afternoon. By monday morning I had one but completed the job on time. Huge Help.

Yes, I can also say that the service techs have been very good on my end as well. If I called them up this afternoon, they are there by tomorrow morning. I don’t think you can really ask much more than that.

 

[pippip]

Got a set of drums a month ago and just went to fit one, outside of blank generic box is dated 22/2/2008.

Where have they had these for 15years? Surely this Versant model of drum hadn't been created that long ago?

I did get another set last week which were branded xerox and dated April 2022.

 

[PricelineNegotiator]

Got a set of drums a month ago and just went to fit one, outside of blank generic box is dated 22/2/2008.

Where have they had these for 15years? Surely this Versant model of drum hadn't been created that long ago?

I did get another set last week which were branded xerox and dated April 2022.

The only way to solve the drum shortage was to unfortunately solve time travel and start manufacturing drums 10 years before Xerox was selling the machine.

 

[psiprinting]

Our drum issues seem to have ended overnight. After 2 years of extreme partial drum life's and shortages we are now approaching full life drums with quick delivery of new ones. Same with toner. After having been forced to buy some toners on the aftermarket for a couple of months I got a delivery of 12 black toners all at once from Xerox a couple of weeks ago with the other colors showing up regularly now. What changed?

 

[TJPrinter]

What changed?

You got lucky?

I'm still having to pull drums but not as bad as it once was. My guess is that I still have some bad toner particles that works it's way out and damages the drum but we'll never know because Xerox has never admitted anything was wrong. Last week I pulled 2 drums that were still at 90% life. I also waited 3 weeks for cyan toner.

Good to hear it's better for you.

 

[marlin64]

You got lucky?

I'm still having to pull drums but not as bad as it once was. My guess is that I still have some bad toner particles that works it's way out and damages the drum but we'll never know because Xerox has never admitted anything was wrong. Last week I pulled 2 drums that were still at 90% life. I also waited 3 weeks for cyan toner.

Good to hear it's better for you.

I changed three drums today. One lasted less than 100 prints. Before that I was doing pretty good.

 

[psiprinting]

I changed three drums today. One lasted less than 100 prints. Before that I was doing pretty good.

Did you try carefully wiping the drums with a lint free cloth as another poster suggested?
It worked for me on the one I tried.
Haven't needed to do that since.

 

[psiprinting]

You got lucky?

I'm still having to pull drums but not as bad as it once was. My guess is that I still have some bad toner particles that works it's way out and damages the drum but we'll never know because Xerox has never admitted anything was wrong. Last week I pulled 2 drums that were still at 90% life. I also waited 3 weeks for cyan toner.

Good to hear it's better for you.

Cyan toner was the only color Xerox sent me during the shortage.
Black shortage 1st and then Magenta and finally Yellow became a problem to get for us. I never had to buy Cyan. Very odd distribution by Xerox.

 

[PricelineNegotiator]

Did you try carefully wiping the drums with a lint free cloth as another poster suggested?
It worked for me on the one I tried.
Haven't needed to do that since.

I tried this a few times to no avail. But I do appreciate the tip.