Epson ET-8550 Pizza Wheel Marks on Glossy 4x6 Photo Paper: Causes, Paper Choices, and Possible Fixes

Question

I have been reading about the "pizza wheel" or star-wheel marks that can appear when printing glossy photos with an Epson EcoTank ET-8550. Are there any specific brands or types of glossy 4x6 photo paper that can help prevent these marks? I mainly want to know whether changing the paper can solve the problem, especially when printing through the photo tray.

Answer

For the Epson EcoTank ET-8550, unfortunately, I do not know of a particular glossy 4x6 photo paper that can reliably eliminate pizza-wheel or star-wheel marks when the paper is fed through the photo tray. The problem is generally related more to the ET-8550's paper-transport design and the condition of the printed surface at the time it contacts the star wheels than to one specific brand of paper.

Why Pizza-Wheel Marks Appear on Glossy Photos

The small toothed rollers commonly called "pizza wheels" or star wheels help control the paper as it moves through and exits the printer. They touch the printed side of the sheet.

On ordinary paper, this usually causes no visible problem because the ink absorbs quickly into the paper. Glossy photo paper behaves differently. Its coated surface can hold ink near the top of the coating for a period of time after printing.

If the star wheels touch an area where the ink is still wet or slightly tacky, their small points can leave a repeating pattern across the photo. Depending on the print, these may appear as tiny dots, tracks, scratches, or lines.

Dark photographs, highly saturated colors, and areas receiving a large amount of ink tend to show the marks more clearly.

Changing Glossy Paper May Help, but It Is Not a Guaranteed Solution

You can certainly experiment with different glossy photo papers. Papers vary considerably in coating, ink absorption, surface hardness, thickness, and drying behavior.

A glossy paper that absorbs the ink more rapidly may reduce the problem because the printed surface is less wet when it reaches the star wheels. However, I would not purchase a large quantity of a different paper expecting it to completely solve the problem.

Even two papers labeled "glossy photo paper" can behave very differently.

If you want to experiment, consider testing small quantities of several papers and compare:

• How quickly the printed surface becomes dry to the touch

• Whether very dark areas remain tacky

• Paper thickness

• Surface coating hardness

• Whether the printer deposits excessive ink using the selected paper setting

• Whether the marks occur primarily in heavily saturated areas

The printer's paper-type selection can also affect ink output. Using an inappropriate setting can sometimes result in more ink being deposited than the paper coating can comfortably absorb.

However, selecting a lower-ink setting simply to eliminate wheel marks can also reduce color density, contrast, or photographic quality. Therefore, this is something that should be tested rather than treated as a universal solution.

The Photo Tray Is the Difficult Part

If you are feeding 4x6 glossy paper through the ET-8550's photo tray, I do not have a particularly good mechanical solution that I can confidently recommend.

The paper follows the printer's normal transport path, and the star wheels are part of that transport system. Changing paper may reduce how visible the marks are, but it does not change the fact that the wheels can contact the freshly printed surface.

That is why this problem can be frustrating: the printer may technically be operating exactly as designed while still producing unwanted marks on certain glossy media.

Rear Feeding Gives You More Options

If you can feed your media from the rear instead of using the photo tray, there are more possibilities for modifying how the paper travels through and exits the printer.

One approach we have used is adding an extension to the end of the rear-fed paper. In other words, you can tape an additional piece of material to the trailing edge of the photo paper so the printer has more material to transport.

This extension can help maintain control of the sheet when experimenting with a modified paper path, particularly if some of the normal star-wheel contact is being eliminated.

The extension needs to be attached carefully. It should remain flat, should not introduce an excessively thick edge, and should not have exposed adhesive that could contact rollers or other internal printer components.

Removing the Pizza Wheels Is a Modification, Not a Normal Printer Setting

For rear-fed media, another possible approach is removing or disabling the particular pizza wheels that are creating marks.

However, this is a mechanical printer modification rather than an adjustment Epson designed the user to make during normal operation.

The star wheels exist for a reason. They help maintain paper control, keep the sheet positioned correctly, and reduce the possibility of the paper lifting or contacting other components.

After removing them, you could potentially experience other problems, including:

• Paper lifting

• Head strikes

• Smearing

• Skewed feeding

• Poor paper control near the end of a print

• Paper jams

• Inconsistent results with different paper sizes or thicknesses

For that reason, removing star wheels involves a tradeoff. You may eliminate the visible wheel marks but introduce a different paper-handling problem.

This is also why adding a temporary extension to rear-fed paper can be useful. The extension gives the printer additional material to grip and control after modifying the normal transport arrangement.

Test Before Permanently Modifying the Printer

If the printer is primarily being used for high-quality glossy photographs, a modification may be worthwhile. However, if you also print ordinary documents, cardstock, envelopes, or different photo sizes, permanently removing transport components may create complications with those materials.

Before making permanent changes, it is worth determining exactly which wheels are producing the marks.

Print a photograph containing large dark or saturated areas and examine the pattern carefully. The spacing and location of the dots can help identify which rollers are contacting the print.

You may discover that only certain star wheels are causing visible marks rather than every wheel in the printer.

Give the Ink Every Opportunity to Stabilize

Although the wheels contact the sheet while it is still inside the printer, it is still worth optimizing the printing conditions.

Make sure you are using the correct media selection for the photo paper. If the manufacturer provides recommendations for the ET-8550 or similar Epson printers, start with those.

You can also experiment with print-quality settings. Extremely high-quality modes can place more ink onto the coating, which may make wheel marks more noticeable on some media.

This does not mean that lower quality is always preferable. Instead, the objective is to find the combination of paper, media setting, ink load, and feeding method that produces the best photograph without leaving the surface excessively wet.

For 4x6 Glossy Printing, There Is No Universal "Mark-Free" Paper

If you want to continue using the dedicated photo tray, I would consider the paper itself an area for experimentation rather than a guaranteed fix.

A faster-drying or harder-coated glossy paper may perform better, but I cannot point to one particular glossy 4x6 product and say that it will definitely eliminate ET-8550 pizza-wheel marks.

If eliminating the marks is more important than retaining the convenience of the photo tray, rear feeding gives you considerably more freedom. With rear feeding, you can experiment with a paper extension and, if appropriate for your application, modify or remove the offending pizza wheels.

However, any mechanical modification should be approached carefully because changing the printer's paper-control system can create additional feeding problems.

Addressing printer problems can be complicated because many of them require hands-on inspection and testing. For that reason, we are not able to provide individualized remote troubleshooting, repair suggestions, or ongoing technical support for printer repairs. We do offer in-person evaluation and repair through our printer diagnostic and repair facility https://bchtechnologies.com/printer-repair-service. Because demand is high, repairs are handled on a first-come, first-served basis, and it may take several weeks before we can accommodate a printer drop-off. Our services can cover either an entire printer or certain individual components, with instructions provided for the appropriate process. We also recognize that professional repair services may not be the most economical option for every situation, so we strongly encourage self-help and independent research whenever practical. You can begin by searching YouTube or visiting the BCH Technologies YouTube channel https://youtube.com/@bchtechnologies. On our channel, use the search icon located near the "About" section to search for the specific printer model, symptom, or component. We receive dozens of questions asking us to locate particular videos, and after producing repair videos for more than nine years, it is difficult to remember the location of every topic we have covered. YouTube's search feature is usually the fastest way to find the relevant material, and it may also recommend helpful videos from other creators.

Thank you again for reaching out and for supporting BCH Technologies. We appreciate your interest in our technical content, and we hope this information gives you a clearer understanding of why the ET-8550 develops pizza-wheel marks and why rear feeding provides more options than the dedicated photo tray.