Hi, Travis with POSGuys.com.
Today we're doing an in-depth look at the Epson TM-U220 receipt printer.
This is also known as our most popular kitchen printer.
Primarily its used in restaurants in the kitchen, because of its ability to print two colors
on a receipt, and to also print a receipt that is not going to be affected by heat.
Normal thermal paper reacts to heat, so it turns black if its put near a hot source,
where impact receipts do not do that.
Additionally, the two color option on it allows certain parts of a kitchen ticket to be highlighted,
if you want to put a temperature on a meat or there's some kind of modifier, then depending
on your point of sale software that you're using, it can highlight those features, so
it makes it very useful for a kitchen printer where a thermal printer wouldn't be as good.
For printing pure receipts, a thermal printer normally is preferred, the impact printer
is just a little slower and a little louder than a thermal printer.
The TM-U220, like most impact receipt printers, uses ribbon in order to print.
So taking a look at the inside, your ink cartridge goes right there, that's for your ribbon,
and your paper drops in like normal, and it's a clamshell, you close it all up.
And then you print.
So you can see that it can print in different size fonts, it can print in black and red,
it can bold certain sections, and it can do some rudimentary graphics, not nearly as well
as a thermal printer, so it can print a receipt, but it is limited compared to a thermal printer,
the two colors is nice and very useful in a kitchen.
Restaurants typically use a combination of both impact and thermal printers.
When they print at the same time, you can see the obvious difference in speed.
So the impact printer prints much slower than the very speedy thermal printer.
The advantage it has though is when it has to do with heat.
So this is a basic hair dryer, you can see with thermal paper it turns black.
So that's why you don't want to use it in your kitchen, because this is what your kitchen
staff is going to have to work with, versus an impact where it doesn't have the same kinds of problems.
You can clearly see the black and red on it.
This is the most popular version of the Epson U220 that we have, this uses an autocutter
and that's definitely what's recommended for a kitchen.
It basically can print off multiple orders and then it leaves a little bit of a stub
on it that you can just kind of pull off.
If you print multiple kitchen tickets, then it's very easy to separate the tickets, you
don't have to worry about whether you combine two tickets into one.
The autocutter version is definitely recommended.
Additionally, this uses an Ethernet interface.
On the back of the printer, you can see the interface card, and so there's a spot for
both USB and Ethernet.
Ethernet tends to be the most popular when it comes to kitchen printers because it can
run the longest length.
So you can put the printer just about anywhere in the kitchen and then you just run a very
thin Ethernet cable over to where the printer is, so more flexibility on it, definitely
go with the autocutter and definitely go with the Ethernet/USB combination.
The Epson U220B is the most popular kitchen printer that we have.
Mostly because it's the most compatible printer that we have.
Almost all the Windows-based restaurant software use the Epson U220 as their default kitchen printer.
So check with your software, always make sure that it's compatible, but 9 times out of 10,
this is the printer that works with the different restaurant software.
The Ethernet version is again recommended because you can have the most flexibility
on where you place it.
Ethernet cables easy to run, easy to move around.
Autocutter is a lifesaver, so just make sure you get that feature, your kitchen is not
going to want to deal with having to tear tickets off or have two orders combined on
a single piece of paper, that's just a good way to screw up your kitchen.
Additionally, this comes in either a dark grey color or a white.
The dark grey tends to stay a little cleaner longer, but the white is also a nice color
if you want more of a classic look on it.
If you do want to print receipts, it has a port for attaching a cash drawer on it, so
you can kick a cash drawer open with this printer, but overall I would get a thermal
printer for receipts and keep this in the kitchen.
The noise on it is also good for a kitchen because it lets them know when the order is printing.
It's very easy to hear it printing, so if they're doing prep or they're away from the
line, you can hear the printer printing and they know an order is up.
So the noise is actually kind of helpful for that.
In a receipt setting though, it's not the greatest, so I would probably stay away from
this as a receipt printer, unless for some reason your receipts are going to be exposed
to heat, if that's the case, then an impact printer is better.
As far as usage for the Epson U220 as a receipt printer, outside of using it as a kitchen
printer, you might see it in an airport, where it's quite loud and they also don't want to
stock two types of papers, so they'll just use an Epson U220 for both receipts and kitchen.
Additionally, places like bowling alleys, video arcades, where there's a lot of ambient
noise and they don't necessarily need nice receipts or receipts with barcodes, then you
might see the Epson U220 used there as well.
The ribbons are available in solid black, and then a black/red.
You'll need the black/red if you want to do two color printing.
If you're going to print in just straight black, then you can go with the standard black ribbon.
It is continuous ribbon, which means the ribbon isn't going to run out in the middle of operations,
but over time it gets lighter, because the ribbon will keep spinning around in a circle
and it will keep using the ink on it and then eventually gets too light to read, so you'll
want to replace the ribbon.
Ribbon is available on our website as an accessory for it.
To purchase the Epson U220, or to purchase accessories, please visit us at POSGuys.com.
Thank you!