Experienced opinions HP115 Latex Printer?

[ShoNuff]

Considering making a purchase. Wondering if anyone has any working experience with this machine? Anything you love or hate? I was looking at a used 25500L but the sale fell through due to a shady seller. The current sale price point for the print and cut solution package makes me think this is the right combo for the scale of my operation. I currently sub all my print production down the road to a local print shop and do ok in the margins for mark up but the headaches of getting orders on task and the cost comparisons say it's time to make the move for myself.

 

[SkyHighJK]

I'm a little bit biased as an HP Dealer (but we are also Mimaki dealers and in the past have sold tons of Epsons and Rolands...) but the 115's are awesome. For the price, they are certainly tough to beat. As an entry-level machine, user installed, easy to run, super easy to maintain, can print on basically anything (including cheap poster paper) it's really tough to beat.
Downsides are you still need 2 208-220V outlets which might run you upwards of 500 bucks from your electrician.
We've put a handful of 115 and 115 P&C's into the market in the last few months and everyone seems quite pleased with them. They are certainly NOT top-line machines, but they aren't supposed to be.

Important question: what are you planning on printing? Who are you customers, or targeted customers?

 

[SkyHighJK]

I'm a little bit biased as an HP Dealer (but we are also Mimaki dealers and in the past have sold tons of Epsons and Rolands...) but the 115's are awesome. For the price, they are certainly tough to beat. As an entry-level machine, user installed, easy to run, super easy to maintain, can print on basically anything (including cheap poster paper) it's really tough to beat.
Downsides are you still need 2 208-220V outlets which might run you upwards of 500 bucks from your electrician.
We've put a handful of 115 and 115 P&C's into the market in the last few months and everyone seems quite pleased with them. They are certainly NOT top-line machines, but they aren't supposed to be.

Important question: what are you planning on printing? Who are you customers, or targeted customers?

Also i should mention that if and when you DO get a serious head-strike it's a LOT more palatable to spend 115 bucks (or is it 125 i forget) on a new head than 2200 plus the cost of a technician to come out and install it. As a frequent user i LOVE the ability to replace heads for a small cost and know that every time I do I'm back to 100% print quality as opposed to an old-school head which slowly degrades over time until finally you decide to chuck it and shell out the big bucks for a new one.

 

[papabud]

as a user of the hp 360.
i love my machine. it is a work horse and keeps on running.
i have printed on lots of different materials and get great results every time.
i was using a mutoh when i got my new hp and haven't touched the mutoh since.
just had a tech in to do a service maintenance tuneup of the machine.
i have had the machine 3ish years and this is the first call i have had to make.

 

[TDFcustomSL]

I have the 110 and made the switch from a Mutoh 1204. Couldn't be happier with it. Getting it set up and running gave me a little trouble but HP was quick to send out 2 replacement print heads that came dried up with the machine so the machine wouldn't calibrate. I have since had to replace 2 print heads (one under warranty, due to an ink cartridge running out of ink when it should have still had enough to finish the job) Loading and unloading are pretty quick and easy, but if you change material often, like I have to, it can get tiresome. The takeup reel in my opinion is the biggest headache but I have got my method down pretty good now so it isn't even that big of a deal. One downside is that if you don't feed the media out a foot or so (i feed it out until it reaches the end of the drying chamber) you are more likely to get head strikes. It looks like if the media isn't fed out far enough the curing fans actually blow the media to the top of the chamber which causes it to bunch up. My fix for this is to tape a piece of scrap vinyl to the media being printed and use that as my leader through the heaters. Other than that I think the 110 is awesome so the 115 should be even better with the automatic cut off feature. If you have any questions feel free to PM me and I will try to help.

 

[BigfishDM]

Considering making a purchase. Wondering if anyone has any working experience with this machine? Anything you love or hate? I was looking at a used 25500L but the sale fell through due to a shady seller. The current sale price point for the print and cut solution package makes me think this is the right combo for the scale of my operation. I currently sub all my print production down the road to a local print shop and do ok in the margins for mark up but the headaches of getting orders on task and the cost comparisons say it's time to make the move for myself.

I know a great dealer with lots of experience in all the materials for all your applications you could desire to do with one of these bad boys!

 

[ShoNuff]

I know a great dealer with lots of experience in all the materials for all your applications you could desire to do with one of these bad boys!

Funny you should say that. I saw the Print Cut deal on USCutter site and the first thing I thought was I wonder if BigFish gots this. Went to your site and sure enough. I'm working some things out but will most likely be in touch on this real soon. I would rather work with cats I know and trust and can call direct than pushing orders through a basic fulfillment center.

 

[ShoNuff]

Important question: what are you planning on printing? Who are you customers, or targeted customers?

My business is graphic design based creative solutions for personal and business. Advertising, Branding, Consulting, Design. I do small scale sign shop work - store front, POP, window perf, decals and the like for the Advertising services or for full service branding clients. I also own a print on demand window perf business for a specific niche market but haven't officially launched even though we've been doing sales in the space for about a year now. I have a 20% contractor discount deal worked out with my neighborhood print shop (literally 3 blocks from home) but as they scale, my jobs get floated longer than I would like. I was about to purchase a plotter and vinyl shop starter pack to at least offset that portion of services I provide and then saw the entry deal on the HP115 and got me thinking.

Im also an artist with ties to art and music scenes and can see the benefit in being able to provide limited print runs, stickers, and other marketing vehicles for those within those areas. Im by no means trying to take down any of our local sign shop competitors but rather just get in where I fit in and be my own priority. I'll still use my print shop for larger jobs and shit that needs over lam.

 

[SkyHighJK]

ShoNuff,

Sounds like you're right on the money when it comes to knowing what you'll be needing, at least in the near to mid future! I think a 115 P&C is a great place to start. It has the ability to do one-off projects just as easily as you can run full "production runs" (assuming you get the take-up reel add-on) where you can print full rolls at a time for larger projects. Hit up BigfishDM if you haven't already, he'll get you all squared away!

Have a great weekend,
SkyHighJK aka Jordan aka the Guy with the Red Beard in the Gans Videos.

 

[bpfohler]

Ours showed up yesterday, it was a bear to get off the truck We used 2 forklifts, one to scoot it to the end of the truck and the other to pick it up from the side. We got the print/cut combo and the weight was around 460lbs.
Somebody really did their homework with assembly, we followed along with this video

and it went together in a snap.
Our electrical wasn't that much and don't be shocked when you open the box and find about 8 different power cords. It looks like some international, 2 standard 220v US and 2 twist lock style. They could have thrown in a couple extra heads and kept the cords!
We dealt with Sarah from Gans, she was great and I think she's right in your neck of the woods. Good luck.

 

[jmcnicoll]

I have operated two HP latex machines, one being the LX 850 126" and the other a 365. Overall not a huge fan. Would much rather have the quality of an Epson solvent printer with white ink.