Small shop using Latex 365 looking to upgrade, tell me what I should buy!

[Kernersville Vinyl]

So we mainly print 48' trailer wraps on a HP Latex 365, been doing this for six years.
I like the latex line for it's print quality and being able to go directly to the laminator and plotter right when the print is done.
Not a fan of how the 365 treats material that doesn't react well to heat, even the slightest warping will cause a head crash.
I feel like they could have engineered it better so the material lays flatter while printing.
With that said we have had this machine six years and it's getting errors and having to replace ink pumps, etc.. only needed a tech one time in the first five years.
Tell me what you use and why you like it.
Thanks!

 

[Creative Sign Guy(s)]

I love my 360. It never has any real issues and can print on damn near anything, even stuff that isn't "latex compatible" e.g. HP Photo Realistic Paper.
I absolutely despise my 570. It always has issues. Damn near everyday it refuses to communicate with the rip queue, and I have to do a hard reboot. I have had to reflash the firmware dozens of times(instructed to by my tech). I have had the cutter, two curing heaters, the OMAS, the PIP, and an ink reservoir all fail on me in less than 2 years after purchase. I started keeping a log of all errors and mishaps on my printers. The other printers have very minor issues here and there, nothing egregious. Maybe 5 errors in the past year. The 570 has PAGES of errors. Probably around 100 in the same amount of time. It is a real POS.
Do not buy a 570.

 

[ToTo]

Why you would like to replace? Need more productivity? White? Other reasons?
There are no ink pumps in 365.
Regarding the crashes: have you cleaned the vacuum holes in the print platen? On right hand side they get blocked often causing the substrate lifting up.

 

[marsuni]

Epson SC-80600 and Eyes Wide Shut!!!

 

[Kernersville Vinyl]

Why you would like to replace? Need more productivity? White? Other reasons?
There are no ink pumps in 365.
Regarding the crashes: have you cleaned the vacuum holes in the print platen? On right hand side they get blocked often causing the substrate lifting up.

On my third PIP Floater right now, three different colors

 

[Kernersville Vinyl]

I get it, why fix something that isn't broke

I love my 360. It never has any real issues and can print on damn near anything, even stuff that isn't "latex compatible" e.g. HP Photo Realistic Paper.
I absolutely despise my 570. It always has issues. Damn near everyday it refuses to communicate with the rip queue, and I have to do a hard reboot. I have had to reflash the firmware dozens of times(instructed to by my tech). I have had the cutter, two curing heaters, the OMAS, the PIP, and an ink reservoir all fail on me in less than 2 years after purchase. I started keeping a log of all errors and mishaps on my printers. The other printers have very minor issues here and there, nothing egregious. Maybe 5 errors in the past year. The 570 has PAGES of errors. Probably around 100 in the same amount of time. It is a real POS.
Do not buy a 570.

I guess I just want what I have, with a few more features, the Latex 630 W is really catching my eye, just hope it isn't like your 570!

 

[ToTo]

If you have never used the internal coior spectrometer on your 365 and you are not in need of the ink collector for porous substrates, then you can go for the 630. Otherwise go for the 700.

 

[ikarasu]

I get it, why fix something that isn't broke

I guess I just want what I have, with a few more features, the Latex 630 W is really catching my eye, just hope it isn't like your 570!

I've had a 110, 360, 560, and now a 700. The 560 was my fav.... I hate the 700. The first print on the 700 is always a bit smaller or larger... So when paneling the first print is garbage. Unless you tape it to the take up reel and run a 2-3 ft print before hand.... Then it's all bang on, but that's so much waste. We have totney to put stuff that doesn't matter in the first 3 ft of printing, which isn't always useful.


Look into the Epson resin printer r5070... It's their fancy name for latex. No white ink or anything like that, but it's printed dead on for me and I've had no issues with it. It's fast as well, and bang on color consistancy.

 

[ozpall]

i got a 360 looking to replace it but now looking at reviews on the 700 has horrible reputation so maybe looking into the epson r5070

 

[JBurton]

Someone pick up a 630w so I can hear how bad it is already! I'd rather not be the guinea pig here...

 

[ikarasu]

i got a 360 looking to replace it but now looking at reviews on the 700 has horrible reputation so maybe looking into the epson r5070

Can't go wrong with the 5070!

Stay away from the 700. I hear the 800 isn't bad though. Our tech was here fixing something else, and I asked him to look at our latex.... Showed him a slew of issues we were having and said that it's always something with this machine. And he laughed and said at least we didn't get the 700 because they're so bad.... He thought we had the 800.

He was amazed and said we're lucky we don't have more issues with the 700 since we got one of the first ones before they fixed issues ...


We've had a tech here every month for it after the yearly warranty expired. They fix one thing and then something else breaks.... Nothing that's made our machine go down for longer than a day, but we seem to need a monthly tech visit to keep it working... And it's never just "fixed"

 

[ozpall]

Can't go wrong with the 5070!

Stay away from the 700. I hear the 800 isn't bad though. Our tech was here fixing something else, and I asked him to look at our latex.... Showed him a slew of issues we were having and said that it's always something with this machine. And he laughed and said at least we didn't get the 700 because they're so bad.... He thought we had the 800.

He was amazed and said we're lucky we don't have more issues with the 700 since we got one of the first ones before they fixed issues ...


We've had a tech here every month for it after the yearly warranty expired. They fix one thing and then something else breaks.... Nothing that's made our machine go down for longer than a day, but we seem to need a monthly tech visit to keep it working... And it's never just "fixed"

thanks for the info, well that's what my current tech tells me that the new ones don't have issues, that only the first ones had tons of problems, but now im paranoid about getting an HP and get stuck with nothing but problems.

 

[greysquirrel]

You have had a printer for 6 years, required 1 service and now you need to replace a few Pips at $175ea? Id say you have gotten your money's worth. Have you had a PM service performed on the printer? You probably have some wear and tear parts needing some love. You can spend $2k and put the printer back under an HP service contract. As far as head crashes....99% of the time it is profile and temperature related. Your temp is too high causing your media to pucker and get swiped by the carriage. Lower your temp should require you to change ink density or slow down the printer. As far as a different option, Epson s40. 4/c panel to panel dead nuts and you can reproduce a panel from last week and still match the job. Its about 10k

 

[Notarealsignguy]

I think the S40 would be too slow if you're running semi trailers on a regular basis