Looking to change printers and needing some advice

[UKSigns]

I'm looking for some recommendations to replace the Latex 360 we're currently using in our shop. We've had to make several repairs to it over the years and since I work for a university, they would rather replace than repair it. Working here was my first experience using a latex printer, but I have to say that overall, this thing has been a beast. I came from using Mimaki solvent and eco-sol and the fact that I didn't have to clean it every day and could laminate immediately tickled the heck out of me.

Anyhow, I wouldn't mind sticking with HP latex, but the new 700-800 series seem to be garbage from most of what I've read and not sure if the 630 is any kind of upgrade? We really would love the ability to print white since we do a lot of printed room sign inserts for all the college and hospital buildings. I guess I'm open to solvent again if that's where the recommendations land but UV is probably out of the question because I'm pushing to get a new ShopSabre Pro for us as well, so my printer budget is $30k or less. TIA

 

[Chichia96]

Following. My shop just ‘upgraded’ from an HP Latex 360 to an HP Latex 800w and I am not impressed. Constant crashing, screen on the printer freezing and becoming unresponsive, spongy and inconsistent prints no matter what the output profile is (I’ve gone all the way up to 600 dpi 12p_6C-110). Not to mention onyx 22 that came with it got rid of the auto rotate while nesting feature; its all very much so manual. I’m here for the 700-800 slander as well as ammo to get the owners of my shop to return this hunk of junk.

 

[balstestrat]

I would recommend 630W to you but don't go for 700/800.
It's an upgrade unless you need more speed.

 

[jharler]

I'm happy with my Epson sc80600 with white ink. They claim lamination can take place after 6 hours, but the training tech told me for most jobs an hour is fine. The colors are fantastic and the white works really well. I've heard that the non CMYK inks can fade over time. I've only had mine since May, but so far no complaints about fading (I ship bumper stickers all over the country). Also only needs cleaned once a month, which is nice.

 

[Mike Brice]

We will never buy another HP latex again. We bought an LX360 in 2017 (the owner got a discount as HP was just about to launch the LX365) & within 2 years we had put about half the purchase price back into it for maintenance/parts. We have been very happy with our Epson S80600. I am diligent about maintaining the machine (as I was with the HP, as well) & we are now at 5 years without a professional service call.

 

[UKSigns]

Thank you for the feedback. So, I'm not really sold on the HP 630W as one of my favorite features of the 360 is the built-in color profile creation, and with that gone, I'm more open to solvent printers once again. In considering the two comments above in favor of the Epson 80600, is there any benefit at all over Mimaki? Mimaki has been the DeFacto sign shop printers for 20 years, so if I'm going back to stinky solvent printing, what does Epson provide that I wouldn't see with a Mimaki JV300? Thanks again!

 

[balstestrat]

Well I guess that's one way of weighing things. Are you then going to get a handheld spectro for the (solvent) printer?

Be sure to get some samples if you put some weight on the white ink. On latex it's excellent but solvent doesn't quite get there.

 

[UKSigns]

Well I guess that's one way of weighing things. Are you then going to get a handheld spectro for the (solvent) printer?

Be sure to get some samples if you put some weight on the white ink. On latex it's excellent but solvent doesn't quite get there.

I need vivid reds and blues for sure, and bright with is essential as well.

As for color profiling, I definitely see us having to buy an i1. Still not absolutely rolling out the 630, just can't find much info regarding reliability at this point.

 

[RabidOne]

Last shop I was in had an 800W. A few quirks but compared to a lot of people out there it was fine. Lots of vehicle wraps in that shop so the ability to print and lam immediately was pretty important.
The machine had one repair in the last 3 years (that shop got one of the first ones available), a crimped power wire for one of the heating modules in the cable bundle. I figured it out and fixed it myself. If money wasn't an object I would look at the Colorado/M series. If money is a concern I would probably lean towards the 700W because the only serious issues I had with the 800W were due to expired inks. Haven't look at the 630, seems like a lower end version of the 700.
This new place has a 560. No white, not as fast, quality doesn't seem to be as good. But good enough for what it prints.

 

[balstestrat]

Haven't look at the 630, seems like a lower end version of the 700.

It's not really so simple. 630 is slower and missing some features but it has other advantages for your average small print-shop.
Still has the same 1L ink carts so that's a plus. It's got better image quality. Can really print more often from the pinches (I don't want to say always but from my experience very good). And still loving the "mouse wheel" that's way better than OMAS.

 

[ozpall]

i had used vutek, roland, mimaki and epson 80600. started this job about 2 years ago and they have an hp 360 its about 7 years old now, the last 2 years i used it i really like it compare to anything else ive used in the past. so its getting old so we just got yesterday a new 700w. print quality and speed so far is much improved. still needs to run it a lot more to give advise but i love the 360 hoping i will love the 700 now.

 

[Bxtr]

So we've had Mimakis (JV-130 & JV-160) and Epsons (SC 60600) We recently upgraded an Epson to the SC 80600L. The bulk option is nice I think it took us three months before we replaced ink. The colors off this machine are amazing going from a 4 color to a 9 color. The white however is a nice option but you use a 1/16 of the ink each time you use it. You aren't supposed to leave the white in the machine unless your using. We try to gang up all our white jobs at the same day. Also the white isn't opaque like our UV Flatbed, so we still end up printing some vinyl jobs on the flatbed. We did end up putting the dryer off our old 60600 on this to help with drying. Most products were fine but some of the banner still seemed tacky with saturated prints. The maintenance on the Epsons is far less than we had to do on the Mimakis, We plan on getting another one later this year.

I can't speak to HPs we had an older one when I started at this shop... Hope this helps out.

 

[beanzoin]

We have an HP 360 that sits mostly idle now since we got our Mimaki UCJV 160 last year. That printer does so much more. We were worried about laminating uv curable inks but it has not been a problem at all. We got ours with a white ink and it has opened up a whole new group of capabilities. So much easier to load and operate. Love it.

 

[Langelot]

For latex, everyone thinks of HP and Epson only, but Roland has an excellent contender:
Roland TrueVIS AP-640 (resin printer) - resin is really the same thing as latex.

TrueVIS AP-640 Resin Printer

The TrueVIS AP 640 large format resin/latex printer uses fast drying inks that provides excellent durability.

www.rolanddga.com

See if you can get Roland to do a demo for you.

It has very stable colors (as opposed to the HP) and uses variable dots.
It has nice promotion right now: $3,000 off + 3 free sets of ink...

We sell Roland, Mimaki, Epson and Canon... so we know very well their respective lines...

Epson are fine machines (and nicely priced) but the problem is service - they only use Decision One for their repairs/service and I've heard some pretty bad feedback from customers regarding that - personally, I would investigate other users in your local area who have Epsons and see what their service has been like.

Of all of the above, Roland (in general) has probably the best dealer channels and service support.

 

[balstestrat]

Someone else could elaborate but I remember hearing back during the release that resin had some weird things compared to latex. I'm just talking about daily usage, it sounded strange someone who's used to latex.
Anyway if nothing else that thing is even more power hungry if that's even possible. During printing 4kW, that's a lot.

Personally I would rather get the Epson if latex is not an option.

Edit: Oh yeah, it's using Brother printheads? Maybe that was the thing, not sure.

 

[Bxtr]

On Epson repairs using Decision1, I have yet to have a bad experience. They ship out 3 large boxes of every part under the sun ahead of the technician showing up. The great thing about that is your never waiting for a part to show up later, they have more than they need everytime.

We have two Epson printers so we are never dead in the water if one needs service.

 

[ozpall]

On Epson repairs using Decision1, I have yet to have a bad experience. They ship out 3 large boxes of every part under the sun ahead of the technician showing up. The great thing about that is your never waiting for a part to show up later, they have more than they need everytime.

We have two Epson printers so we are never dead in the water if one needs service.

i had 2 epsons 80600 and the technician was at the shop at least once a month. the HP 360 2years and 1 service call. that's why we decided to stick to HP and got the 700. (fingers cross based on reviews)

 

[Andrea Hutchison]

Over the past 18+ years, we have had (2) Mimaki printers & (7) Mutoh Printers. Mutoh Printers are Work horses and very user friendly.

 

[victor bogdanov]

I've been running the epson R5070L and it is pretty good about 10k sqft on it so far, 0 problems. my first "latex/resin printer" so took a few days to understand how the inks/materials/heat interact and now I love it. No white like you need but aside from that very good printer and price

Epson seems way ahead of roland in all the little details in their printers, more refined. I've owned 5 or 6 Rolands, first Epson

 

[artofacks1]

I would recommend 630W to you but don't go for 700/800.
It's an upgrade unless you need more speed.

How much slower is the 630w in comparison to the 700w when printing colors and printing white?