Help picking DTG Printer

CAnderson

I teach Graphic Arts at the High School level and we want to stop screen printing and go the route of DTG printing. The biggest problem is I know very little about DTG printers and it seems whom ever I call to discuss this with has a particular brand they want to sell me, so I don't feel like I am getting honest objective guidance. Please HELP!

We are looking for a DTG printer that:
is reasonably priced
can sit unused without to much hassle or cost issues
that has good quality and runs reliably
prefer one that can print on dark garments

Also, are they dual platform (looking for Mac compatable, but could use Windows if need be) and info about whether or not they can be networked or directly connect to a dedicated computer.

Thanks so much for any help.

pdp_prototype

my advice is don't get it!!!
unless you are just using it simply to teach the idea and technology behind it.

i had a dtg viper in my shop and it was such a disaster. spend about $20,000 getting it because of promised outputs...

ink is expensive. REALLY REALLY expensive.
maintenance is a must every day beginning and end of day. (even if you do use it)
the white ink required a constant flow so an electric mixer is on 24/7. (kills electricity)
unreliable technology. everything is mechanical/electrical, therefore if something break, it's a pain and very expensive to replace/fix.
it takes FOREVER to print one shirt... and it takes TWICE as long to print on a dark shirt (white underbase)

a DTG printer is basically an over sized ink jet printer being tricked by a software engineered to use garment printing ink rather than regular printing ink. it used a EPSON driver to power the machine... -____-''

in my opinion, all a DTG is good for is printing gradients of colors (even this it doesn't do all that well, colors are not vivid enough) and be used as a display item put by the window to attract people as they walk by your store. the technology for direct to garment printing is not there yet... they will tell you how some of the best screen printers in the nations say they prefer DTG over screens. that's a load of none sense coming both from an economic and efficiency stand point.

bottom line, the quality of the product yield will not be anywhere near up to par for the money you spent on it.

we ended up settling for a $7,000 lose on the machine. hard lesson learned.

casual crew

The white ink capabilities is still a couple of years away from being profected. It takes many hours just for maintnance and very expensive. But if you could settle for just the light colored tee shirts, the Brother GT541 just goes and goes. Very little maintenance, high quality. My grandkids love designing and printing their own shirts.

kmajetprinter

Hi, we are a china company involved in DGT printer, As far as we know, new brand DGT printer such as DGT,brother etc. are very expensive and severely unaffortable for many people, so that they transfer to used machine in purpose of getting a own one at a lower price. However, KMAJET filled the lack availability of the machine of high quality & competitive price. For example, our KMA02T, A3 size drived by EPSON 1800, with white ink circulation system for black&white printing, comes with software and accessories is retail sold only at $4995. KMAJET have been involved in this field for more than ten years, you are assured of the quality, after-sale service and parts supplying. if you are intereted, please e-mail sophie , or visit www.kmajet.com

morethanathread

We are selling our D2G please give me a call.

NWEmbroidery

If you plan on doing dark shirts, I would recommend a Kornit DTG, just for the fact that the pretreatment step is included inside the machine. Print speeds are fast, but not nearly as fast as advertised. Also the learning curve is very, very steep but since you mentioned the printer was for a class at school and not a resale facility, you will probably be okay.

If you just want something for whites that is quick and easy for the students to figure out in a day or two, the Brother GT451 is great.

RAS-T

Don't Bother with the White ink DTG printers......Just get a GT-341

CustomShirtPrints.com

We are looking for a DTG printer that:
is reasonably priced
can sit unused without to much hassle or cost issues
that has good quality and runs reliably
prefer one that can print on dark garments

With What you have said above, what is reasonably priced to you? Also, most cannot sit unused unless they do auto purges but this will use ink costing you money. I run the FreeJet series that has a nice wet cap system so it can sit for up to a week or two but we always have to flush the white ink lines thus more money.

Don't believe all the hype you see about DTG printers. They are great if you are printing everyday like we do but too many people get into it thinking it will be easy and also that it will remove all the hassles of screen printing. Don't be fooled, screen printing is a great and simplistic way to teach high school students. I am not saying DTG is not a great industry, I love it. But you will be spending a good chunk of money not only on the machines but ink is very expensive. For example, FreeJet 330 $15,999 new, DTG Pretreat machine $3,999, Liter of White Ink $239 and Color $189.

With that said average prints are $0.50 for lights and $2.00 for darks. Of course they can be less expensive BUT will your school be selling the garments to get a return on profit? If not every sample print and learning lesson will be using a lot of money compared to screen printing.

screenprintguy

You won't find any that can sit unused. The white ink has to keep moving, high solid contect of Titanium dioxide. I am so glad we DID NOT buy into direct to garment. If you aren't able to spend huge dollars, ie: Kornit, or aren't willing to stay with the basic cmyk, you are in for a mess and waste of money. Teach the kids how to screen print, you can have a full manual set up less than you can buy a "quality" piece of gear for. The majority of brands out there are re-engineered Epson inkjet printers, they were not intended for this use. Only Brother, Kornit are actually built for this use, but you are looking at over 50K to get into one of these machines. Every friend of mine in the business who has bought into DTG lost tons of money, had nothing but headaches, I know of one place still using their brother 782, but they use it every single day, they don't let it sit around, he is on this forum, islandtees, his name is Gary, he can give you honest user feedback as he has been using brother machines for several years now, good luck!!

Water Drop

Don't buy one, all the problems have been listed. We sold a dtg hm1. It was trash. I thought that the anajet mp-10 would be a step up. It had the same problems the hm-1 had. Unless you are printing on white or light color shirts, and your customers don't care about color, this is a bad idea. They are all junk.