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HP L25500 Quick Review
Hey guys,
Got our printer up and running last week. Just wanted to put up a quick review on my initial thoughts about the printer. We have two Roland Soljet Pro Series 3 so that’s my extent I can draw comparisons too.
I’ll first point out the differences between the HP and Rolands from an end users point of view.
The eco-solvent inks from the Rolands are glossier. Is this a breaking point? No. Does it matter if you laminate or print on matt or satin stocks? No. I’m being pick because that’s what I am used to and our customers haven’t pointed it out yet so isn’t really a huge concern.
Loading material is a bit more work on the HP. I can load rolls on the Roland in about 20 seconds. On the HP its more like a few minutes. Using the take up is a similar scenario in that you have to use mandrels to put the cores onto.
Warm up time is about 5 minutes on the HP for it to warm up before you start printing. It also takes about 5 minutes to turn on its onboard computer and get ready before you start using it. The Rolands are alot quicker.
Quality and speed the HP leaves the Rolands for DEAD. Real world comparable quality/speed vs quality/speed the HP is about double the speed and even at a much higher quality. The ink bleeds less versus the eco-solvent inks.
The HP has an Optical Media Advancement Sensor meaning it sets the feed calibration automatically and keeps track of it on longer jobs. The Roland’s need to be set manually and it can change if say your printing 50 metres.
One downside of the HP would be the heat. On some materials it would distort them. Been trying to get poly prop working with no avail at the moment. Self adhesives, banner and a few others we’ve tried without a problem.
All in all the HP is a great machine. If your looking for only one printer but want to do everything and you do mainly short run work it might not be the best choice from a workflow point of view. But if you don’t use a whole heap of materials and load up your take up units then it won’t be a problem. The time you loose in loading new material is made up in the speed of the machine.
In the end the deals that are being put out at the moment with the new model arriving soon makes this decision a simple one.
We look like we’ll be moving our printers over to latex the added bonus of finishing jobs instantly is great. Today I just ran off 10 metres of laminated SAV that I laminated and dispatched same day. Can’t do that with the solvent machines.
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17 Replies
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ah good to hear… our latex is ordered… but still not here yet
lots of people in the sign industry and giving the machine a quality rating, from looking over the facts and figures we came to the conclusion early that it really is well thought out machine.
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The new model seems to be mainly an ink formulation change with the black being a bit richer. That;s all I’ve heard so far. If that’s the case we’ll be ordering the newer model to replace one of the Roland’s.
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Jason,
What rip are you using?
For the poly prop try changing the curing temperature setting (with mine, by lowering it to the lowest setting the inks still cured fine, and the material stayed flat with no wrinkling caused by the heat).
The material loading is a case of getting used to it, I can change materials in 30 seconds (still slower than the rolands but not too bad).
What do you mean about a new model and ink formulation? Can you expand a bit on what you mean?
Cheers,
George -
Hey George,
I’m using Onyx Postershop.
What profile are you using for the poly prop if your also using Onyx and what preset on the printer?
Theres a new model coming out soon L26500 that has a slightly altered ink set.
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Hi Jason,
For the poly prop I’m using the 3M IJ-40 (vinyl) profile, the only difference is the curing temp which I’ve set at it’s lowest. I played a lot with profiles, this one gave the best colours.
Interesting on the L26500, I’ll look into it. The black on this could do with being a bit ‘blacker’, but nothing I can’t get around by adjusting ink values.
Cheers,
George -
expect a high price tag for the new machine, i understand l25500 has been discounted a fair bit since release
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Another thing I didn’t mention before is maintenance. I keep my Rolands in tip top shape basically manual cleaning process done daily.
I haven’t done any maintenance on the HP no head cleaning etc. Its basically load and print. I don’t even do test prints etc to check for quality the machine handles it all itself.
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I want to thank Ian Hatfield and Jason for all their help recently, we now have installed the L25500 on the last few days. The model is now discontinued but they were practically giving them away at the last few days of the deal.
Ours had some trouble, mainly with heat but we are finally getting somewhere, the machine is very good and today I printed our first banner on our regular DTEC and it worked. Okay it was little hot under the hood but the banner recovered okay, possibly shrank a little.
Without a doubt, this machine is indeed suited to the sign maker that just doesn’t want to worry about it, its basic simple and there is so much technology under the bonnet, it is amazing.
This will sit quite comfortability next to our AGFA Anapurna m2050 and we aim to use the HP for the majority of Vinyl work.
The new models are now out, the L26500 and the large L28500, all with a lot of promise. So those who are interested in upgrading their kit of going into the printer market for the first time…. See the Latex at the roadshows going on at the moment. They are fab.
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i said you would like it, once you get used to them its almost trouble free printing.
I put a 50m x 1.524m roll of vinyl the other night came in next day all done with out a problem.
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Funnily enough I’ve just had a little problem with mine today, cyan ran out mid-job, I replace it with a new cartridge and…..I’ve got a duff cartridge! All this technology & chips in the carts, no good if they don’t work!
Anyway, William Smith to the rescue with a replacement one tomorrow morning. So now I need to keep 2 of each in stock just in case one don’t work…..! 😮Other than that, what a fantastic machine, mine is 13 months old now. Regular cleaning & maintenance…..a thing of the past!!!! Head soaks, head cleans, dampers, clogged lines, broken pumps…….don’t even know what they are any more. 😀
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yep indeed.. George, i guess u lost that job… and had to reprint
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Correct Dave, that part of the job needs reprinting but no major problem (1.8 metre photo)
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I keep two of everything. Two inks two heads for each thing. The only thing I keep one of is the cleaning whatcha ma call it?
It would be nice if the boxes of ink where colour coded with the actual colour so I could visually see what I’ve got.
When I use a cart I immediately order it so I always have two spares.
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Jason, I usually have one of everything in stock, as it’s a reasonable amount of money sitting there doing nothing.
Seen as everything is on next day delivery, it’s not usually a problem (apart from now).
Like you, once one is used the replacement is ordered on the spot.Colour coding on the box, yes would be good! I actually have coloured vinyl dots which I apply to the boxes once they arrive, together with the order date on them.
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I bought the latex L25500 and have had nothing but bother with it:
Steaky prints
Unfixed prints
Quality change during same print run
Having to reseat ink cartridges
Printheads clash with media, often!
Temperature varies (this i think is the main problem)I guess i just got a bit machine, i’ll find out on Monday when HP look at it?
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Streaky prints can happen with some heavy solid… normally temperature
Curretly we are struggling with the cold weather, i get 15:03:00 error a lot and HP says it my room needs be nearer 18 deg.
I have never reseated a print cartridge and when you do crash make sure you do an alignment.
Headstrikes on media, yep and if you feed the media in and it doesn’t look right, lift lever and push more thru, head strikes should not happen.
So far found cheap mactac and arlon not good materials, now on Avery 2000 and loving it, has a thick backing and the profile is well made.
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Cheers Dave, thanks for your help.
HP guy is comming today i think there’s something wrong with the hardware but we’ll see?
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