Running Costs of Latex Printer?

[Luke s Bremner]

I was looking into these printers we were thinking about upgrading our mutoh vj with the L2550. With the VJ our main cost is ink and we are on 3rd party, the head lasts years and power usage is not alot. Print quality wise would be hard to tell a real difference depending on file quality its not that big a difference and print speed about the same. I think you need to looking into what media you will print on, you cant print on all media only selected media, 3m dont warranty some media with latex, also power consumption needing 2x 240v connections and consumables print heads every 6ltrs or so x6. I think if you are printing quantity it will get expensive but then you can run it all night and weekends unattended save money on labour.

[David Rowland]

great machine… i have the older one

ink costs… it works it out for you

there is running costs too to consider like electric and print heads/wiper station

I had mine since September, just re-ordered some of the ink cartridges… machine in daily use but not flat out.

Best investment by far

[George Zerbino]

I’ve got one like Dave’s, mine is 15 months old.
Previous printer was the Grenadier 54".

Inks are more expensive, but you waste less inks as the print quality is more consistent, and there is no need to do head cleans, head soaks and other maintenance.
As Dave says, the printer will tell you how much each print costs.

Electricity – yes it uses more, but prints much faster. My leccy bills have been the same as before (taking into account the price increases).

Media – yes, it’s a fussier machine than a grenadier, but once you have a selection of materials that do indeed work on it, I don’t see a problem.

Luke – could you say which materials 3M doesn’t warrant with the latex inks? IJ40 , IJ180, IJ380…all print perfectly for me, so it covers the normal vinyls to the best wrap vinyls.

Lastly, last week I had an error message come up on screen (machine still working ok, just one sensor not working well), called HP tech support at 3pm and the engineer came round the following morning at 9am with all the relevant parts needed, changed what needed changing, cleaned what little needed cleaning and left 3 hours later. Very impressive support & backup service!!

Ah, and I would definitely buy this machine again. Printheads are about £70 each, and take all of ….30 seconds to replace. You don’t even get your hands dirty!

Regards, George

[David Rowland]

yeah i had 15:03.00 for ages, finally convinced the foreign call centre that the machine was faulty, they came out the 2nd day (they had a reason) and then fixed it with new heater assembly and heat sensor.

HP engineer just got on with it without any thinking about problems.

I am using Avery 2000 with fantastic results.

[Luke s Bremner]

George Zerbino
I cant remember the film now, A rep dropped off a flier for it a new film out end of last year it was like a long-term mono with control tack, dont assume all 3m films are made for latex.

If we did not have the machines we have now we would be looking into these but the consumable costs put us off trading our printer in. I think over the next couple of years these machine will evolve things like the consumables and ink will become more long lasting and competitive.

[Stuart Taylor]

Hi All

As you will know we supply both the HP Latex and 3M products and nearly all 3M films print perfectly on the Latex (along with many other alternative brands)

With regard to warranty 3M operate several layers of product warranty including MCS (Matched Component System) warranties which are only applicable when all components are made by 3M inc base film, laminate and ink. As Latex inks are made by HP this is then covered by 3M’s performance guarantee (tried, tested and approved by 3M)….. so to answer the question 3M do "guarantee" their products when printed using a HP Latex Ink.

Most 3M medias are profiled for use on the Latex printers as well

Hope this clarifies this

Stuart

[George Zerbino]

Hi Luke,

Must admit I haven’t tried all the films that 3M sell, althought I’m intrigued by a long term monomeric.
I have samples of IJ25 in gloss and matt, and they look pretty good to me.

Hi Stuart,

Thanks for the info, I remember looking it up prior to getting the printer.

Regards,
George