What is wrong with DTG machines?

Well ... to be honest. The technology is VERY new, and DTG machines are coming so far so fast that some models are obsolete before they are even plugged in.

Secondly, they are not perfect, I don't care what anyone says, they still don't do darks like a screen press will.

Finally, they are A LOT of maintenece, they are constantly needing cleaning, changing heads, ink is outrageously expensive. Plus you need to have the volume to run them, the print heads get clogged if they aren't taken care of properly or used to periods of time.

They are still a lot of work. I have a Mimaki, and its a lot of work. I like it, I can justify it, but I probably wouldn't have bought it if I knew the attention it required.

We own a Flexi-jet. They work really well in a daily use environment. Maintenance is about ten minutes per day, but it really has to be done to avoid problems. Perfect for a home business or small shop- no mess like screen printing. Very green in comaprison as well. The inks are waterbased, and very little water or chemicals are used. Almost no cleanup compared to screen printing. Prints can be very durable and for one offs or small orders in a production environment they are also great!

They are not totally trouble free ( what is? ) but I would recommend direct to garment printers if they are to be used daily and maintained daily.

A lot of people bought them thinking they could use them once or twice a month and ignore them- can't be done without clogging. Without daily maintenance people get frustrated. Many of the machines available reflect that.

I have talked to so many direct to garment printer owners who bought the printer with a dream to start a clothing line. The printer was easy to purchase. They found it harder to get it advertised and get orders than they anticipated. Because of that the printer sat long weeks unattended. Those are the ones for sale with only 100 prints, etc.

The other class of printers for sale are those which were placed in production shops. The economy has affected some. but others have upgraded to the $120,000 Kornit. Those are much fewer on the market. That is not to say they have had no frustrations, but they also find the printers to generate decent profit.

The Viper may have something there, but the CMYK inks do not need to circulate. They still need the maintenance. The white ink- even with circulation needs to be printed with every day. There is a low tech solution. Daily shaking of the white ink- in the cartridges, bottles, and wiggling of the ink lines in the printer is very effective with the current generation of white ink to keep it from settling.

For someone who has a good business plan, or already has business to support it, these printers are great. And they do not require the handling of harsh chemicals.

Ok ... perhaps I mis-spoke a few things.

Let me put it another way. They are no where near as "Maintenance free" as your sales rep will lead you to believe. lol.

I own a mimaki, I like it. Another thing I have heard is if you notice all the ones for sale around here are the "cheaper" dtg's. The little ones shops have outgrown, OR the ones that people just never really used. I'm just saying, DTG's have their perks, but I'd be careful staking your business on one.

You are right Eric. You made a lot of good points.

I have heard sales people at shows make the craziest untrue promises. "Just click print, nothing else to know" "Absolutely no maintenance." "The great white ink solution- completely trouble free" "It will pay for itself in a couple months" Ugh! do the math!

Garment printers need to be approached armed with knowledge. They are a piece of equipment which needs regular attention to be profitable. But they are not "the answer" they are proclaimed to be , especially for hobby businesses which do not print daily.

I have a Brother GT541 that I've listed for sale. It requires only a little cleaning periodically and the ink is in a cartridge so it's not even messy. Mine is for sale due to family issues. I have accepted another job at a school so my daughter can attend it, and simply don't have time to commit to my business. I still have the printer payment and that's why I need to sell it.

This Brother doesn't offer white ink. But, the water based inks give an absolutely beautiful print that's soft to the touch. I've had a couple of tshirts printed by other DTG methods and the ink was so heavy it felt like the shirt was puckery. The customers I've had are happy enough to work around the lack of white ink issue. There is a new Brother that offers white...but I think it requires pretreatment of the shirt with some sort of solution. The reason I like the GT541 so much is that it seems "more green than screen" printing.

If I don't sell it, I won't be broken hearted. I love it! I'll just work the daylights out of it this summer and sell premade items in an online store and at some college fairs this fall.

If you're looking to get into printing, I'd encourage you to look at a DTG. I recently printed a photo on a shirt for a customer. They look SO much nicer than transfers. My cost for the shirt was $18. She thought it was $30ish. My prices may go up soon :)

My mimaki is very nice. My only gripe about it I wish it had a bigger platten to do larger things. It is DEFINITELY not click and print. More like click, vector, click, rip, click print. lol But anyway. They are nice machines. I actually use mine to print fabric that I use for applique in my embroidery. I hardly offer and DTG services. Mine is used for in house production.

I have the GP640. Mine is not set up for darks. I use it for printing on white cotton or cotton twill only. I do a lot of reverse applique in my shop and I print the fabric on my mimaki, as I have a very odd niche.

I print my design, embroider it, and the cut it out with my Laser Bridge. either tradional or reverse.

THe printer was kinda funky to get used to, but now I really like it.

The Brother GT782 is the new white ink solution. And if you talk to people who own the GT541, there really is little to no maintenance. There are cheaper machines out there and there are machines that print on black. But they are the ones that need maintenance, have expensive ink, get clogged, etc.

The interesting thing is that the Brother has the most expensive ink available.

Maintenance on the Brother is the same as the Epson based printers if they use only CMYK ink. Performance of the Brother is however more consistent than some ( but not all) of the Epson based printers which were much cheaper to buy.

There are plenty of successful printers out there right now printing with white ink. But it isn't for everyone, because printng daily and daily maintenance are the keys to success with white ink. It is not the kind of thing where you can print once a month and have it be worthwhile.

The Brother with white ink will need similar maintenance as the Epson based printers with white ink- most likely. The reason is that the white ink formulation will be very similar to the other white inks. Rumor has it that when the white ink machine starts shipping, ink prices for the Brother will decrease, but it hasn't happened yet.

Although I respect your opinion SuperT, I would have to disagree. Just from talking with people who have had both it seems the GT is a lot less hassle even without taking in to account white ink. The GT541 averages $.41 a shirt. With how often people are doing cleanings with a lot of the Epson based printers out there, we actually do have cheaper ink since ours isn't spitting ink out as much.
Brother is also using their own heads for white ink and the white ink is on a closed circuit so you can back up the ink from the lines if it is going to be sitting for a long period. This way you don't waste ink, you just put it back in the cartridges.

If anyone in the Midwest wants to put their DTGP head to head against a Brother, I'd be willing to take the challenge.

We average about $.20-$.25 per shirt (including total ink useage- cleanings etc included).

But I agree that the Brother is a good printer. I see that you are a distributor and I am glad that you have confidence in your product. That's a good thing.

I am just an owner.

I agree with SuperT... ;) (and how are you doing btw?)

The reality is, regardless of the machine, if someone doesn't make the sales, they are more than likely to go out of business. I say regardless, but that may not be 100% accurate either. Some machines have caused so many problems, but the vast majority of people with those types of machines are not selling them, they are trying to get their money back from the company that sold it to them.

I have seen the original tjet make someone $20,000 in profit in 4 days flat. And I have seen people buckle under and sell their machine because they couldn't get business for it. I am always telling people, build a customer base first before you purchase a machine, otherwise you might end up selling it in a short period of time.

I sold T-Jet's for about 6 months for U S Screen and I will tell you that his(Scott's) practice was to sell the equipment no matter what you said! Now you know why he is Out Of Business! It was a great machine until he tried to build it in house. They do require alot of love and maintance if you do not use them alot! I left U S Screen because I had a REAL problem with his biz practices. A year later he went under.

the Tjet we have is pure rubbish, if it is not one thing it is another. prints are not consistant the head glogs frequently and thats with strict daily maintenace schedule. With all the time put in to this machine it will never pay itself off so far this technology is still too new to be really profitable. BTW US screen is out of business they are gone along with $12,000 of our companys money.

We love our machine even though I have it up for sale. We were extremely busy through word of mouth, but that was the problem. We only wanted this as a side business, and our "real" jobs have both grown such that we're working 10+ hours a day and sometimes weekends and don't have the time to run the business properly. We've been turning away customers because we can't in good conscience accept an order when we can't guarantee it'll get completed in time.

I'll honestly miss the printer, because I have a blast designing my own shirts and surprising my friends and family with something fun or unique.