I been using brother ink for years but one day I decided to buy the sawgrass inks because of the low price. That was a bad idea, once I starting using the sawgrass inks for a week I notice that my prints were banning. It got worse and worse then my black print head stop working. I call brother and they told me that they had similar problems with other customers using the Sawgrass inks. They told me that once the inks mix together the ink start to clog the heads and that I will have to buy a new head and replace the hose too. I got upset because brother knew about the problem and did not send emails or post sometype of blog warning about the ink. The print head are not cheap. All they told me is sorry. What the hell. So be care using the sawgrass ink in your brother garment printer.
Hello! Don't buy that printhead just yet. I have had some tremendous success bringing printheads back from the dead. Not sure about Brother's print heads, but Epson's can be brought with a Flush w diluted Simple Green. This is assuming that Sawgrass is using an aqueous ink.
You might want to flush the lines in the future when changing inks. They make cleaning cart for printers as well, you might want to try to use a set of those to see if it can clean out your lines and print head. Might be a bit of a cheaper fix then replacing your print head.
I use Sawgrass inks and have been pretty happy. Sorry to head your troubles and hope it all works out.
GL
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The other lesson to learn here is that no matter what type of dtg printer you have, don't ever mix 2 types of ink. Always flush your system completely before loading in a different set of inks. We experienced this over the years with our flexi-jet and the variety of ink sets that have come out since 2006. Countless times I've seen people selling inks saying that you can mix their ink to some degree with your current set or that you don't need to flush and it will be no problem. However countless people, like myself, have run into problems exactly like yours and put up posts and what it comes down to is that 2 different sets may not "play nice" with each other and could cause hundreds of dollars in damage and lost time. I would always air on the side of caution and assume you may run into an issue and just flush the system and clean it up before loading up a new set. Just my .02 though
Had some requests for a head flushing process. I have only done this with Epson Printheads. Here is a copy of what I sent another person:
Supplies: Silicon Tubing, syringe & diluted Simple Green (SG)
1) Remove & "Puddle" Print Head > Let the print head rest in a small pool of SG. Just a 2mm deep layer. Enough to submerge the nozzles. Let Rest 10 minutes then Swirl to breakup clogs.
2) Attach the silicon tube & syringe filled w SG & GENTLY GENTLY push thru head.
3) Repeat Process Until You See All Nozzles Are Have SG squirting thru while Pushing the SG.
I REPEAT, I HAVE NEVER USED THIS PROCESS ON A BROTHER PRINT HEAD
Atleast it wasn't a chemical reaction which made head or machine explode Ha.
I never really had issue with mixing two types of inks on other printer I have : )
I just find it rather humorous that sawgrass themselves say its a swap kinda cart. where you can use after Brother ink runs out without flushing first.
Atleast it wasn't a chemical reaction which made head or machine explode Ha.
I never really had issue with mixing two types of inks on other printer I have : )
I just find it rather humorous that sawgrass themselves say its a swap kinda cart. where you can use after Brother ink runs out without flushing first.
<<< WARNING WARING DISREGARD BIGJACKS POSTING!!! I HAVE MOST TIMES HAD ISSUES SWITCHING INK.
Do a thorough Flush & Avoid Needing to Remove the Head to Flush. There are good alternatives to the $500 liter Mfg options. BUY THE SUPPLIERS FLUID AS LAST CHOICE!!! MY EXPERIENCES w TEXTILE, SUBLIMATION & PIGMENT INKS SIMPLE GREEN (SG) is a great cleaning/flushing fluid. CAPPING STATION, Silicon Tubes & Syringe are the tools you need. Simply pull from the diluted SG from the bottom of the print head. Fill a coffee cup w SG, place a tube in it & pull the SG thru the print head.
I didn't say it works with Brother/Sawgrass... didn't you read second line where i make fun of sawgrass for not mentioning to flush... As for first part, I haven't had issue with solvent or pigment inks mixing with oem/3rd party.
BTW its Mr. ; ) and head not needing to be replaced is true, don't know about your method but on solvent machine I thought head was junk, but with a thorough cleaning, she was like new.
I have heard of coffee filter idea many times, but also hear you should let head stay in solution for 15 min to an hour to break up any gunk.
I also have found using swap have been effective, you soak it in cleaning solution and do a message on head where you pump solution into head for 5 minutes.
I call brother and they told me that they had similar problems with other customers using the Sawgrass inks. They told me that once the inks mix together the ink start to clog the heads and that I will have to buy a new head and replace the hose too. I got upset because brother knew about the problem and did not send emails or post sometype of blog warning about the ink. The print head are not cheap. All they told me is sorry. What the hell. So be care using the sawgrass ink in your brother garment printer.
There are legal reasons for why companies don't come out and make statements like what you want above and this is one of them. Brother is a very conservative company that takes all the necessary legal precautions. There are several posts on multiple forums that talk the risks vs. rewards of using different inks in a lot of different printers. In the future, if you are going to try any type of new consumable in your equipment, it would be wise to do a basic Google search to see if any user (not sales reps) has something positive or negative to say about it.
I been using brother ink for years but one day I decided to buy the sawgrass inks because of the low price. That was a bad idea, once I starting using the sawgrass inks for a week I notice that my prints were banning. It got worse and worse then my black print head stop working. I call brother and they told me that they had similar problems with other customers using the Sawgrass inks. They told me that once the inks mix together the ink start to clog the heads and that I will have to buy a new head and replace the hose too. I got upset because brother knew about the problem and did not send emails or post sometype of blog warning about the ink. The print head are not cheap. All they told me is sorry. What the hell. So be care using the sawgrass ink in your brother garment printer.
If you don't mind me asking, who did you buy your Sawgrass ink from? I am sorry to hear about your problem; I went through that exact same thing, but it was with Brother's OEM inks; everything worked great for months, then one day BAM, banding that just got worse and worse until I had to replace the head.
I'm not advocating purchasing 3rd party inks, but I've seen the opposite effect. I've heard many stories of people buying the Sawgrass ink and the head started to band as you described and then it worked itself out. I found out the Brother inks actually build up inside of the head and the Sawgrass inks have a detergent that breaks it down and will not allow buildup. This could be the reason why your head is blocked.
If this is what happens, my guess is you've been running your Brother for quite some time now and there was so much build up that as the Sawgrass ink was breaking down the Brother ink, it's causing the blocking you are describing.
Warning Sawgrass Inks 
