What is the expect wash durability of dtg printing on dark garments?
I recently had a customer (firefighter) call up to order more shirts but says his last batch (printed 6 months ago) were already looking faded. He said the prints were looking "light." I was surprised to hear that because I was hoping that wasn't the true life span of a dtg shirt.
How many months or how many wash cycles is an dark dtg printed shirt expected to last?
What is the expect wash durability of dtg printing on dark garments?
I recently had a customer (firefighter) call up to order more shirts but says his last batch (printed 6 months ago) were already looking faded. He said the prints were looking "light." I was surprised to hear that because I was hoping that wasn't the true life span of a dtg shirt.
How many months or how many wash cycles is an dark dtg printed shirt expected to last?
How many months or how many wash cycles can depend on how the shirt is laundried. Hot water and a hot dryer aren't going to be friendly to any print.
Dark shirts do not last as long as lights. I have dark shirts printed on my Kornit that started to break down after 30 wash cycles, and really started to crack after 50. These were all printed with the ld Kornit water based white ink. I do not have detailed wash stats on the new ink.
With that said, I am completely satisfied with that performance. I know some screened shirts will last years....but most will not. I have never had a complaint, or a refund request.
White shirts sometime APPEAR to fade, due to the shirt fiblaration. It is not the ink. Also, as Lizzie said, wash behavior plays a huge role.
We are using the 931 (dual shirts) and I believe we are using the older solvent based white inks. We have the shorter dryer model, not sure which one. Do you think there is difference in durability, fibrilliation, brightness, etc between the water and solvent based white inks?
I never used the solvent based inks, so I cannot say from personal experience. However those that have, seem to like the waterbased ink sets much better. I held out until the water based inks were available, as I never really liked the results from the solvent based inks.
I've read that Justin had one of his kornit's converted to the waterbased ink, and he also has the new 932NDs. His posted samples and review are quite impressive. So based on what I've read, the answer to your question would be a YES.
Kornit Wash Durability 
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