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Ri 1000 pros / cons

[Anajet] 
33K views 42 replies 22 participants last post by  Elaine Hill45 
#1 ·
Anyone using the new Ri 1000 yet? If yes, can you elaborate on what you like and don't like about it. Thanks.
 
#7 ·
I purchased an Ri 1000 in November. I am still marketing and so haven't printed more that 30-40 prints. I ran out of white ink (both $60 cartridges) this week. That's a little disappointing.
100% cotton prints are fabulous. No complaints there. Just be aware that that means 100% - 50/50 blends require specific artwork to look good - muted colors. Their wolf with the dream catchers looks awesome on a royal blue - but the white washes out.
There are some problems with the drain system and I've had a trouble ticket in since before Christmas with no resolution. They were supposed to follow up. For $15,000 at the Vegas trade show, I think it will be a good value - but I won't make that judgement until I've had a few production runs.
 
#16 · (Edited by Moderator)
I purchased Ri1000 one month after Las Vegas trade show. I paid around $17500 that was including the complete package with heat press.

Once I received the printer, nightmare started. I own large format printing business for last 18 years, and we constantly have clients ask for shirt printing. So I finally decided to start offering short run prints for my existing customers. I just didn't want them to go anywhere else. Once we announced the shirt printing, orders stared coming in with no problems. But,.... we could not deliver! Colors were not coming out right! Shirts getting stained from pretreatment, too much or too little, heat high or low, we called anajet, asked questions, watched videos, but no matter what shirts were coming out poor quality. Some were OK!

We changed shirt brand, different pretreatment, purchased pretreatment machine viper.... still poor quality. Till about 6 weeks ago, our printer started smearing ink. Called anajet, they tried few things over the phone, and informed us that our printheads are out. After 5 months printheads are out!?!?!? They told us they can send out the technician but I need to pay for him. We agreed! But they informed us since their local technicians are not trained for this printer yet, to pay for one of their guys from California, and I agreed. He arrived with New printheads, replaced them, and new heads started dripping ink everywhere! He did few other things and ink stoped dripping.

Next day we started printing shirts, and ink is dripping all over the printer. Called anajet, they told me they will se d the truck to pick the printer up, do the repairs in California and ship it back. So far our printer is been down for 6 weeks, today they finally picked up the machine, and who knows when we will get it back, and if this printer will ever print shirts properly. I lost so much business, we embarrassed our self if front of our customers.... nobody cares at anajet. I just don't know how they stay in business, doesn't make any sense to me. Maybe it's just my luck, but I wish I never purchased this machine. Caused so much stress and business loss!
 
#17 ·
Making T-shirts with heat transfers looks horrible. You can literally see little dots on the prints, looks cheap and unprofessional. Oki is the printer we researched. The only true way to make shirts in my opinion is still screen printing no matter what. Dtg still got longs way to go till they make solid printer that will do the job the right way. Anajet received my ri1000 this last Monday, today Wednesday, they didn’t reach out to me or gave me any updates on my printer repair, let’s see if they reach out this week at all....
 
#18 ·
Soooo, I was getting some banding in my prints and they weren't as vibrant as the "Trade Show" shirts. Their suggestion is to soak the head in their solvent. Three times later the test print looks like an ink explosion. Their solution is to buy a new carriage for $2000.00 and they will send a tech out to make the repairs - the tech at their cost.
That said, when it prints right - I have limited experience with that - it's awesome, but I have definitely lost faith in my printer. I wouldn't make the purchase again - and I've been following Anajet for a long time.
On a side note, my Roland VersaCamm 540 from 2008 is still printing beautifully and I've been able to substitute back to the printed heat transfer - no dots or banding from this machine. Anyone want a $15,000.00 paperweight?
 
#19 ·
Have had our ri1000 for about 8 months now and gotten only a few runs that came out looking good. In june we had a problem with one of the white heads clogged. Called anajet and they told us to do their "altoids method" which, like sewfun said, is soaking the head in the cleaning solution. Did this for 4 days it and helped a bunch but still a little clogged. Ran some shirts and they looked ok. No problems again until last week when the same white head clogged again and we soaked the head again. Now we get blue and black lines all the way across the shirt. Called anajet and they say we need a new printhead at 2k! I doubt we have even made that much off of this thing! especially when you count all the ink that was wasted trying to flush and unclog these printheads.

customml - Did they cover your printhead under warranty? How much was they tech per hour?
 
#36 ·
Very interested in this altoids cleaning method as all their documentation says never to use cleaning solution on the print heads, also they stress the expiration date of the ink but when pushed when they send you ink that has expired it becomes a best used by date and when you have a print head issue you need to buy a new print head. Anajet is showing it's true colors "make the sale screw the customer"
 
#21 ·
It sounds like buying a DTG printer is like buying a used car. I would be very leary of an industry that practices sales techniques like that. the margins must be outstanding.
Why pay thousands of dollars for equipment that is designed for small production?
A simple laser white printer with white toner will last you a long time for only 100,s of dollars.
 
#22 ·
It doesn't matter what you buy DTG, Car, Used lawn mower if you don't know how to use it your going to be F*CKED. DTG printers are great but yes they have there headache times as well. I have used DTG for over 15 years and have had my fair share of issues. But I am also a screen printer and embroiderer and have had issues as well.
 
#23 ·
Ken, I am referring of the sales tactics being used not the technology.
I agree with you on if you don,t learn how to use it you are screwed.
I always tell customers if they buy a Piano and you don,t know how to play it what is the first two things you need to do.
TAKE LESSONS
PRACTICE
DTG, WSP, Embrodiery, & Screen printing requires the same.
 
#24 ·
Hi all, I'm a product manager and community manager for Anajet. I'm sorry to see that some of you have been having trouble with your RICOH Ri 1000 and I wanted to jump in and offer what help I can. If you're still experiencing issues with your machine, please feel free to send me your contact information and I can help put you in touch with Tech Support or escalate a case as necessary.
 
#38 ·
I don't know if your still with Anajet (if your smart your not) this company is only out to sell. They could care less about the customer and doing things right. The RI 1000 is a real bad toy it is not a production tool," IT'S A LEMON" it cannot survive long enough to make it thru its warrantee period and the company plays games to set you up to pay for it's issues. If I could back charge for the time spent trouble shooting this piece of s..t I would have paid for the machine. You need to get a grip on the reality and look at your service call numbers and call backs on this machine. "IT'S A PIECE OF CRAP" NOT A PRODUCTION TOOL!!!
 
#25 ·
We purchased the Ri1000 back in October to add to our marketing department as we print shirts and other apparel as promo give-away and for employees in house. We are not a consumer company nor print for the public mostly.

Training in California was pretty solid and I recommend it, mostly for the maintenance. Our printer was purchased for about 23k all in with all recommended equipment.

Printer so far has been alright. Quality when its running perfectly is great. Color gradient is amazing, vibrant and solid. We've printed on Triblends, 100% cotton, blends, hoodies, polos, just about everything.

Been recently having issues with nozzle #2 getting partially clogged but I attribute that to the low humidity in the winter so far. We will be adding a humidifier to the room shortly to hopefully remedy that issue.

Customer service to me has been good so far, although I haven't had any major issues arise yet. After reading through this thread, it appears that most issues arise from people not maintaining the unit properly.

My only complaint with the printer is the cleaning. I understand why, but I think the engineering that went in to this product could make a MASSIVE improvement in cleaning the printer heads. For 25k, you would think there would be an easier way. Their recommended method is with a mirror, or using your front camera on you phone to look upside down to complete the task. Even a small error or slip and you can potentially clog your head with their cleaning tools too. Besides the idiotic design of cleaning upside down in limited space with limited visibility, everything else is pretty straight forward to take care of. Given the opportunity i'd backhand the sh*t out of the person who thought cleaning like this was a great idea.
 
#28 ·
I can’t help with hands on experience with the Ricoh printer, but I can help you get the best price. Basically, Your price will be higher if you’re not looking at another option in addition to the Ricoh. They typically have internal special approvals/add’l discounts that are available on top of their promos & specials that can only be offered in competitive situations-they want to win. You may have zero intentions of actually buying another printer or maybe you’re truly undecided, but the biggest mistake you can make if you’re looking for a better price from Ricoh is to buy any of their printers without getting at least one competitive quote.

Yes, Ricoh has promos & runs specials, etc., & they are normally about all the sales reps are allowed to Offer their customers. However, those restrictions change & the discount floodgates open wide once Ricoh is aware that you’re also looking at another option from a competitor-and Ricoh has been known to get CRAZY w/their discounting then, ESPECIALLY toward the end of the month. Thats when they’re trying to close as much business as possible to increase their monthly total sales.

So Although it will take a little extra work upfront on your end, I HIGHLY recommend doing so bc it WILL be worth the work. Just take a look at at least one competitive model & get at least one competitive Quote , (preferably a model w/similar Functionality Af a lower cost). You don’t have to show or share the actual competitive quote w/Ricoh. You use it to give them a ballpark of where their price needs to be if they want to be competitive. Just make sure your Ricoh rep knows:
1- you’re looking at a competitive option(s)
2- If the competitive quote is lower, a ballpark figure of the price to beat
3-&/or if the other quote includes add’l benefits that are not included w/the Ricoh printer, eg 12 month warranty, let Ricoh know-they may be able to match it
4-and finally, if you can or already know that you’re going to make a decision by the end of the month, DEFINITELY let ricoh know that tidbit as well...sometimes it works wonders w/their pricing.

And remember, You’re not required to share any Competitive pricing or quote info w/Ricoh. What you DEFINITELY DO need to do is just make sure they know you’re still looking at other options & your mind isn’t made up yet...Good luck! Sorry this is so long!
 
#30 ·
Go after the company. These big companies are getting away with murder and it isn,t just DTG printers.
Because they are big they take advantage of us and don,t stand by there products.
It is unfortunate how many of us have lost money because of there attitudes. This is a very good industry for there equipment and at least they could do is stand behind there sales to there customers. Oki for example use to have a very good support system and now you can sit on hold for not less then 45 minutes and still not get any resolve from there techs.
It is really bad for the dealers and the customers. The dealers get stuck and a bad reputation because of the poor support from the manufacturers and the customer is the biggest loser.
A lot of dealers are not selling there equipment because they don,t want to be stuck holding the bag because the manufacturers won,t stand by there equipment and this equipment isn,t cheap either.
I am not bashing the DTG process it is all of the processes being exploited by the big manufacturers.
Dealers need to hold the manufacturers to be more credible. When I did production for the apparel industry with 3 $40,000.00 ea. Canon color copiers I had maintenance contracts and service every day to keep up with production. Today this needs to be rectified. Just read the posts on this forum and look at the lost of production and lack of support fir items costing thousands of dollars.
I apologize for this rant but it needed to be made.
AL
 
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