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So many options Epson F2100, Brother GTX, Coldesi DTG G4, Omniprint... my head is spinning please help

11K views 22 replies 12 participants last post by  Kwan 
#1 ·
After years of frustration with various production partners I am in the market to get a DTG printer. From what I am reading any that have white built in eliminate the need for a pre-treatment machine?? if I am wrong please correct me on this.

I will be using this printer in my home. Initially I will not have a large volume about 100 shirts per month. But that will be increasing to 500 to 1,000 once I have my own equipment. I also own a Mac computer so it must be able to work with it.

What printer out of Epson F2100, Coldesi DTG G4, Brother GTX, or if you have a suggestion, would best fit these things?


Least waste of ink
Easiest maintenance
Least expensive maintenance
Least expensive ink
Vivid colors
Can go without use for several days without clogging up
Large sized printable area so 3XL and up shirts do not look odd due to a small printable area.


It also appears I will need a heat press and a pretreatment machine so I am looking for any recommendations on this as well


Thank you in advance
 
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#4 ·
Ahh, you are seeking the UNICORN DTG.

You should know it doesn't exist.
The reality is, 'What are you willing to compromise to do your own printing?"

Since you are NEW to DTG I suggest looking at providers better suited for rookies like Katana or OPEN DTG. You will find when starting new that REDUNDANCY is your FRIEND.
 
#10 ·
I did look at the OPEN DTG and the Katana it looks like they both use Epson printers. My concern would be consistency and reliabiity with OPEN DTG.

If I was to get a more expensive printer with no redundancy and it went down I can always go to a third party POD provider temporarily until the problem is fixed. Are the newer printers that unreliable that I would have to be highly concerned that. new printer would go down ?
 
#6 ·
SDTC, The printer is half the battle. Other things to consider on getting the best print: Shirt, Pre-treat solution, pre-treat machine and curing ink.

All of these are questionable and subject to discussion.

It's like baking a cake, you may have all the basic ingredients but everyone has their own ways of baking one..

I have a Epson F2100 and it's a good printer, not a big fan of DTG but got in the game..

Let me know if you have any questions on the F2100..

Best of luck!
 
#12 ·
I did not know about the pre-treatment until it was mentioned earlier in this thread. So I have no idea what pre treat machine and solution to get.

Curing inks I am not familiar with, is this different from the printers ink?

My current POD partner uses Gildan's and FOL's so I would probably stick with those unless there was a reason to change to something else. I know they charge a lot more for the other brands but I do not know what the wholesale cost is as they are obviously marking it up making the profit margin slim.


I have been leaning towards the F2100. The GTX seems to be faster but seems to have a lot more issues with clogging up from what I have read. Also it seems it also has ink waste issues. Although I could be wrong on that.

How many shirts can you realistically run in 1 hour on your Epson ? and about how many shirts can you get out of the ink before replacement ?
 
#17 ·
As I have seen on the show, it is a very good reliable machine with 4 Ricoh printheads. Good printing speed, low maintenance, low ink cost per shirt.

Comparing with Epson F2100 it has 1 advantage - vacuum platen, that is very convenient. It makes load/unload procedure much faster, so in practice you can print more T-shirts/hour during busy periods.

I also know, that Coldesi is using new Kodak textile inks in this machine. From tests, it is a ink with good washability, handfeel, elasticity. CMYK gives nice RED and BLACK, and commonly colors are very good and not washing out neither from white t-shirt nor from white ink layer.
 
#19 ·
Curious if you have made a decision. I am also looking at both the Epson 2100 and the G4. Looks like they are both great printers so probably not a wrong choice but which is the better choice. I have seen lots of reviews on the Epson but haven’t found an actual user of the G4. Did a demo with ColDesi and very impressed with the results. Would love an actual owner review.
 
#21 ·
Linda,

I have not bought one yet but if I was going to it would be the Epson At the present moment for one big reason it seems less likely to clog up with inconsistent use. If you have consistent daily use then this probably will not be a decision factor for you. By the time everything got said and done. Printer, pretreatment machine and heatpress it was around 20k to 22k total investment not including a new dedicated circuit for the heatpress since it had a 14.5 Amp draw. Also for me space is an issue right now and this setup would take up quite a bit so I have decided to stay with mug sublimation for now and revisit DTG printing next year.
 
#22 ·
After years of frustration with various production partners I am in the market to get a DTG printer. From what I am reading any that have white built in eliminate the need for a pre-treatment machine?? if I am wrong please correct me on this.

I will be using this printer in my home. Initially I will not have a large volume about 100 shirts per month. But that will be increasing to 500 to 1,000 once I have my own equipment. I also own a Mac computer so it must be able to work with it.

What printer out of Epson F2100, Coldesi DTG G4, Brother GTX, or if you have a suggestion, would best fit these things?


Least waste of ink
Easiest maintenance
Least expensive maintenance
Least expensive ink
Vivid colors
Can go without use for several days without clogging up
Large sized printable area so 3XL and up shirts do not look odd due to a small printable area.


It also appears I will need a heat press and a pretreatment machine so I am looking for any recommendations on this as well


Thank you in advance
I would suggest this find a local partner that has been successful at printing DTG t-shirts. Give him some orders but insist on being there when he is doing your work. Ask lots of questions we love to talk about our DTG machines. Find out what they are doing to be successful and copy it. I buy DTG machines all the time at rock bottom prices because someone did not know how to properly maintain there machine. The print heads will be ruined and they will bash the manufacturer of the machine because they thought they were buying an office ink jet. There is a lot of work maintaining any DTG machine don't let anyone tell you different, I hope this helps you.
 
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