[jzahrndt]

Thanks a bunch, that really helped explain it all out. I found the cartridge and had to purchase it sadly.

 

[Sign Smiths]

We have a gt381 as well and the quality is great but what about the pretreat does your shirts come out looking bad(not the print) but where you cured the pretreat

 

[RedBoot]

We have a GT-381, and if I was doing it all over, would not buy a DTG. For our business model (screen print and embroidery for mostly business clients), it didn't turn out to be the best fit for the short run things we are asked for. We run a few small jobs every day, but if someone came along today offering to purchase it, I would let it go in a second.

We keep to the maintenance schedule, and have had one head go out, had to replace tubing that degraded and clogged in several colors plus the whites. The tech who would come out to service this if we needed him, seems to not have a lot of experience working on DTG equipment (his comments by phone were typically along the lines of "well you must be using another brand of ink than Brother to have that problem", which we are not). Fortunately we do have someone here who can do the maintenance and repairs to keep it running, but his time is more valuable spent on other things.

 

[beeker652]

I am considering purchasing one of the Brother DTG printers. Considering either the GT381 or GT361. I would like to hear from anyone who is currently using one, like and dislikes, has the machine performed and have you experienced any problems, how has support been, if you had to do it over again, would you buy the same machine, and if or if not, why.

I know there are a lot of owners of different brand machines that are sold on them, and feel their machines are superior, but please refrain from posting.

At this point I am only interested in comments from GT series owners.

Thanks in advance for anyone willing to weigh in.

These machines need a lot of love and care, lots of maintaining parts are expensive constant errors pop up most are easy fix but annoying

 

[CanarianDrifter]

These machines need a lot of love and care, lots of maintaining parts are expensive constant errors pop up most are easy fix but annoying

Hi Beeker, read you post ans would like to respond. I got the GT381 a few years ago. The machine is great however I discontinued offering white ink printing. Reason was (and is) there is not too much demand for printing with white ink. Machine needs to be printing constantly in order to avoid clogged head, unnecessary tube cleaning (which uses a lot of ink), and constant maintenance. The CMYK works fine. I have never done a tube cleaning on the color side. Brothers only sent the white ink tube cleaning cartridge no the color one which is a bummer, you need to purchase that one.
Replace white heads a few times at a $1,300.00 each head. Quite expensive!!! When the white channels head starting getting clogged again I decided to stop using white ink. The only thing I have done to the machine is reconnect the tubes that comes out of the maintenance station bottom side. They come out from time to time, I guess it is pressure building in the system. No big deal. Also, I changed the battery once, easy to do. Aside from that the machine is great. I wanted to purchase the new machine that came out not too long ago. GTX Pro but I am afraid will have the same issue, not with the machine but the lack of white ink printing demand. Also, they do not take trade-ins so that is another bummer.
I am still printing CMYK and had to replace one head although I used one of the white heads that was in good shape. Now if I want to introduce white ink again I will need to replace all four white heads, possibly the tubes although I did cleaned them before stopping using white ink. I will face a cost of $6,500 for the heads, white ink, and tubes.

Aside from that, everything is well.

Canarian Drifter.