I’m thinking about buying my own dye sub printer so I can print from home. Does anyone have any recommendations on printers/models? Are sawgrass dye sub printers better than Epson?
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Hopefully @CaryF300 will weigh in with vastly more expertise. I am traveling the same road as you, though maybe a tiny bit further down the road. I attended the big graphics expo in Irving last month and quizzed the heck out of the vendors and some other attendees. It is obvious that a LOT of folks have converted Epson inkjet printers in small business service.
The real dye sub printers of about any brand have features that make life easier. They also have components designed for dye sub inks, and they cost more due to the niche market they serve. Maybe they are more expensive to make, but I don’t know about that aspect.
The Epson folks at the expo had two major points: the dye ink will eventually ruin the print head on a regular Epson inkjet and as soon as you put dye sub inks in the printer, the warranty is forfeited.
The Epson Eco-Tank inkjets use bulk ink which is less expensive than cartridge ink. Unless you go to major upgrading, the Sawgrass only allows cartridge dye sub inks.
I came away from the show thinking I want to get the Epson F570 because the paper supply options are both the less expensive roll or the standard sheet plus the printer uses bulk ink. That tiny little thing of the better part of $3000 to get it up and running didn’t seem to be a good spot for me to do at the start.
So, I bought a relatively new, and recently converted Epson Eco-Tank printer on Craigslist for under $250 already loaded with ink and with a package of transfer paper. Figured I would teach myself about sublimation, determine if it was a business I would continue to pursue and if it is … then hopefully I will have some income to accommodate the F570.
My conclusion was a real dye sub printer is better in the long run. However for small business startup or hobby use, eventually ruining a converted Epson isn’t much of a financial risk and maybe the supply chain will get better and future large dye subs will be more competitive down the road.
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I only use Sawgrass printers now, mainly because I had lots of problems in the past with converted Epson printers. If you aren’t using them every day then they have a tendency to clog the heads. Sublimation ink is thicker than the ink they are designed to work with. Your mileage may vary.
Yeah, I try to print daily even if it is just a test pattern on plain paper.
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