advice which printer to use for mug sublimation - Epson or Ricoh?

[pisquee]

Your options:
1) buy a new printer and ink set from a Sawgrass dealer, and have the 1 year warranty.
2) Risk using old printer, and buy more expensive Sawgrass ink for it, but not have any warranty (this also seems to apply to option 1, after your 12 month warranty runs out.
3) Source non-Sawgrass inks that are compatible with the Ricoh printer, but not from Sawgrass, pay less money for the inks, and have no warranty
4) Buy an Epson or Brother printer and do the same as option 3
5) Outsource your transfer printing, and don't own your own sublimation printer or inks.

Options 3 and 4 are not official recommendations of me or the forum, and it is up to you whether you want to persue them now and risk any legal ramification, or wait 'til Sawgrass' patent expires later this year.

[adamsbbbk]

Your options:
1) buy a new printer and ink set from a Sawgrass dealer, and have the 1 year warranty.
2) Risk using old printer, and buy more expensive Sawgrass ink for it, but not have any warranty (this also seems to apply to option 1, after your 12 month warranty runs out.
3) Source non-Sawgrass inks that are compatible with the Ricoh printer, but not from Sawgrass, pay less money for the inks, and have no warranty
4) Buy an Epson or Brother printer and do the same as option 3
5) Outsource your transfer printing, and don't own your own sublimation printer or inks.

Options 3 and 4 are not official recommendations of me or the forum, and it is up to you whether you want to persue them now and risk any legal ramification, or wait 'til Sawgrass' patent expires later this year.

thanks for the info.

so if i buy a new printer and ink set from a sawgrass dealer with a 1 year warranty what would happen after the 1 year warranty runs out and i need to buy more ink?
i can't be buying a new printer every time the 1 year warranty runs out.

[Scotty@BMS]

You seem to be labouring under the assumption that the printer will fail after a year. I'm sure we all have gadgets and equipment in our homes out of warranty, I know I have. Doesn't mean they need replacing. You could get a few years out of the GXe3300 you have. But you may not.

[adamsbbbk]

You seem to be labouring under the assumption that the printer will fail after a year. I'm sure we all have gadgets and equipment in our homes out of warranty, I know I have. Doesn't mean they need replacing. You could get a few years out of the GXe3300 you have. But you may not.

not really labouring on that - was just clarifying the previous posters comments about using the current ricoh printer but wouldn't receive warranty from sawgrass.

so was just clarfying what happens if you buy a new printer with 1 year warranty with Sawgrass inks and the inks run out and you need to replace inks after 1 year warranty has gone. to me that is the same thing as me buying inks for the current ricoh printer i have - its not under warranty so if anything goes belly up i have no comeback.

will try the current printer with sawgrass inks and see how i get on.

thanks for all you advice

[Scotty@BMS]

The ink for the GXe3300 will cost you around £190-ish so if you factor that as being the whole cost you're outlaying (as you've been given the printer) I personally think you're making the right decision. It is a fantastic little printer, reliable and with a proven track record. Best of luck!

[Justin]

Don't keep any hope of the patent ending, there are plenty more patents behind it to ensure Sawgrass will be able to keep this going for some time yet.

[bms]

... or wait 'til Sawgrass' patent expires later this year.

Okay, so one possibly runs out and then there are plenty more which probably means the overall effect is.... nothing.

[Justin]

Always interesting when these threads appear. Having spent many years in sublimation, I, like many others will have been through most of not all of the Epson options over the years before patent issues and so on. Many years ago I found third party inks as their now known that didn't clog and gave excellent results (before patents I hasten to add)

So after all of this I stopped using my excellent p50 and almost as good 1500w in favour of the 4 color Ricoh.

Sure we can argue all day long about 4 color vs 6 color etc. And the high costs of Sawgrass approved inks but I still chose to use the Ricoh. Warranty, support, maintenance are all important and yes, so is overall cost but in the grand scheme of things what do you save by sourcing cheaper inks and using printers that block regularly? I guess I've always been a rebel, Genesis when my friends liked Queen, PC not Mac.... always finding a cheaper way and so on....... But I choose Ricoh and I urge anyone just starting out, save yourself time and money and go down this route!

Just my opinion of course

[Scotty@BMS]

100% what Justin said!

[pisquee]

Many years ago I found third party inks as their now known that didn't clog and gave excellent results (before patents I hasten to add)

Sure we can argue all day long about 4 color vs 6 color etc. And the high costs of Sawgrass approved inks but I still chose to use the Ricoh. Warranty, support, maintenance are all important and yes, so is overall cost but in the grand scheme of things what do you save by sourcing cheaper inks and using printers that block regularly?

But then, we have non-Sawgrass sublimation inks which are about a 10th of the Sawgrass price, in a 7 colour professional Epson printer, which doesn't clog at all, let alone regularly, and I have warranty support from the ink manufacturer.