5 Things You Should Know Before Buying A DTG Printer

A Direct To Garment o DTG printer is a must have if you want to make it in this competitive industry. They are classy printers but there is still some confusion in the market and some people end up buying printers that don’t really impress them. There are a lot of Facebook forums that will make you believe that their printers are the best they will be bragging about how they have printed over a 100 T-shirts in a day and you might think that is the best Direct To Garment printer.

You need to be very careful when buying a DTG printer as the market is crowded with lots of them and knowing which the best is, might be a little bit tricky. Relying on Facebook groups and the manufacturer’s claim to help you choose which machine to buy might not be a very good idea. That’s why we have prepared this article for you to help you choose the one worth your money.

Before buying a DTG printer you should consider and know the following things.

Be extremely careful when buying a used machine. 

Buying a new DGT printer might prove difficult to   a lot of people because they are very costly. A huge one can cost you up to 180, 000 dollars while a small one can cost you around eleven thousand dollars. Because of these huge prices, there are a lot of people out there that prefer buying second hand printers. When buying a used DTG printer you need to be very careful, there are a lot of people who buy used DTG printers from online platforms like eBay and ends up wishing they had bought a new one. Some of this used machines usually don’t have the special RIP software.

DTG printers needs this special software to control the ink deposit. RIP software also creates an under base for white T-shirts and allows you to reprint an image as many times as you want among other tasks. This software is normally secured with a dongle. Unfortunately a lot of used DTG printers sold online usually don’t have a dongle; so If you buy a machine that don’t have the RIP software, you will be required to pay more than 1000 dollars to get it running – and if it is not secured with a dongle you will have to pay more. Make sure you research if the machine has the special software – or not before purchasing a second hand Direct to Garment  printer.

SEE ALSO: Elements to Consider When Before Deciding Between Screen Print vs. Digital Printing

Another problem that is often associated with used Direct To Garment printers is that many of them are sold without the print heads. So always make sure to confirm if you can get print heads and the machine before buying a second hand. If someone tells you that the machine has been in the store for a couple of months but the last time he switched it off it was working, don’t be quick to believe him.

Know where a DTG printer fits in your business.

It is very easy to get carried away that you can buy a DTG printer start a website and start selling printed T-shirts and life is going to be all good. Well know it from me, it is not always that simple. DTG printers need to run each and every day if that’s possible – and you need to print a few T-shirts per day to make it run. There is a lot of competition in this industry and sometimes it is possible to end the day without printing even a single shirt. DTG printers are full of color, have quick turnaround and you need to know how that fits your business model. For example if you are a screen printer; you need to charge something significant so that your business can make enough money. Otherwise you will just make loses if you charge something like 3 dollars per T-shirt.

Be careful with low cost machine.

If you see a new machine that is being sold for 5000 dollars then you need to ask yourself if it is really cool. A machine that costs less than 5000 dollars in most cases there won’t be much margin support – or infrastructure to keep up with R&D on the next generation among other things. Invest good money in DTG printer and you can be sure of good results. Before buying this cheap machines make sure to ask questions like “how long have you been in the business?” What is the warranty? The answers you get will help you decide if the machine is worth buying.

Be prepared for high ink costs.

You really need to be prepared for this before considering purchasing a DTG printer. The ink for DTG printers are a bit pricy. But don’t that scare you because if you are smart enough you will make good money from it. Just get used to it and buy the ink without complaining because there is really no otherwise. A liter of the ink will cost you around 400 dollars. Calculate well and make a standard price which will make you enough profits and it won’t scare away the customers.

Do your homework.

As I already told you don’t expect Facebook groups and industry forums to help you choose a DTG printer. Read reviews online, especially the ones that are criticizing the company – you will get to know more about the machine. It will help you know what the machine needs to run on daily basis. You won’t know about the high costs of ink or maintenance of the machine if you depend on the industry forums to help you choose the machine.