HP L25500 Pros and Cons?

[Freese]

The latex is a great machine. It's a work horse. we run it 8 - 10 hrs a day.. straight.. no problems. You have to get the right rip.. in my opinion flexi has not been able to properly sync with the latex... i mean it works.. but it's missing the MANY options that other rips offer...

a few things i wish you can do on the latex -
-adjust heat settings while it's printing..
-You didn't have to restart the printer everytime you run out of material because it treats it as a jam..
- i wish it had edge guards too.. that'd fix some headstrike issues people have on banners

Make sure you are on latest firmware..
Image Quality settings in first menu
adjust parameters

heat adjust on fly

 

[RobbyMac]

Yep that's it.
Attached is a pic of ours. We've lost more than I thought. We have 3 fingers left. You'll notice some black residue. We wrapped some tape around the remaining fingers after we'd already lost quite a few (in an attempt to get it to grip better without having to tighten the nut so much)

I'm not sure what bothers me more. The fact that the tech couldn't confirm the proper part # when we were searching for a new one (Thankfully that 600 pg tech manual helped identify the proper pert), or that the tech couldn't confirm if this part has changed on the 26500. They seem to know very little about their product.

Robby,
This worries me that we might not find parts for our printers so soon.
Looking forward to seeing your pics of the "fingers" you are talking about, or the part that has the fingers on the take up reel. I did find this, are these the parts you are talking about?:

http://tycad.en.alibaba.com/viewimg...945/Take_up_reel_spindle_hubs_Q6706_60901.jpg

 

[signswi]

That's the worst part on the machine. Ours doesn't tighten at all.

 

[Suz]

http://www.partshere.com/online/detail.asp?partno=Q6706-60901

This place (link above) is in Chino, so their site says. Says the parts are new and HP parts. I did read that the Z6100 uses the same parts for spindle.

I got the part numbers by doing a couple searches.

Here is another:

http://www.partshere.com/online/detailadv.asp?partno=Q6706-60901

 

[cdiesel]

I was told by an HP dealer that HP has admittedly built the 25500 and 26500s (and 28500s???) to be three year machines. Meaning that they will have new models out within three years, are only expected to last three years before needing to be replaced, parts may not be available after three years, and they will no longer support after three years.

I'm okay with this on a $12k machine.. not so much on a $25k machine.

The user-replaceable heads are great, because they're cheap and the fact they don't last very long means you always have fresh heads. Until HP stops making them.

We bought an L25500 in the mad dash in October. Haven't hooked it up yet though. If it's anything like our LX800, we'll love it.

 

[Desert_Signs]

Yep that's it.
Attached is a pic of ours. We've lost more than I thought. We have 3 fingers left. You'll notice some black residue. We wrapped some tape around the remaining fingers after we'd already lost quite a few (in an attempt to get it to grip better without having to tighten the nut so much)

I'm not sure what bothers me more. The fact that the tech couldn't confirm the proper part # when we were searching for a new one (Thankfully that 600 pg tech manual helped identify the proper pert), or that the tech couldn't confirm if this part has changed on the 26500. They seem to know very little about their product.

Hmm. You guys have to be doing something wrong. I can't even figure out how that could possibly be happening. The fingers are protected by the "nut". Are you/your guys removing the nut completely every time? I wish I could figure it out, but there's gotta be something you're doing incorrectly. Our take up reel parts are 26 months old and we've never even lost one.

 

[RobbyMac]

No idea. Perhaps this hub is bad in some way? I doubt it, but then again this isn't exactly rocket science. Slip hub on, tighten nut. Untighten nut, slip hub off. Even if it was dropped, as you mentioned, the nut protects the fingers from coming into contact with anything.
The only thing I'd noticed, is the nut was really easy to tighten, but really difficult to loosen... After a short time, we just stopped tightening it very much at all.

As for the part, our operator found one. I just thought it odd that HP would tell us flat out to find a 3rd party (and have no other information except that advice). So we'll see how this next hub goes.

The black hub (Right side of machine) is fine. But we rarely remove it.

 

[550rider]

I love the speed of the HP25500. I have a Mimaki JF 1631 and had a Mutoh Falcon outdoor. I think sometimes the colors are a little dull, maybe just compared to the Mimaki. Also, dull color could be caused by Flexi. I find the best way to print illuminated prints is to use 2 prints layered together, not terribly productive, but effective. I never change out the take up roll, I just unroll the material from the machine or take the entire reel to the table and pull the print off.

 

[signswi]

With the correct profiles backlit prints on a l25500 are gorgeous, it's one of the strong points of the printer. Shouldn't be seeing dull color either but yeah...flexi.

 

[signalsign]

I'm having alot of trouble with my L25500. I've had it 10 months and have the dryer replaced twice and petissa once. Tomorrow an HP tech is coming again and was just here last week. Anyone else having problems?

 

[Kentucky Wraps]

We have had our L25500 for 8 months. We were about to buy a Roland but switched to the HP at the last minute. Here are the pluses as I see them.

Very minimal maintenance.
Heads are user changeable and not terribly expensive.
No out gas before lamination.
Great print quality.
Can be shut down for extended periods with no ill effects.
Has a built in take up system.
Great statistics. Tells you how much ink is used by each job and lots more.
Our experience with warranty service has been spectacular. We had a head failure. The display told us that it was in warranty. We called and they sent us a complete set of heads...no charge.
The much talked about "heat issue" is really not an issue.

This has been a great machine for us. Couldn't be more pleased.

I'm wondering about a few things...as I am considering the same change.
•My Roland requires minimal maintenance as well...it maintains itself.
•What are you comparing the print quality to? Is it better than Roland print quality?
•Is the take up system included or extra?
•Why is one of their selling points the ease of print head replacement? Are they more susceptible to damage than others? I still have my original print heads on my Roland...it's been about 4 years.
•Aren't the inks a lot more expensive?
I'm trying to compare all aspects...and want to make sure the immediate curing traits aren't the ONLY thing making them better than an ecosolvent.
Because that alone is pretty dang tempting but could be offset by all the other things.

 

[nate]

I'm wondering about a few things...as I am considering the same change.
•My Roland requires minimal maintenance as well...it maintains itself. So does the HP
•What are you comparing the print quality to? Is it better than Roland print quality? Much better-- You'll be pleased with the results.
•Is the take up system included or extra? Included.
•Why is one of their selling points the ease of print head replacement? Are they more susceptible to damage than others? I still have my original print heads on my Roland...it's been about 4 years. That's the point. The print heads are consumables. HP warrants them for 1L of ink, but they will continue to work for some time after with no issue. When one of them gets bad just pop it out and put in a fresh one.
•Aren't the inks a lot more expensive? At my local supplier, Roland OEM is going for $120 / 440ml and the HP is going for $127 / 770ml. When you factor in the heads and the cleaning kit the numbers will get close, but we're still saving money on the HP ink versus the Roland ink.
I'm trying to compare all aspects...and want to make sure the immediate curing traits aren't the ONLY thing making them better than an ecosolvent.
Because that alone is pretty dang tempting but could be offset by all the other things. By what things?[/QUOTE]
See above

 

[ProColorGraphics]

Since Nate answered everything very well, I will just add that the quality of my L25500 blows the doors off of the VP540 I had. I haven't had any issues at all.

 

[switch]

Old thread, but all I can say is I just traded my JV-33 in for a 26500 and I'm kicking myself for not doing it sooner.

The L26500 is a truly amazing machine all the hype is for real!
We will be getting a second one of these or the 28500/LX600, cash and work load permitting.

Enjoy guys.

Once you go Latex you will never go back Kinda like a MAC ey Matt

 

[Suz]

Hi Switch,
I'm glad you are glad that you switched!
Congrats! Can't wait to see more posts from you and what you can do.
-Suz

 

[ddarlak]

Once you go Latex you will never go back

agreed - 10 fold

 

[switch]

Thought I would also add as part of our upgrade to the HP L26500 I also changed Rips from ONYX to ErgoSoft PosterPrint.

I don't know why I put up with ONYX for all these years, Its cumbersome clumsy and the print and cut simply just does not work, (for me anyway) even after spending $1000 upgrading to X10 on the promise it would fix my problems.

Huge shout out to ErgoSoft, IT JUST Works out the box, its stupid easy to use and I'm banging out media profiles in under 20 minutes with my i1!

ONYX need a ground up revamp/redesign of their RIP, they cannot continue just building on top of what I believe is a dated and hugely overcomplicated system. *rant over*

Happy Printing Guys...

 

[signswi]

...while I find Onyx extremely good and quite easy to use at a basic level while supporting more advanced workflows as well. Best color of all the RIPs we've tested as well.

If you were on x10 running a L26500 you would have had problems, x10.1 is required for the L25500/L26500.

 

[Suz]

Switch, thanks for mentioning the Ergosoft Posterprint. How much does that program run anyhow? If you don't mind sharing. If you do mind posting price, I understand, but could you pm me? Thanks so much!

 

[switch]

I got ErgoSoft PosterPrint supporting two printers for around $3k... Hope this helps.

Check it out its so worth it, Your local supplier should be able to give you a trail dongle to test out.