You read one place like roland that gives you a cost comparison to the latex and eco ink and the eco is better and cheaper in long term scale. Then another brand will give u another comparison yet since thier printer is a latex it comes out with better numbers.
That is their marketing groups at work in each case. They are going to each spin their version of reality to their product's advantage.
That does not mean that everything is subjective. Everyone has their experience and opinions, and I am certainly no exception. And since you asked...
You are no longer a brand new user, and you have extensive experience with ownership of a solvent printer. What no one can dispute is that there are a lot of resources (in both time and money) that will be put into the maintenance of any solvent printer over it's lifespan of 5+ years. You learned that lesson (the hard way) with your Mutoh. The reality is that all solvent printers, across all models, are a lot more similar than different from each other in terms of maintenance patterns. Cleaning solution, swabs, wipers, captops, maintenance stations, pumps, dampers, and sometimes printheads, etc are all replaced by the user over time.
The HP Latex user experience (from a maintenance perspective) is the direct opposite. There is literally no scheduled maintenance with the HP Latex machines. The printer is much more self-aware, and thus self-maintaining. On those occasions where it needs something from the user, it will alert the operator via the printer's control panel. And those occasions are typically a handful of times in a year, depending on print volume. The HP Latex machines can sit for an extended period (in sleep mode for weeks) without manual intervention or cleaning, and produce a sell-able print on demand. When a printhead fails, and they will, it is a 10 minute procedure to get back into production. The only other consumables are ink carts and a maintenance cartridge. All are simple and quick (< 10 minutes) to replace, and the printer alerts the user when to do so.
The other key area where the HP Latex (specifically the 360 and 370) is different from any solvent printer is that the Latex machines are able to generate a complete media profile on-board the printer, without the need for any external measurement devices. This has been done to make the profiling process much easier and faster for the average user of the printer. There is no question that HP has succeeded at achieving that goal. On opaque medias (vinyls, banner, film, paper etc), a complete media profile can be completed in well less than one hour of machine time (and with only perhaps 15 minutes of user time). Color management consultants can and will argue and debate about the quality of the resulting media profile, and that is a valid discussion, but no one (with any credibility) would argue that the resulting custom profile is inferior to the use of a canned (pre-built) media profile. And the reality is that most users are using canned profiles.
These are not subjective opinions. Do your own research, there are a lot of resources out there. And don't forget the important role that the reseller plays in this. They are the first line of support with setup and training for any machine. Good luck and happy printing.
