Printer recommendation. Not VG540

I have 2 Mutoh printers. The valuejet 1204 and it have been an amazing work horse. The other one is a 1638uh and it has been problem after problem for the last 4 and a half months and 5 service calls later it seems to be working correctly. (It has been only 4 days so far).
Hope this helps

 

S80600 owner of 18 months here... cannot fault the machine other than it printing too fast sometimes. We sometimes have to increase the pass count just so it dries fully before going onto the takeup roller. 8 pass is 99% of our jobs these days.
Print quality is outstanding in every mode, whether it's 4 pass or 12. Gamut is ridiculously large, you can hit Pantone 021C even at 6 pass. We only get banding if several nozzles are clogged which isn't often at all, and a clean takes <5 mins.
It's efficient on inks, and they dry very quickly... they do smell a bit though. Not a machine for an enclosed space, despite there being air filters in board.
Pairs well with a Graphtec FC8600-160.

 

Mimaki JV300 1600 wide, brilliant printer with the s21 ink set which includes orange, light grey, light magenta and light cyan. well built no banding issues etc print quality is incredible. We have had ours just over 2 years on a package deal with a 1600 plotter no regrets and price is competitive with the Roland range

 

I run 3 x Mutoh 1624 on UMS ink, they are simply great.

 

I'm using the Stratojet Hawk E72. It uses an Eco solvent. 72" wide with no problem.

 

If would be ideal if you could watch them doff & don a roll of material you're familiar with, watch them print a nozzle check and then their quality evaluation file from Onyx. Get to know that image.

 

The 1638 went down again. Mutoh is replacing the machine with a brand new one this week.

 

There is a member on here named Bly from DownUnder. He has owned Roland, HP latex and also Epson.
He could probably give you the best feedback on printers.

 

We are very happy with our HP L360. A buddy of mine just picked up his 2nd muttoh and has nothing but good things to say about those also. We both have our printers paired with Graphtec plotters and its a great combo for both shops.

 

I have owned a Mutoh Valuejet for a lotta years but if I was going to buy a new printer it would be an Epson. Saw the output from an Epson at a trade show and it really prints nice. They worked out that problem with the oranges fading with the newer inks. Also have owned a Graphtec plotter in the past and now own a Summa, and Summa is a better machine.
Also use Shariz RIP which is superior to the Flexi RIP that comes with a Mutoh.

 

Johnny Best is right.

The Mimaki and Mutohs are running old head technology which has provided a lot of issues for users especially in the form of unequal pressure inside the heads. Go look at the face of the print head on the S40,60,80 and you will see each color is segregated like the old Roland SP/VP/XC which is how it should be because each ink color interacts with the head differently. When you bulk all the channels together with one cap you will be throwing ink away to clear 1 channel like on the Mimaki/Mutoh machines. Now the new Roland SG/VG printers are going back to the head formation of the SP/VP/XC where the print heads are separated but then they are easily not able to be aligned. Epson made 1 head but separated the channels inside that one head one color one cap top. Look at the test prints too the prints are just better.

 

HP L365. no point of looking at anything else.

 

HP Latex user here, if I was buying a new machine, I'd be getting the Epson wide format, without hesitation.

 

I have 6 HP's ranging from Flatbeds to L350's and L315
no issues

 

Wouldn't it still be the same unless it had a separate pump or solenoid valve for each captop?

 

The Epson definitely allows you to perform maintenance on a single channel.
I did it last week out of curiousity as I had never seen that menu option before.
It prints a test pattern then asks you select which channel you want to clean independently.