I support 30+ label printers and I think they are fine. For the amount of labels printed, failures are few and far between. Just gotta have users keep up with maintenance.
We have dozens of thermal transfer printers. Most of the problems are alignment issues. I think what makes it more frustrating is that there is no LCD screen on them, just LED indicator lights.
Zebra label printers are amazing. I hate having to fix them when there are issues, but even the “worst” problems can be resolved very quickly with their software or web interface.
I have both Datamax and Zebra label printers here. The Zebras were absolutely built like tanks compared to the Datamax printers. Much easier to use, much more adjustable, much easier to service, and we've had many fewer issues.
>Just gotta have users keep up with maintenance.
*-jams labels in sideways and sticks gum into the gears-* "It's not printing. I have always used it like this, and I've never had a problem before. We really need this to work reliably."
Pretty much this.
I've never seen an end-user put any effort into a label printer to keep everything working. The moment anything seems awry, it's stop working and call a computing tech. No sense of ownership or craftsmanship in the slightest.
In some cases they're probably trying to establish the notion that the label printer is unreliable.
There are a few people that know how to perform the troubleshooting steps I've shown them. They know enough to do basic troubleshooting, then call me in if a printer still doesn't work. It helps me a little bit.
>\-jams labels in sideways and sticks gum into the gears-
>
> "It's not printing. I have always used it like this, and I've never had a problem before. We really need this to work reliably."
Nailed it.
I miss the Reddit rewards/awards. I'd reward the s\*it out of your comment.
One of my favorite moves once our company got big enough to afford it was outsourcing 100% of printer support, troubleshooting, and maintenance to an outside contractor.
We've run PaperCut for the last 4+ years, except at one site. It generally adds a extra step of going to the printer, using a badge to login, and printing documents, forcing locked print mode. It expires and deletes jobs not picked up in X time. It cut out paper use by about 60% at other sites between people never actually picking up printed documents and adding the extra burden, it made people think "Do I really need to print this".
For years I was not allowed to implement it at one of our sites our IT Director was at. The same IT Director that would print a document, sign it, scan it, and email it to people. He was a great boss but that just... why... Anyhoo, he moved up to management, and I'm now top authority for IT. Guess what site got PaperCut and direct printing to printers removed the other week finally?
About 2-3 weeks of grumbles and "this is adding so much time to our workflow" and the grumbles are now dyeing down and I'm seeing about a 35% reduction in week over week printing. So many people printed stuff for stupid reasons only to throw it out. A ton of people use it to "read" documents "because i like the feel" instead of just viewing it on the screen. No longer allowed! :D
One day I'll get us paperless...
Especially when changes are implemented correctly, and explained/documented thoroughly.
Had my CFO implement a new payroll system that went paperless and had a few other benefits. Problem was he only sent out an email or two saying when we were going to change over, the URL, and good luck 👍. Well, essentially, everyone had issues, and it became one of the worst system implementations I've seen. BTW he implemented this new system with the help of HR, and no assistance from IT.
There's also the factor of "our print jobs are now tracked" that cuts a significant amount of printing. No print policies to put in place, just informing employees will do that for you.
My favorite was a place I was at briefly years ago. Their workflow for creating and editing pdfs was to create a document in word, print it, use the scan to pdf-function, loose the word document, print the pdf, use the scan to word function, make the required changes, print it, use the scan to pdf function.
Say that to the person who had his own analogue archive of everything and then the company got hacked and they had to rebuild everything from the scratch.
Yes I'm thinking about Norsk hydro.
Or in law. Everything is paper here. Our case management system, databases, etc. really only exist as digital back-ups for a warehouse full of paper files. Send an email? You have to print it out and add it to the relevant file. Fill out a digital form from our website? It's printed out to add to the file and then scanned back in as a PDF. Every single paper is scanned, digitized, and indexed, but we can't get rid of it because technically only the actual paper document is official from a legal standpoint. We could go paperless tomorrow without a hiccup, but instead we have an entire department whose job it is to scan and sort paper.
My firm outsourced printing years ago, but we go through 30 cases of paper a week… it’s insane. I’m lowly helpdesk, but I thank God daily that I don’t have to troubleshoot printers.
Where I work, the biggest barrier to going paperless is the US government. We are required to provide physical copies of certain forms/documents on site.
I have a couple clients that “need” paper cause there’s not a better way to get work orders to the guys on the forklift or trucks. If you give them anything, it WILL get run over by a forklift sooner or later.
I did blow there mind when I told them “We have 4 pieces of paper in our building.“
Sorry, it seems this comment or thread has violated a sub-reddit rule and has been removed by a moderator.
**Inappropriate use of, or expectation of the Community.**
* Avoid low-quality posts. Make an effort to enrich the community where you can- provide details, context, opinions, etc. in your posts.
* Moronic Monday & Thickheaded Thursday are available for simple questions, or other requests that don't need their own full thread. Utilize them as much as possible.
-----
*If you wish to appeal this action please don't hesitate to [message the moderation team](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%2Fr%2Fsysadmin).*
I've only ever met one printer that I liked.
But then he sold his shop and moved to Texas.
As for the actual hardware... The old laserjet 4 was a kick ass unit. They haven't made them in decades but I think there's still a few floating around in use.
Printers have very much been in a race to the bottom for longer than the Internet has been commonplace.
I used to work as a MSP printer tech. You get good ones and bad ones. Some fall over as soon as someone opens a tray. HP LJ 4000 series just keep going, as long as you do the maintenance and change the swing plate every few years. Seriously, some of those are 25 years old.
We have HP LJ's for the main printing, and then for our labels we have Datamax O'Neil E-Class Mark III printers. There are way too many moving parts (i.e., sensors), which makes fixing an issue worse. We're transitioning away from Datamax to another brand as each Datamax unit breaks down.
SATO is our replacement for Datamax. Pallets and warehouse and mobile trailer all around for DMO. Dirty environments. Even production lanes for print and apply all A class replaced by EVOlabel. No problems moving away from them.
dude, DYMO label printers are the bane of my existence. Can't tell you how many of these POS's we have gone through because one day they just randomly stop printing and through up a generic "Printer error" when you go to print. No paper jams, no nothing, took apart the printer, cleaned it, reinstalled drivers, and always one side (we usually use dual ones) just for whatever reason stops printing
Oddly enough, label printers have given me the least grief. Of about 25, there are about 5 that are 5 years or older, and a couple that are 10 or more. Quality print media helped. They mostly run in three warehouse factories, and in winter when cold and wet they occasionally dip below minimum operating temperature. I told the factory foreman to give them all a warm hug or a mug of cocoa before using them. I kid you not, I literally hugged one and breathed on the printhead and boom, happy printer.
That can also be because they don't have as much features as MFP. Nowadays, MFPs have to do so much, they embark on so many layers of firmware, apps, bloated configurations and so on, they're included in a lot of things (like print on demand solutions), they're a lot more subject to myriads of failures.
I selected and deployed a dozen Zebra label printers (thermal) about 4 years ago and they refuse to quit or die.
These things easily print tens of thousands of labels per month and are installed in harsh environments (high heat/ dust manufacturing areas).
Probably one of the best hardware decisions I’ve ever made.
What type of labels are you printing. We print \~5K direct thermal a day and our Zebra ZT230s and Zebra ZT410s last forever. Pain in the ass to setup, but they are solid once setup right.
They're a high density polyethylene type of material. We print thousands of tags per day (unsure exactly how many) using mostly Datamax O'Neil E-Class Mark III units, but are transitioning to a different brand as each printer breaks down.
These Datamax's don't have a status LCD screen, but instead have LED indicator lights which are not helpful one bit.
Yea, looks like a Zebra ZT230 or ZD420 could replace that. I'm partial to the "industrial" printers because they last longer, so if you have the space a ZT series would be better. Our ZD printers do last a long time, but they don't see the volume the ZTs see.
Damn. I just checked what is probably our most used printer, 1,174,983 labels printed. 4x6 direct thermal. I don't even think we replaced the print head in it.
So you buy their product and support. Already having a nightmare with a printer, are you going to want to factor in a third party cartridge or ink for a bit of savings and possibly the headache of having to deal with it? Or are you going to buy the official product so you can get support, which you also bought with the printer.
Printers in general, yes, fucking awful. Need a contract with a proper printer manufacturer or else pain for the whole of IT.
Second most painful = docking stations. Management think they should be £15-20 each. Yes if you want something unreliable, incompatible, and likely to simply die at any moment...
I used to work at a printer manufacturer 25 years ago and people were taking the piss going on about paperless office.
25 years later, corporate print is STILL a fucking nightmare & luckily I'm out of support but jesus if another user ever says "well I can just click print on my one at home and everything just works " I'll genuinely stab them.
Also.....why are the colours different on my screen to the print out
Kind of the same here. But I questioned my users after they complained about the new MFP failing to feed separate sheets into the scanner at a time.
Then they told me they had to organise a files for a specific case for lawyers and courts. Because their specific software doesn’t support that yet in digital form, they print the documents. And then they sort them and scan like 90 pages again.
I can understand the issues , if you have to do that and the MFP doesn’t scan about ten percent of the pages, because it’s failing to separate.
We got them a digital tool that allows them to separate and sort pages in the document manager so that they no longer need to print and rescan. It was already a part of the management tool they were using, just had to show them how it works!
Used to work for a company with Zebra printers in shipping... they kept buying printers that were rated for 10.000/year and complained that they broke on a regular basis. After having a look, I saw they each printed about 12.000 per month... There was no more complaining to I.T. after that.
I hate printers - especially MFPs and users who think they can slam and be rough with feeders...
I will say though, our Toshiba label printers have been rock solid for 10 years - a few issues with their drivers because they try to be smart and share settings over the network - but I think all I've needed to replace has been a spool due to one of the clamps failing.
Seriously, the whole IT ecosystem thinks "ooooh this is the first time we've ever seen a printer and tried to print isn't it?" every single time a user tries to print anything anytime.
79 Comments
_haha_oh_wow_@reddit
thefudd@reddit
rxtc@reddit (OP)
thefudd@reddit
Ballaholic09@reddit
Far_Brilliant_3419@reddit
mc_it@reddit
cawfee@reddit
pdp10@reddit
rxtc@reddit (OP)
rxtc@reddit (OP)
yParticle@reddit
rxtc@reddit (OP)
woodburyman@reddit
TuxAndrew@reddit
TheFuckYouThank@reddit
moonzdragoon@reddit
Unexpected_Cranberry@reddit
Bokorm_@reddit
Arudinne@reddit
ZipTheZipper@reddit
XTI_duck@reddit
Bagellord@reddit
ITMANAGERIT@reddit
yParticle@reddit
DheeradjS@reddit
Zerafiall@reddit
DheeradjS@reddit
NO_SPACE_B4_COMMA@reddit
matthewstinar@reddit
RevLoveJoy@reddit
VA_Network_Nerd@reddit
kagato87@reddit
Reconlowe@reddit
Bokorm_@reddit
Hobbit_Hardcase@reddit
rxtc@reddit (OP)
mattjoo@reddit
StefanMcL-Pulseway2@reddit
realhawker77@reddit
voltagejim@reddit
snakemartini@reddit
moonzdragoon@reddit
YouCanDoItHot@reddit
Sid_Engel@reddit
Ape_Escape_Economy@reddit
rxtc@reddit (OP)
Retarded-Bomb@reddit
baseballgrow6@reddit
Xidium426@reddit
rxtc@reddit (OP)
Xidium426@reddit
rxtc@reddit (OP)
Xidium426@reddit
Dollarbill1210@reddit
MasteroftheFirst@reddit
jekksy@reddit
pantherghast@reddit
manmalak@reddit
ZonaiSysadmin@reddit
Bradddtheimpaler@reddit
xstrex@reddit
saladnicoise@reddit
dtb1987@reddit
AlbaTejas@reddit
jptechjunkie@reddit
Ghazzz@reddit
Scary-Jury1059@reddit
StaffOfDoom@reddit
bkaiser85@reddit
StaffOfDoom@reddit
knightblood01@reddit
pdp10@reddit
Ostendenoare@reddit
capn_doofwaffle@reddit
ddmf@reddit
truedoom@reddit
failinglikefalling@reddit
rxtc@reddit (OP)