# Best label printer for the buck



## HarryVanderpool (Apr 11, 2005)

Take a look at Primera Technologies.
I think ours is the 800 or 900.
And forget the quote routine.
Buy the best printer you can afford, not the cheapest piece of junk.
Also we use BOP labels.
They don't wrinkle with moisture.


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## BMAC (Jun 23, 2009)

Thanks Harry. If you dont mind me asking, what does it cost per label? I have heard in the past to get a thermal printer but i see this ismamlaser printer. Have you ever used a thermal printer?


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## Tenbears (May 15, 2012)

Are you talking bottle labels, Or shipping labels?


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## bdouglas (Dec 18, 2014)

I recommend that you factor in more than one printer line unless you will be keeping a label inventory. Something will eventually stop working when you need it.


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## BMAC (Jun 23, 2009)

Tenbears said:


> Are you talking bottle labels, Or shipping labels?


bottles.


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## BMAC (Jun 23, 2009)

bdouglas said:


> I recommend that you factor in more than one printer line unless you will be keeping a label inventory. Something will eventually stop working when you need it.


yes a point we have also been considering


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## JRG13 (May 11, 2012)

What is your goal with the labels? If you want to design your own with color, that Primera printer looks top notch. You can also go with a thermal printer if you just want straight black and white, or if you're buying pre-designed labels and just need to add text or barcodes, but you might be better off forking out the extra $1k for that Primera.


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## BMAC (Jun 23, 2009)

We have a thermal printer for creating our barcodes. Im looking for a quality printer that is going to print quality labels. We also already have our labels. We are currently using a crappy printer to make those labels. We are looking to step it up.

There are thermal printers that do color printing. It just seems they are very limited to printing text only or printing in layers.


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## zhiv9 (Aug 3, 2012)

We have a Xerox Phaser series colour laser that I bought at the recommendation of online labels.com that we have been happy with. Apparently they use a wax based toner that adheres better to labels than other toners.


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## Roland (Dec 14, 2008)

I am totally confused. Do you have a label applicator? If so, there are many places that will print quality labels on a roll for you. If you are hand applying, they will still work on the roll. How many different labels? What volume of each are you talking?

Crazy Roland


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## sqkcrk (Dec 10, 2005)

BMAC said:


> We have a thermal printer for creating our barcodes. Im looking for a quality printer that is going to print quality labels. We also already have our labels. We are currently using a crappy printer to make those labels. We are looking to step it up.
> 
> There are thermal printers that do color printing. It just seems they are very limited to printing text only or printing in layers.


Have you talked to a local Print Shop in your area? The one I deal with doesn't actually print the labels I buy from them. They have a catalog that they order labels from.

The 4 per page labels that go on my 5lb jars cost me 54 cents per page, or about 14 cents per label.

Labels for my 2lb jars and others run about 10 cents each.


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## BMAC (Jun 23, 2009)

Roland i do not have a label applicator. We are looking at 3,000 labels a month now with possible growth to around 5,000 a month in the next 6 months. We have 3 main labels we use but label up to 12 different products. Like i stated before we have been talking with local print shops, but i dont want to pay 54 cents a label. Our barcodes cost us approx 2 cents per barcode.


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## sqkcrk (Dec 10, 2005)

Brian,
Dang Son, you are really growing. That new building is too small already.

I have a front label and a bar code label on the back. Were I designing a new label I would make the bar code part of the front label and save some money. Think about it.

You have 3 labels that you use on 12 different products? How does that work? 

Is your bar code a UPC registered bar code number and pattern?


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## Roland (Dec 14, 2008)

If I where you, I would look at a Label-aire 2138. You could buy GOOD color printed labels on a roll, and imprint on a blank field the variable, ie. weight and honey type. 

You are in the middle, too many to do by hand, and not enough to justify a labeler. How do you fill and cap?

Crazy Roland


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## BMAC (Jun 23, 2009)

My wife manages the bottling and labeling. We have a part time 24 hour per week employee and considering bringing that employee on full time at this point. The 3 main labels all look the same but are all 3 different sizes. We considered having the background printed and just thermal printing the variables. Ultimately we are just looking for the best approach to an age old problem.
Mark,
I have considered adding the upc to the front label, however we really like the current art work and dont want to monkey it up. When i stated we have 3 main labels and 12 products what i mean is the high volume is 3 staple products sold. We also sell actually more than 12 different products so we need probably 20 different labels. 

Going back to the variables, yes that makes sense unfortunately we have 4 different sized labels.


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## BMAC (Jun 23, 2009)

Roland what should i expect to pay for a label aire 2138?

Also i didnt mention our fill line. Our fill line is a 42 gallon jacketed bottling tank and a 24 gallon bottling tank all done manually.


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## sqkcrk (Dec 10, 2005)

I had no idea that you were doing that volume of business marketing honey.


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## BMAC (Jun 23, 2009)

We are small but trying to grow and i think we are heading into the correct direction.


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## Roland (Dec 14, 2008)

Please allow me to do some homework so that I may respond with a degree of accuracy.

Crazy Roland


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## BMAC (Jun 23, 2009)

I appreciate it. I youtubed the label aire 2138 and see it being used in conjunction with a conveyor belt. I do not have the infrastructure to support an assembly line. We have been considering a bottler as well. Right now our goal is to economical improve our bottling labeling efficiency. The primera lx900 seems like a good contender. We got our latest quote back last night. Our smallest labels would cost 15 cents a label and our larger labels would cost 20 cents a label. that is too expensive to me. The primera lx900 costs 3k and each ink catridge costs 30 bucks with each 1600 roll ofl label material costs 23 bucks. That would put the cost of my labels at 3.3 cents each. Calculating in the cost of the printer itself with using the latest quote as the baseline roi for the printer itself is 8 months. Pretty fast roi.


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## busybeeapiaries (Apr 9, 2014)

We run and Epson workforce wf-3640. it does a great job on our labels for honey, vinegar, and our mailing ones too. It also has Fax 2 side printing and is WiFi able. We can even print an invoice at the shop when we are away, via internet. Our other company uses a printer for their labels as the volume would be impossible for a single printer.


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## wglord (Nov 23, 2009)

Hey Guys; I contacted Primera today. The LX900 is now $2200. I sent them the artwork for one of my labels and they are going to run it on 2 different label stocks and send it to me as a sample. Good service, and prompt. I need to run the numbers but I think I may be buying a Primera soon. I am not particularly happy with my commercial printer. I had a good one and he went broke. I use probably 10-12K labels a year, maybe 4 different types. I will keep you posted.

BMAC. My advice is buy a semi-automatic bottling machine so you can get the exact amount of honey in each jar. Dadant and Mann Lake sell them. Several brands are available. You are probably giving away enough honey by hand filling to pay for the bottling machine in a year. I just installed one on a small bottling line in the Republic of Georgia. We ran it off a Kelley 80 gallon jacketed tank and it works like a charm.


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## Roland (Dec 14, 2008)

WGlord wrote:

You are probably giving away enough honey by hand filling to pay for the bottling machine in a year

I concur.

On used labeler prices, I am glad I checked before I typed. A few months ago, 4k looked like the going price for used. Today I found for under 1K.

Yes, It is best to get machines that work together. The used labelers I found do not come with a conveyor. It is best to finalize your end configuration BEFORE you buy the first piece, so that they all "share and play well together". When you get this line all setup, and can bottle 2K jars an hour, you will need a bigger tank and pump.

Crazy Roland


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## BMAC (Jun 23, 2009)

Geeze. Now i wish i held off from buying the larger tank. Mi though 42 gallons was pretty good. We have been eyeing up bottlers from mannlake as well but we havent bought it yet. I appreciate the scoop on all this. I also started looking at the semi automatic labeler from primera. Its a flat surface labelers as we are bottling in traditional style queen line jars. The are unsure if their flat labeler will work for the jars but will test it for us. They advertise 500 jars an hour. Honestly if i have a full time employee running that unit to full capacity i would be happy with my current infrastructure. I recon i better get my tig welder out and start welding up some milk lines in my honey house for moving honey.


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## BMAC (Jun 23, 2009)

While setting up a semi automatic bottling what else should i take into consideration? Right now we pump from drums to a maxtant strainer which direct flows to our bottling tanks. Then its hand bottled and labeled and boxed. The size of our bottling room is 8 by 24 feet and doubles as our bottled honey storage. We have two stainless steel tables in the bottling room for work areas.


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## sqkcrk (Dec 10, 2005)

Is that MAXANT Strainer one of their Tank Top Strainers?


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## BMAC (Jun 23, 2009)

No. Double basket type


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## Roland (Dec 14, 2008)

BMAC - sorry, I can not give good suggestions for that low of a volume. I will defer to someone with more knowledge at that level than I. When you want to do 2K jars an hour, let me know. Send me a PM if you want more info on the labelers I found.

Crazy Roland


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## BMAC (Jun 23, 2009)

HarryVanderpool said:


> Take a look at Primera Technologies.
> I think ours is the 800 or 900.
> And forget the quote routine.
> Buy the best printer you can afford, not the cheapest piece of junk.
> ...


So after more research we with with the Primeria LX900. We considered buying their label applicator as well but couldnt get primeria to cooperate very well to test the applicator on honey bottles so we opted to hand label for a while yet until we can find a suitable applicator. I appreciate all the input and the labels that are being produced are top notch labels. We are cery happy with the product. The only down side (isnt there always a downside) is the printer come from primeria with a bad print head. After brief troubleshooting on my part i called their tech support and they confirmed the print head was indeed bad and had a new print head at no charge to our front door in about 5 days. All in all we are so far very happy with the printer.


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## sqkcrk (Dec 10, 2005)

Have you shown us your label yet? If so, I missed it. What does it look like? Please show us.


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## BMAC (Jun 23, 2009)

I cant. In va right now. I will snap a pic and post it when i get home


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