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[Daniel Levi]

I've always been a fan of the Brady BMP21-PLUS for portable labelling. It'll do the self-laminating wire-wrap labels, as well as patch panel labels. You can also get heat-shrink tubing for it. Easily held in one hand. Never been a fan of the Brother labeler; their labels just didn't seem to last.  Though that PT-E550W looks nice. And I see that they now make a self-laminating label as well. Might be worth another look. Still a little hesitant; the label tape price is almost half of what Brady's is, and I suspect there's a 'quality' reason for that.

I've had no issues with the quality of the Brother machines or the labels, including the compatible ones.
Plus Brother have had self-laminating labels for years, I had a cheapo machine in ~2006 that had laminated tapes and I believe that is standard for any machine that takes TZ(e) tape, and they have been making them for ever.
Luckily I got my D600 for about £60 which was a bargain, though the desktop design and massive blow-moulded case might make it less practical for some uses.

[Jonathan Kok]

I've had no issues with the quality of the Brother machines or the labels, including the compatible ones.
Plus Brother have had self-laminating labels for years, I had a cheapo machine in ~2006 that had laminated tapes and I believe that is standard for any machine that takes TZ(e) tape, and they have been making them for ever.
Luckily I got my D600 for about £60 which was a bargain, though the desktop design and massive blow-moulded case might make it less practical for some uses.

By 'Self Laminating', I mean, part of the label is white, and part of the label is clear. The clear portion wraps around the white portion. I saw a press release dated October 2020 that says they were releasing them as a new product?

[Debbie Dunkley]

I love Brother brand in printers and so I got a Brother label maker a few years ago. However, I hated it for 2 reasons - it would jam pretty often but the biggest issue for me was that it ATE through batteries!!. It seemed even when it was not being used, it drew power and the only way I could stop it was to pull out a battery after use. That got old real quick so I went back to Dymo and no issues since....
However, I still love my Brother network printers.....

[Daniel Levi]

I love Brother brand in printers and so I got a Brother label maker a few years ago. However, I hated it for 2 reasons - it would jam pretty often but the biggest issue for me was that it ATE through batteries!!. It seemed even when it was not being used, it drew power and the only way I could stop it was to pull out a battery after use. That got old real quick so I went back to Dymo and no issues since....
However, I still love my Brother network printers.....

Strange, my larger machine lasts quite long on batteries and it's not used all that often, it does have one annoyance that if you try to do too many rows of text on the machine it slows right down.

And yes as for Brother normal printers I heve a MFC-L8690CDW here, the bottom in the range but it will un-officially take the largest 9K cartridges and as it uses a mechanical method to work out cartridge life, cartridge life can be reset so if you want to you can drain a cartridge near compleatly. £40 will get you a full set of compatible cartridges on eBay.
Also like the fact the ADF has an extra scanner head in it so both sides of a paper can be scanned at the same time, without the ADF having to flip the page, speeding up double-sided scanning/copying no end.   
I also have one of their smaller address labellers, which can not only take thermal paper address labels but continuious strips and mini CD labels.

Latly as for self laminating labels, the ones I use have a sticky backing of whatever colour you've chosen and a clear top which has the text printed using thermal transfer on the back and is adhered automatically to the backing strip. Though looking at a video on the Brother pro range of labels it would appear that the self-laminating tapes have an extra bit of clear tape that is used to wrap the label around the wire.

[Steve-White]

Dymo Rhino 5200 gets it done.

[Hal Bissinger/COMSYSTEC]

Dymo Rhino 5200 gets it done.

I have a Dymo Rhino 8000. Worked great until the "power" cutter jammed and stopped working. No way anybody is going to take it apart and fix it.  I understand that was a common problem with the 8000 so it was discontinued.


The 5200 still has the manual lever cutter, which is good, but it won't take the 1" wide tape and doesn't have the features the 8000 did. It looks like the 8000 has been replaced with the 6000x (which replaces the 6000)  . It is supposed to have an "improved" power cutter.


Dunno, but I have no problem moving a cutoff lever with my thumb.


-Hal

[Mark Norgren]

I just bought a Rhino 6000 and it seems to be working great!  Mine has the power cutter and now I'm hoping I don't have any issues with it??

[Daniel Levi]

The power cutter is quite handy on my brother as it's not only great when you are doing multiple labels at once (either multiple copies of the same label or doing mail merge labels) but it also automatically cuts of the extra bit of label when doing small margin labels.

[Nathan Riddle]

I've always been a fan of the Brady BMP21-PLUS for portable labelling. It'll do the self-laminating wire-wrap labels, as well as patch panel labels. You can also get heat-shrink tubing for it. Easily held in one hand. Never been a fan of the Brother labeler; their labels just didn't seem to last.  Though that PT-E550W looks nice. And I see that they now make a self-laminating label as well. Might be worth another look. Still a little hesitant; the label tape price is almost half of what Brady's is, and I suspect there's a 'quality' reason for that.

By 'Self Laminating', I mean, part of the label is white, and part of the label is clear. The clear portion wraps around the white portion. I saw a press release dated October 2020 that says they were releasing them as a new product?

Your understanding is correct on both accounts.

I have a Brother PT-E550W and I love it for making patch panel & general labeling (QWERTY is awesome).

That said, the self laminating label (TZESL251) either didn't exist, is hard to find, super expensive, or doesn't work as you would expect.

The standard laminated labels (TZE-251) have all fallen off or smudge quickly.
The 'strong adhesive' labels (HGE-S251) are more expensive and stick better, but still don't self laminate.

Lastly, (anecdotal evidence inbound) some keys on the keymat on my (2017) PT-E550W stopped working, I cleaned it and still have an issue so it must be the daughterboard, support is still an unknown quantity. I'd say dismal at best (but most support is these days).

---

I am going to replace my Brother PT-E550W with a Brady M210 or BMP41 after using some a fellow integrator crew used.
-higher quality glue
-self laminating
-size
-magnet attachment
-durability

I hate the 'ABCD' M210 (& former BMP21-PLUS) so am heavily considering the BMP41 for QWERTY.

[Jonathan Kok]

Your understanding is correct on both accounts.

I have a Brother PT-E550W and I love it for making patch panel & general labeling (QWERTY is awesome).

That said, the self laminating label (TZESL251) either didn't exist, is hard to find, super expensive, or doesn't work as you would expect.

The standard laminated labels (TZE-251) have all fallen off or smudge quickly.
The 'strong adhesive' labels (HGE-S251) are more expensive and stick better, but still don't self laminate.

Lastly, (anecdotal evidence inbound) some keys on the keymat on my (2017) PT-E550W stopped working, I cleaned it and still have an issue so it must be the daughterboard, support is still an unknown quantity. I'd say dismal at best (but most support is these days).

---

I am going to replace my Brother PT-E550W with a Brady M210 or BMP41 after using some a fellow integrator crew used.
-higher quality glue
-self laminating
-size
-magnet attachment
-durability

I hate the 'ABCD' M210 (& former BMP21-PLUS) so am heavily considering the BMP41 for QWERTY.

The one thing I'd note is that the Rechargeable battery in the BMP21-PLUS must be removed to charge it - you can't charge it while it's in the device. Odd choice, that. The unit comes with one power cable, so if the battery dies, you can either use the device plugged into the wall, or charge the battery, but not both. That being said, the battery life is very, very long. Don't know how the BMP41 or M210 work.

[ProSoundWeb Community]