This thread got me looking at these industrial labelers that offer the heat shrink tubes. I’ve used typical home use labelers for cabling in the house, shop and garage and it’s futile. The adhesive wasn’t designed for this, the ink fades and I’m redoing them every 5 years or whenever I touch that wiring again. I’m tired of it.
In addition to the Rhino and Brady, it seems like Epson also offers a few models (perhaps rebranded K Sun products). They don’t have the variety of label options that Brady offers, but they have the heat shrink tubes, magnetic labels, standard labels with hopefully better adhesive than what I have been using and their labelers have a qwerty keyboard, which is the one thing that really bugs me with the Brady products. You can get them with Brady...in a MUCH more expensive and heavier unit. I’m not interested in those models. I don’t know what genius decided a non QWERTY keyboard was a good idea. Back to the Epson, they are the only one that gives you an adjustable margin as little as 1mm from the print to conserve the tape. Nobody else gives you that and you’ll find some reviews complaining about excessive wasted tape (which is expensive across the board, but particularly with the Brady).
In terms of quality, the Rhino seems to have a few bad reviews on Amazon, including one stating Dymo won’t economically service the industrial labelers out of warranty which is the shortest out of the three I think. Brady comes with a longer 2 year warranty and seems to be pretty reliable...intended for industrial use. The Epson’s are devoid of feedback that I can find but do come with a lifetime warranty if you’re buying from an authorized seller. These products are $200-300 for their entry level products, so not disposable like a $50 home labeler, so the build quality matters to me.
So, does anyone have any feedback on the Epson’s? I’m thinking of getting that or the Brady (if I decide the other label options are really worth it).
