After a long time trying to decide which labeling machine to buy, we finally settled on Brother. Although initially I was trying to be very objective about comparing costs and such, in the end we still went with Brother instead of Dymo (those were the two choices at Popular book store). I thought Brother was a more reputable, and they have been in the printing business for some time. Dymo may have been in the labeling business for a long time too, but my impression of them was with embossed labeling tapes.
Just to quickly apprise those who are here to know more about the Brother labeling machines. There are basically two ranges: Those that work on thermal tape (M Tape), and those that work on laminated tapes (TZ Tape). The TZ tape is better. The machines that take the TZ tapes don’t seem to differ by that much. Perhaps the main difference is really about the maximum tape width they take. I decided to buy the lowest end PT-1010 machine. It still takes tapes of 3.5mm, 6mm, 9mm and 12mm, which is about all the sizes that are typically needed anyway.
My suggestion is that the higher end models aren’t really useful. Just go for the basic. The PT-1010 is designed to be held in one hand, and it has a nice rubbery hand grip.
There’s something interesting about the packaging that the PT-1010 came in. You know how it is that many products nowadays come in the kind of transparent plastic packaging that you just cannot open with bare hands? The kind that you really have to have a pair of scissors or a pen knife to open?
Well, this Brother labeling machine came in that kind of packaging, but it has a tear off tab which you can easily tear off to open the packaging. It’s really convenient. I just wonder why I haven’t seen any other packaging like this.
Like all the other labeling machine, the PT-1010 came with a 5m sample tape. Now a little word about tape cost. The Dymo tapes costs about $11 for 4m. The Brother TZ tapes costs like $25 for 8m. So, you can see that the operating costs of the Dymo machine ought to be cheaper. (Yeah so logically I should have bought Dymo, but I think the Brother reputation won out over the little price premium.)
Incidentally, if you noticed, many labeling machines seem to leave some empty space before and after the printed text, wasting some precious tape as a result. The PT-1010 can be configured to reduce the space. But it seems to apply only to the space after the text, not before (or at least I’ve not yet figured that out). I don’t know how other labeling machines compare. But I suppose this could be one important consideration when it comes to saving the tapes.
Hi Zit Seng,
How do you like your label maker? I was choosing between the Brother P-Touch 1010 and an inexpensive Dymo. (The Dymo line is ubiquitous here in the UK and in fact it was invented by a Cambridge company).
Actually, I tried to buy the 1010 on an online web site but the web site claimed the model had become discontinued. I am assuming the TZ tape is a widely used standard and will not also become discontinued …
Bruce Lin
Cambridge, UK
Hi Bruce,
The Dymo label makers are pretty common here in Singapore too, and cheaper. But you know how it is, some times you buy something for some other reason that are not so logically explained. 🙂 The Brother label maker has worked well for me so far. I wished it would not waste so much tape around the left/right borders, and I’m not sure how the Dymo compares in this respect. I think it will be some time before I can really tell if the TZ tapes (yes the TZ tapes are pretty standard, used across many other Brother label makers) are really hardy. They are supposed to stand up to outdoor use too, exposed to water and heat.