Review: P-Touch PT-1880 Label Maker

[swanicyouth]

This isn't your normal review. First, I love labels and bottles. I don't know why, I just do. I'm sure most people couldn't care less about labels and bottles, so if this is you, you may want to stop now and go onto something else. I've been wanting a label maker for a while. One important thing for me was, it had to make laminated labels, as I knew paper labels were going to look like crap the first time they got wet.

I saw this machine at Costco as a kit:



It came with 2 size labels 12mm (0.47") and 18mm(0.7") - both laminated. This is important, as from what I understand, some of the cheaper machines do not work with laminated labels. Total cost $27.99

(Larger labels inside machine)





Brother says their laminated labels can withstand grease, grime, fading, abrasion, and hot & cold.



First, when I opened this thing and took a look at the instructions, I felt like throwing it in the garbage:



( yes, that's all in English)

As, all I want to do is print some labels, and the instructions reminded me of a medication package insert from work.
However, once I got down to it, I realized 90% of what you need to change comes down to 1 button - the "Fn" button (function)



The Fn button allows you to change your font width, style, format, size, and a few other things. At first, this doesn't seem important, as you want to set it and forget it.

However, it does become critical. You don't want your "Blackfire Gloss Enhancing Polish" label font or spacing to be the same size as your "ONR" font size. If it is, the BF GEP label could end up 8" - that would be a waste. You want to taylor your label to the amount of characters and the size of the bottle you will be working with.

The machine has the ability to do a lot of symbols



And characters



Also you can frame your text in different ways



And has two font styles:



Using the machines menus kind of will remind you of the software old cell phones used to have when the screens were still black and white. Basically, there is a menu with choices, you hit "Ok", and this takes you to another menu with choices. The small screen is black and white.



The machine takes 6 AA batteries (Duracell supplied with Costco kit). Also, you can purchase and use various sizes of tape and colors of tape and font to use with it. The "cassette" holds the label tape and whatever serves as the "printing ink". So if you want red tape with white font - you would look for that cartridge.

This will show you what I mean:





This seems pretty nice, as who wants to buy a print cartridge and tape - they may all work this way though, I don't know. I'm not sure how much label tape comes in a cartridge, but it seems like a fair amount.

Brother also makes label tape for various uses, including: extra strength adhesive, iron on, flexible , acid free (for photos or scrap books), tamper evident, and a host of other styles.

Another nice feature is the machine can do two line text. So you can make:

Blackfire Wet Diamond

into

Blackfire
Wet Diamond

For labels that would be too long.

After using my Apple IMac and IPhone 5 the software seems very "old fashioned". However, this isn't a negative at all. It's very simple and serves the purpose well. It also reminds me of an old word processor, if anyone has used one of those. The machine also has a "preview mode" so you can see how long (actual measurement) your label will be. However, the screen doesn't change the text for things like bold, 2 line use, italics, etc... It just prints out the way you set it.

Ok, so here is the important part, how does it work? It works flawlessly so far. The labels seem pretty professional and high quality looking and the adhesive seems pretty strong. This is pretty much exactly what I was looking for. Brother (the manufacturer) also sells an AC adapter for the machine, but I can't see me getting that.

Most of my bottles already had a collection of crappy home made labels on them. Some where easy to remove, some where pretty time consuming to remove. When I do something like remove a label, I have to get all trace of the label and the glue that held it off. Once I start doing this, I can't stop until the bottle is 100% clean.



The above combo (or substituting Goo Gone for the Griots Adhesive Remover) is my "go to" for removing labels. First I warm them with the heat gun, then the usually will peel off fairly easy. After that, I remove the adhesive with the Griots Adhesive Remover, and remove that (and clean the bottle) with 70% IPA. This system has enabled me to remove labels and glue 100% from every bottle I've tried.

Also, if the bottle is empty, a quick trick is to clean it thoroughly then fill it with hot water. After that, microwave it for 30-45 seconds. Labels usually will come off the hot bottle perfectly and can often even be used to label another bottle (see Pinnacle Waterless Wash below)

This sometimes comes in handy, as some bottles are just too good to throw out:

Griots bottle turned into a Distilled Water bottle with Auto Geek sprayer:



IPA 70% bottle turned into tap water bottle with Mothers spray head:



Chemical Guys shampoo bottle turned into Grime Reaper (1:5 dilution) spray bottle with Chemical Guys spray head:



DP Wheel Cleaner bottle turned into Pinnacle Waterless Wash bottle (mixed) , with label donor bottle to the right:



Wolfgang Spritz Sealant Sample bottle turned into a Pinnacle Glass Cleaner with Rain Repellent bottle for the glove box:



Well, onto some of the labels:

[Gurge]

great thinking outside the box review! thanks for posting.

I use my P-touch all the time for labeling detailing stuff. Its an old unit though withouth the font and color options you have there. Good to know whats out there if I want to upgrade

[swanicyouth]

Thanks! Didn't know if anyone would care about this or not.

I just removed another label to use this gallon bottle for tap water. The heat gun really works well at this. You can see, the label could be used in another bottle if I wanted to:

[SON1C]

awesome review and writeup!
must..not..spend..more money on detailing items or items related lol

[TroyScherer]

We have one of these at work...


I may have to bring it home with me one day.

[Johny B]

Thanks for the review. Going to Costco tomorrow.

[Infiniti]

I will be at Costco tomorrow also. I wanted to get the bissell spot clean pro since it is on deal. I will also be getting this to replace my Sharpie. Thanks for the review.

[RMM]

...
This will show you what I mean:


...

That kind of terminology wasn't very well thought out...

I have a very similar machine, but it is from a brand called DYMO.

As always, thank you very much for taking the time to make such a thorough review!

[rlloyd]

I've used these for years in the IT field labeling servers and cables etc. I found that the labels do come off. Look for Strong Adhesive labels. They can even go through the dishwasher and not come off.

For any of you detailing business guys that want to go high tech you can print a bar code and scan the products as you use them for invoicing & inventory control. But maybe that's the IT guy in me...

Rob

[PurpleTowel]

Zombie thread...


Been waiting patiently for all of the tapes and printer to arrive so that I could OCD label all of my bottles and jars, and it all finally wound up in the same place at the same time.

My wife made fun of me last night as I stood out in the garage in a rainstorm labeling all of my "frankenstein chemicals."

Turned out pretty nicely. The P-Touch 1880 is a great little machine for $20 and some eBay tapes.