# Anatol vs M&R



## AxisNorm (Sep 9, 2008)

Hi! We are looking to get our first auto. Looking at the Diamond back vs Anatol Horizon Mini. Both look great and seem to run well a the product demos. M&R seems to have the market cornered but the Anatol has the really cool Q-Runner flash unit that allows you to print and flash on the same head. Anybody have any advice? Maintenance? Set up speed? We run smaller jobs, typically 50+ pieces so would set up many times a day.
Thank you!!


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## out da box (May 1, 2007)

Can you get to a shop that has one so you can see it up close? We have a Diamonback and we're doing 1000pcs 3 color front and back on black tees as we speak. I have had to call M&R one time since we've had it and that was because a sensor wire came loose, I had to plug it back in. That's it! It runs like the day we got it after 32k prints.


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## Tj Ryonet Tech (Jul 28, 2008)

M&R is definitely the way to go. Check their flashes too. They have several that are cool for automatics.


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## espeinc (Aug 30, 2008)

M&R - Blindfolded 
No question about it


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## spreadingink (Feb 10, 2008)

I'll give a dissenting point of view we own two Anatol autos -have had great customer service, rarely needed any service with either of them and they are great machines for far less than M&R presses in general. That said I don't have a horizon or diamond back I have a Stratus II and a Trident, one is a 12 color press, four years old with 520K impressions on it and the other is a 8 color jumbo/all over press bought earlier this year with over 60K impressions on it.

Feel free to give me a call if you like - I love these presses. Don't get me wrong M&R makes a good product, but they really aren't the only game in town.

Dave


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## AxisNorm (Sep 9, 2008)

Wow! Thanks everybody! We've seen both in action but wondering on a daily basis, which is faster for set up and tear down. Both run far faster than we can handle at the moment anyways . 
Do any of you use a tri-lock or other preregistration system? They are trying to sell me on that too.

The one reason we like the Anatol is the Qrunner flash. It comes in, flashed, the shuttles out so you don't loose a colour. We are limited to a 7 colour so don't want to be down to 5 with two flashes on the heads.
Thanks again for any feedback!


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## out da box (May 1, 2007)

You don't need a tri-lok to do fast set-ups, but it would help. 
The in head flash is a nice feature.
You can't go wrong with either one.


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## AxisNorm (Sep 9, 2008)

Thanks again. Do you have two Reno shuttle flashes in place? That is the recommendation but I'm wondering if we get one in place and one Chili so we can move it around and completely remove it so we can have the print head back for more print colours.


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## out da box (May 1, 2007)

2 is better than 1. We have 1 reno flash- in head. I rarely move it out of #2.


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## bok (Mar 17, 2007)

M&R is way to go, and think about sportsman instead diamond. 
I have Sportsman 6/8 and 12/14 and I'm happy we can do everything.


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## AxisNorm (Sep 9, 2008)

Thanks for that. THey have a 6/8 sportsman but we are planning on running with just one operator loading and unloading so we wanted that extra head for a print head. With the 6 colour, two flashes you're down to 4 colours. If one is the white under, then just three colours right? 
The guy said you can run it around on some cycle to use one flash twice but that sounds like a lot of spinning for no reason...
We don't have the funds to get a 12 colour unfortunately! Do I understand it right with the # of colours printable?
Thanks again!!


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## out da box (May 1, 2007)

Do you really need 2 flashes? You seem insistent on that point. MAybe if you had a 10 color or better, but.....


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## Rob (Oct 28, 2006)

bok said:


> M&R is way to go, and think about sportsman instead diamond.
> I have Sportsman 6/8 and 12/14 and I'm happy we can do everything.


 I am buying a machine also, why would you say sportsman over diamond, what specific reasons would you suggest to justify the extra costs?


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## espeinc (Aug 30, 2008)

Rob said:


> I am buying a machine also, why would you say sportsman over diamond, what specific reasons would you suggest to justify the extra costs?


You may also want to look for a Gauntlet II
You've got to figure out if you are better with a servo driven machine instead of a Air driven machine
Servos are much easier to manage and have better performance IMO... obviously that is more $$


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## out da box (May 1, 2007)

Yeah, but you're talking double or more the cost. Most people with their first machine are pinching just to get in the door. MOST people anyway.


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## AxisNorm (Sep 9, 2008)

Hi Ridgely. I keep saying two flashes because that's what the sales guy recommend.  I guess for darks, white in head one, then flash in head two, then colours and a flash half way around is the theory. Are you able to do wet on wet all the time? With our manual, it is so easy just to spin around and around to do the flashes as needed... are you able to work it with just one flash?

Yeah, price wise, we're stuck at all Air for sure... next machine!


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## out da box (May 1, 2007)

I'm doing a 5 color on black with a white underbase right now. 1 flash. With 6-7 colors you barely have room for 1 flash, 2 is overkill. You can print wet on wet after the initial flash. You can always use the revolver program if you need to spin it around a coupe times. Really it's not that bad, you'll still be printing WAAAYYY more than on a manual, even if you spin every shirt around twice.


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## AxisNorm (Sep 9, 2008)

Done! Thanks very much for all your feedback. We're going M&R, one flash. 

NICE PRINT! I bet they are selling like hot cakes.


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## Blue Moose Tees (Aug 28, 2008)

The difference between M&R and Anatol - M&R's electronics, and most of all their parts can be purchased just about anywhere, Anatols cant. In otherwords if the electronic brains of your Anatol press burn up, malfunction, quit working etc: And you call Anatol for the new part - if they have gone out of business you will be left with a machine you cannot fix, they make all of their own electronics and what nots. With M&R you will allways be able to replace anything - most things you can buy from Grainger - M&R buys all of their electronics and what nots from other manufacturers...


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## bok (Mar 17, 2007)

Rob said:


> I am buying a machine also, why would you say sportsman over diamond, what specific reasons would you suggest to justify the extra costs?



Because you will always need one more head. For flash or for cooling.
And if you can buy cayenne for flashing it is perfect.


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## bok (Mar 17, 2007)

out da box said:


> You don't need a tri-lok to do fast set-ups, but it would help.
> The in head flash is a nice feature.
> You can't go wrong with either one.


Tri-lok is perfect i can't imagine doing without him.
We can set up 6 or 7 colors in few minutes.


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## out da box (May 1, 2007)

I would spend the 2500.00 on retensionable frames first. Get the tri-lok later after you've made some money-MHO.


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## bok (Mar 17, 2007)

out da box said:


> Yeah, but you're talking double or more the cost. Most people with their first machine are pinching just to get in the door. MOST people anyway.


off course but if you spend just a little more it will pay it self.


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## bok (Mar 17, 2007)

out da box said:


> I'm doing a 5 color on black with a white underbase right now. 1 flash. With 6-7 colors you barely have room for 1 flash, 2 is overkill. You can print wet on wet after the initial flash. You can always use the revolver program if you need to spin it around a coupe times. Really it's not that bad, you'll still be printing WAAAYYY more than on a manual, even if you spin every shirt around twice.


Nice print!!!! 
I hate revolver mode! Now I have 12/14 and no revolver 
We can do everything in one spin.

I have problems with wet on wet. I'm using 3 cayenes and need one more 

What ink you use?


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## out da box (May 1, 2007)

I use wilflex genesis. Wow, a 12 color servo with ac heads and 3 cheyennes- a bmw! 

No problems here wet on wet, as long as the underbase is not too sticky. I have only run into 1 real problem with needing an extra flash. Last run I had to just flash longer and that helped tremendously with my 4th color wanting to pick up the white... and I didn't want to spin it around twice.

Sometimes you've got to compromise until you can get to where you want to be. 30k and 60k is a HUGE difference. We're not talking about a couple hundred bucks.


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## bok (Mar 17, 2007)

out da box said:


> I use wilflex genesis. Wow, a 12 color servo with ac heads and 3 cheyennes- a bmw!
> 
> No problems here wet on wet, as long as the underbase is not too sticky. I have only run into 1 real problem with needing an extra flash. Last run I had to just flash longer and that helped tremendously with my 4th color wanting to pick up the white... and I didn't want to spin it around twice.
> 
> Sometimes you've got to compromise until you can get to where you want to be. 30k and 60k is a HUGE difference. We're not talking about a couple hundred bucks.


Yeah I know, I waited for three years and now with two machines I think that's it. 

Nice web site


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## jeffie (Jan 30, 2008)

hey we bought the tuf freedom we can do 10 set ups /day 1-3 color small runrs pfpf on same head is great single flood bar squgee works good(only one thing to clean)...only issue is screens jump down when locks are set....any one seen a fix for this ....jeffie


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## elaborate images (Jan 17, 2008)

run far run fast from Anatol. We have had our Titan with quartz flash for just over a year. The customer service is terrible. We received our press with a bad cpu and struggled with it for 6 mos doing their diagnostics and never getting the issue resolved when the press finally quit, just wouldn't turn on. We were down for 8 DAYS in NOVEMBER because they didn't want to send the part. They also had a supplier send them a bad batch of chopper cylinders, that I think we received the majority of, and they acted like we were doing something wrong. The latest is they sent us the wrong part, that we paid freight for and now to send the correct part they want us to pay freight again - on a warranty! Their mistake, it's warranty and they want me to pay freight twice?! You would think that we would have heard from someone in ownership or upper mgmt after all that we have been through but we haven't which tells me they approve this level of customer service.


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## tlbays (Apr 9, 2008)

Hi Marsha

That's quite a disturbing story. When you have the opportunity, I'd like to hear how things worked out with your press.

Happy trails!


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## elaborate images (Jan 17, 2008)

Tom,
As a distributor for Anatol I assume you would be familiar with their challenges over the last several years. Feel free to call me at 931-703-5410.


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## ELTS (Jan 16, 2013)

elaborate images said:


> Tom,
> As a distributor for Anatol I assume you would be familiar with their challenges over the last several years. Feel free to call me at 931-703-5410.


What challenges? I am thinking about purchasing a Solutions dryer.


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