# It's winter time - Watch your humidity levels



## printerguy (Dec 26, 2006)

It's that time of year in many parts of the country where it's the cold season and we crank up the heating system to stay warm. The unintended consequence of that heated air is a low to no humidity level in your building. All digital garment printers (make that all inkjet type printers) work best at a humidity level of 40% to 80%. You WILL have printing problems if you let the humidity level drop too low. This is the time to invest some money (very little) in a barometer to measure the humidity in your printer room (digital ones can be found for $10 to $20). And also purchase a humidifier (room size units run from $50 to $100 at Home Depot, Lowes, Sears, etc.). Use both to maintain proper humidity in your work space and you should have a trouble free winter.

This also holds true throughout the year in dry climates such as Arizona with "zero" humidity. Avoid problems - humidify to proper levels.


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## badalou (Mar 19, 2006)

Great thread printguy. As an ex epson rep people were always telling me about their clogged heads. The major cause was heads drying up for lack of use and causing the clogging. I told them that the major cause was humidity in the home. Take a glass of water set it out for a week and see how much is left at the end of the week. Ink is liquid and the ink dries up in the heads. Run your printer at least one time a day to keep it fresh.


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## sunnydayz (Jun 22, 2007)

Yep Lou, I agree great thread. I have been running my humidifier 24/7 and just keeping at around 50%. I am thinking of adding another one to the room just to get more humidity and I live right at the beach, literally about 300 feet from the water but still very low humidity already.


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## binki (Jul 16, 2006)

we keep a temp/humid gauge right by the printer. $12 or so at lowes.


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## sunnydayz (Jun 22, 2007)

Yep I have one with a magnet attached to my machine


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## anajetuser (Sep 28, 2007)

unless you have an anajet, then 60 % is not enough. I have problems when it gets lowwer than that. Factory will not believe it, and I have bought 3 gauges.
They keep saying "bad gauge" Now I am stuck.


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## printerguy (Dec 26, 2006)

anajetuser said:


> unless you have an anajet, then 60 % is not enough. I have problems when it gets lowwer than that. Factory will not believe it, and I have bought 3 gauges.
> They keep saying "bad gauge" Now I am stuck.



What problems are you having that you believe are the result of too low a humidity level?


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## anajetuser (Sep 28, 2007)

printerguy said:


> What problems are you having that you believe are the result of too low a humidity level?


The factory says that about humidity, not me. At 60% I should not have a clogging problem.
As it is now, the only way I can keep the machine running is to flush the lines every time I print and batch my work. (to expensive to do this every day) Even sitting overnight, with 8 hour intervals on the head cleaning I start to lose my pattern. I bought mine from the factory, and nothing but problems. They keep saying it is me, but I have worked with inks before, and it is not lack of service on my side, I have followed all the "usuall" tricks on many forums, and gone beyond factory requirements, just not a stable procces. it does not help that factory service asked me to wash the print head and "scrub" it with a Qtip and warm water. I was sold a bill of sale on how the closed ink system eliminated all servce, and actually it just gives you false security.


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## binki (Jul 16, 2006)

we get clogs below 40% with the DTG kiosk.


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## sunnydayz (Jun 22, 2007)

I keep a humidifier in my print room and I do not have any clogging problems. I do my maintenance like clockwork and keep my humidity levels good and this works great for my and my machine.


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## adawg2252 (Dec 12, 2007)

I have a TJ3 and I haven't really noticed any clogging at all, and I seldom keep the heat on constantly all day if I'm not in the office. The heat press is about 5 ft away but I only keep that on if I'm printing. 

The room is probably at a decent humidity on its own, seeing as how all my printers (inkjet, laser, wide format, etc.) are in there and they all work fine. I do daily maintenance on the TJ3 anyways so that is probably part of it.


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