Thiele RT-100 or PSI LaserMail 3640?

[unitedreminders]

Does anybody have experience with either the Thiele RT-100 streamfeeder or PSI Color Laser Mail 3640? We have seen the PSI 3640 and it will work for our application (high volume postcard printing), but the consumable costs are ridiculous (because PSI has modified the Okidata 3640 printer to require you to buy consumables from them). We found a feeder system from Thiele that looks comparable to the PSI feeder and we can put it together with the same Okida printer ourselves (and be able to buy Okidata consumables at somewhat lower prices). We have not been able to put our hands on the Thiele feeder system, though, and would like to get feedback from anyone has used it.

 

[Reldim]

PSI Laser Mail 3640 / 3655

PSI Laser Mail 3640 / 3655

The PSI Laser Mail system works well enough, although you may have to explain away the issue of envelope embossing. This is caused by heat and roller pressure creating an indentation in the envelope. That being said, PSI is a terrible company and very difficult to deal with. They lied about our install date and missed deadlines repeatedly and the technician that came to install our printer fell asleep in our office. Not only is the toner expensive but they jack up shipping charges. If you try to use your ground account to save on shipping, they tack on a $50 fee to convince you to do otherwise. Buy with caution from PSI or better yet, look at Xante's envelope printing system.

 

[Craig]

Look in the Xante section of this forum, there are some rather longs threads about other feeder options for the Oki printers.

 

[unitedreminders]

Straight Shooter

Straight Shooter

Thanks for your feedback. We decided to go with a feeder system that we found from a company called Straight Shooter and bought the Okidata printer seperately - saving on the order of $10,000 less than the PSI system and no proprietary consumables! We think and are hoping that we made a good decision. We didn't get to out our hands on the feeder system - but saw a video of our product being run through it. Our Straight Shooter feeder is scheduled to be installed early in December - so I will post back later and let folks know how it goes. The company has been very nice to work with so far and has a very good reputation.

 

[damfino]

Good Choice

Good Choice

I haven't seen the StraightShooter hands on, but it looks solidly built and is obviously much easier to implement (no printer modification).

Agreed, PSI service is horrible. I bought a system a year ago when there were no alternatives.

Look into recharging your Okidata toner cartridges yourself - can be done for a little as $300. for all 4 colors.