Xante Warning

[Cameron]

Just wanted to throw a heads up out there to anyone considering Xante as a supplier. I had read various positive and negative comments about Xante, and made the decision to try their envelope printer around this time last year. Great concept, even momentary flashes of what it is advertised to do. But unfortunately the negative comments floating around about Xante are true. Especially concerning their service.
We have been trying to work with them on the machine not functioning properly since the very beginning. The toner will not fuse properly unless you run it at half speed. The only answers we get from Xante are to please be patient and they will get back to us. In there defense (if you would call it a defense) they have replaced the whole machine once, and the fuser section once, where we had to pay for some new parts because the original machine had used up some life on the original ones. Not to metion we had to pay some fees on the delivery.

There are plenty of other things that are apparently wrong with their machine, but regardless, I can tell you without a doubt that their service has pretty well turned a blind eye to it and just hoped we would go away. Before you throw away $20k to Xante, I would most definitely reconsider. Hope this has helped protect someone from a future mistake.

 

[Possumgal]

That Xante is probably a rebranded Okidata machine. Try calling a local Oki tech if there is one in your area, and ask him what it sounds like to him.

Oki is now selling envelope printers themselves, so anyone who wants one should try Oki first. The other brands just use Oki printers with their own attachments for the most part. Consumables may be over twice as high with the other brands as Oki will charge, according to quotes I've seen.

 

[chevalier]

Great concept, even momentary flashes of what it is advertised to do.

Well put.

I've been warning anyone asking about Xante since my experience with the PlateMaker 4 years and years ago. I was also bummed when they bought and absorbed RipIT which was in my opinion a superior company with superior products. I had purchased a RipIT product to replace my PM4 and I was extremely happy with it, the support and the company.

 

[MailGuru]

I looked at the Xante about 5 years ago, and could'nt understand why the cost was so high. The Oki Data printer they were using at the time could be bought for around $2,500. The envelope feeder they were using at the time was a "straight-shooter", and you could buy one direct from the manufacturer for about $2,500. I really didn't need the output conveyer (I could use a drop box instead), but, it you wanted one, you could buy it for about $1,500. My "home-grown" model wouldn't have had a RIP, but, I rationalized that with the small volume I'd be putting through it, I really didn't need one. It would just be a PDF work flow. So, that's a total of about $6,500. They wanted $20,000. I passed.

-Best

MailGuru

 

[Possumgal]

Not to mention Xante and some other companies put proprietary chips in the boards so you can only use their toner and such. They hike the price way up on that, too.

 

[Craig]

Well not to sound like I have a gem, but my Xante Impressia has about 600,000 on it and is almost a year old. It has run non stop the last two days. We only print envelopes and are finding the average #10 envelope is using about $0.018 on consumables. We do run it on the Envelope Medium setting most of the time with little to no fuser issues. The new enterprise feeder works very well too.

 

[Cameron]

Yes Craig, it will run on slower setting which will solve the fuser issues.. but that will only run half speed production wise. You are ok with that Craig?

 

[Craig]

Well, having run a small offset press that is rated at 8,000/hr. I can tell you that most of the time you can't run it that fast. So with the Xante you walk away for 5 minutes and come back to empty it... big deal.

 

[Cameron]

Haha, completely agree. We have presses from a 1 color multi to a 5 color sm74. If I bought a piece that was rated for 8000 and it would only run at 4000 minus jams that would be a problem. The xante is advertised at somewhere around 4, and we are lucky to get 2.. minus jams which then using the feeder it came with (garbage) it is producing around 1000/hr.

A piece of equipment rated for 8000, i would expect to run around 6000 run speed. So I would expect to get approx 3000 on the xante minus jams which I would find acceptable.

 

[fred111]

I'm considering the Impressia for #10 & #9 envelopes. What kind of speeds do you get? Will be doing runs of 500 to 25,000. Mostly under 2500. Any quality issues? Thanks

 

[Possumgal]

Be sure and test a demo model with the kinds of envelopes you will run most. They will tell you to get side-seam envelopes, but there is a problem with all these printers that can't be overcome. That's the light spots where the printing surface changes from three layers to two layers due to the edge of the back flap. Buying new drums will help this, but you lose about a third of the life of the drums that way. We don't have a Xante, but if they are based on an Oki, as most are, you'll likely run into this. Our supplier finally admitted that this is a "known issue." No solution given.

Also make sure you keep the machine and envelopes in a climate controlled room. Humidity will cause all sorts of problems, especially toning.

 

[fred111]

Be sure and test a demo model with the kinds of envelopes you will run most. They will tell you to get side-seam envelopes, but there is a problem with all these printers that can't be overcome. That's the light spots where the printing surface changes from three layers to two layers due to the edge of the back flap. Buying new drums will help this, but you lose about a third of the life of the drums that way. We don't have a Xante, but if they are based on an Oki, as most are, you'll likely run into this. Our supplier finally admitted that this is a "known issue." No solution given.

Also make sure you keep the machine and envelopes in a climate controlled room. Humidity will cause all sorts of problems, especially toning.

I should mention the Impressia we're looking at is a Ricoh-based machine.

 

[Craig]

We have about 1 million on the Impressia running nearly all envelopes. We run both Side Seam and Diagonal Seams all from Western States. Is it hit start and walk away? About 70% of the time it is, the other times it will require more attention. Still less than an offset though. Do I regret getting it... not at all, and I would get another if needed. The enterprise feeder is a must for envelopes. We just had to put a new fuser thermistor in it last week, a bit of a chore, but none the less doable. The marking Possamgal is talking about is slightly more than what we got on press when printing over the seam. The numbers they give on consumables are pretty good, we are finding that we can stretch their life out even more at times.

Like every machine there will be a learning curve, but once you get it figured out it will make money. (I wish Xante would pay me for a good review though)

 

[Cameron]

I'm considering the Impressia for #10 & #9 envelopes. What kind of speeds do you get? Will be doing runs of 500 to 25,000. Mostly under 2500. Any quality issues? Thanks

I will try to be as fair and straight up as I can. We returned our Impressia... we returned 3 actually. All three performed the same in our shop. The toner would not fuse on the seams whether it was a side seam or a crossback. That was our main issue. Feeding was a disaster so it would take us hours to run a couple thousand envelopes, but the enterprise feeder did not exist when we originally bought the machine.

The machine has potential, it has its pros and cons. If you can keep toner away from the seam and get the enterprise feeder than youll probably be happy. (No personal experience with the enterprise feeder but going by what people say about it). I was not happy at all but to be fair to xante, they tried... SLOWLY. In the end they were fair and reimbursed me for the machine.

 

[jay12345]

i bought the ricoh version with the enterprise feeder last year. i seriously love this machine. do i have problems with it from time to time? of course just like every other piece of equipment in the shop. what i find best to tell people is that at the end of the day you are buying a copy machine with tiny moving parts that prints on envelopes. so if your expectations are realistic you will be very happy with this machine. if you are great at problem solving you will love this machine. if you want to load envelopes of all brands and sizes, push a button and walk away. this is not the machine for you. we just had a 2 sided envelope with a rather large image on the flap that was giving all sorts of problems with the image quality where the layers of paper change through the flap. i opened the flaps on the envelops and printed the face and flaps at the same time and eliminated the issue. this was a 260 qty run so it was no big deal. but that is the kind of thing you have to deal with.

 

[arossetti]

The machine I don't have an issue with, the service that Xante provides is comparable to Comcast. Because of that I will never buy from them again.

 

[grantstreetdigital]

I bought an Oki 9650 for $3300, then bought a Straight Shooter for $4500 and a deliver conveyor on Ebay for $250.00. So for $8050.00 I have the same thing Xante is sell for $20,000. Oh I bought the Oki 9650 at Newegg.

 

[oxburger]

We just got our Impressia. I love it. (Be aware, my opinion is jaded as we were using a Formax Colormax 7 POS). But I like our new Xante. We also went through Ricoh. Has an adjustable fuser for thicker envelopes so if we get a 10 x 13 in, we just make the adjustment and run.

 

[oxburger]

I'm considering the Impressia for #10 & #9 envelopes. What kind of speeds do you get? Will be doing runs of 500 to 25,000. Mostly under 2500. Any quality issues? Thanks

We're doing a box of 500 number 10's in about 6 minutes (simple black, no heavy coverage).

 

[littledog]

I use Sun Data Supply out of California. I have never had a problem with their toner. Drums sometimes have a problem with but no more then the Xante drums I use to use. Plus if you call Sun Data with a problem, they send you a replacement without any hassle, not like Xante.

Sun Data Supply - Laser Toner Cartridges, Printer Cartridges, MICR Toner Cartridges, Copier Toners, Fax Toners and Ribbons