Choosing a wall printer

My bias, up front

I run a wallPen E2 and I'm highly experienced and trained on it, but I also own a Chinese printer and have hands on experience with several others. In my opinion, the E2 is arguably the one printer that won't hold you back. If you want to print just about anything a customer throws at you, it gets you there. However, it's also the most expensive printer on the market. That said, I'm not here to sell you a wallPen or a Chinese printer. I'm here to help you find the best option for you and your situation. I have great relationships with the Chinese manufacturers, and I've done the research so you don't have to on which of those machines are actually worth buying. If one of them is the better fit for your budget and goals, great. When you buy through a distributor I work with, I may earn a referral fee. That never changes my recommendation.

What actually matters in a wall printer

• Margins. Every wall printer has a margin, meaning it can't print all the way into an inside corner, up to the ceiling, or down to the floor. The closer a machine can get to those edges, the more jobs you'll land. The further away it stops, the more jobs you'll lose.
• Print completion percentage. How often a print finishes cleanly without a failure, a restart, or a repaint. A machine that completes more of its prints saves you time, paint, and your reputation in front of the customer.
• Portability. Heavy doesn't mean bad. In fact, lighter printers usually mean less stability. What matters is how the weight is packaged. A big, bulky machine that doesn't come apart is hard to set up and may take two people. A heavy machine that's well designed and breaks down into manageable pieces can still fit in your car and be set up by one person. I believe that's the best combination.
• Software. Some of these machines have horrible software, and some have incredible software. It matters more than people think. The better the software, the better your completion rate and the easier your day is on the job.
• Size and speed. Height matters. Plenty of projects get missed if your printer can't reach up high. Speed matters less. Any printer you buy above $20,000 will print fast enough, and the higher end machines are all relatively fast depending on what you're printing. Once you're into the faster printers, speed becomes relative.
• Support. Support is a big deal, and so is how fast someone answers. Stuff will go wrong. Unfortunately, if you're in the United States, it doesn't matter whether you're trying to reach Germany, Turkey, or China. The time difference is hard. That's why we're here for our US customers with extended support.

Machine buying summary

There are a lot of options out there at a lot of different price points. The right one depends on your situation, how much you can invest, and what you're planning to print. That's something we can dig into on your free 30 minute call and in future calls down the road. It's not required, but please talk to us before you buy a machine.

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