Customer Reviews

Brother P-Touch PT-1650 Label Printer

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Been using one of these for almost 2 years, mostly for labelling electronic cables and panels. If the previous reviewer had read the manual they would see it has 4 cutting modes. If you're only doing one label, yes, you'll lose about 1/2" of tape when cutting. When doing multiple labels, change the cutting mode to continuous feed or pause/cut after each label, with no waste. I get very long battery life as well. The Brother tapes, when bought from online discounters, cost much less per label than competing labellers aimed at the electronics industry such as Dymo or Brady.

Only complaint is the PC software (if you use it at all) can be confusing to create what you expect to print, relative to how the labeller works from its own keypad. This is also a case of reading the manual and spending some time working with it.

This label printer rocks! I've been casually looking for a label printer for a couple years, but I didn't like anything I'd seen. Until now. This Brother PT-1650 is rugged. It is very easy to use. It has a lot of capabilities. It is extremely versatile. The quality of print is awesome. It will do all the formatting automatically or let you adjust things like font size manually. You can use images or clip art or select pre-loaded symbols. You can save labels in the memory. You can print ordinary labels. You can print flag labels to stick on electric cords. You can print labels that wrap around cables. You can print labels spaced evenly for identifing telecom ports, or even your spice rack. I love it. I was up until 2 AM last night organizing my electronics parts.

I spent hours using it yesterday and did not run into any of the problems mentioned by the reviewer S. Bentz below. The reviewer is correct that it causes some tape to be wasted. There might be a setting to reduce the amount of waste somewhat. But, I believe that space represents the distance from the printer head to the cutting edge. Also, when printing a lot of small 5 digit labels, you could print it out in "Port" mode and cut manually with scissors.

The only tape I wasted was printing out a label, then finding that I could make it even fancier or useful. I discovered I could use bigger symbols, using the "Block" formatting feature. You can use a variety of frames. And this is just in the standalone mode. You can download even fancier stuff using the USB computer connection.

I have only two minor complaints. One, is that you can't just print to it from your computer. You have to transfer your finished templates to the PT-1650 and then print. Also, the editing software is pretty weak. But it simply works great as a standalone unit.

There is a $30 rebate for this printer available on brother.com until September 16. (And no, I do not work for Brother.)

This is a great label printer. I first saw it on one of those home-organization shows.

It prints labels from 1/4" to 1" wide, up to the length of the tape. The TZ labels it takes come in several colors (white, flourescent orange, yellow, red, clear, etc.) and types (basic laminated, strong adhesive, strong adhesive flexible [for labeling cables, etc.], tamper evident [which show if someone has tried to peel-off the label], etc.).

The specialized label tapes can be pricey, but the instruction manual tells you how to save tape with different printing methods.

I've had this label maker for almost 2 years and have never had a problem with it. I highly recommend it.

Good versitility for various applications but not my choice for reverse engineering of electrical control circuits as it will waste tape. Works great on new control panel construction where you have the opportunity to plan, create wire labels on computer, download, then take it to the bench and print as you need. In this application it would not hinder my effeciency to print one label, then print a subsequent label to retrieve the previous label. Where I am tracing circuits, without a circuit diagram, it is very inconvenient to trace a circuit, enter and print a label, then trace a circuit to print the next label so I can retrieve the previous printed label. The only option is to feed and cut, thus waste of 3/4" of tape. For reverse engineering, I much prefer my Dymo "Rhino Pro 5000". The labels produced from the "PT-1650" are of equal quality and durability of the Brady "X-Pert" (a machine costing 4 times that of the Brother) and far superior to the pre-cut fabric lables produced by the Brady "I.D. Pro". If you're buying a general machine for the maintenance department, the Brother "PT-1650" is the most versatile to label items from parts bins to electrical circuits. If you're in new construction of electrical control panels, the Brother "PT-1650" is comperable to the "Rhino Pro 6000" and about $40 less investment, and the tape costs less per linear inch. If you are wanting a printer for maintenance field technicians, go with the "Rhino Pro 5000"

First off, just like others have suggested... READ THE MANUAL If you read the manual front to back you will find the most efficient way to use the tape and plenty of hidden features and settings making the machine that much easier to use.

When you first purchase and start to use the machine plan on taking some time to do test prints and test using the included software. If you take some time to do this prior to going out in the 'field' you will be able to print out labels quick and efficiently.

Excellent selection of tapes, all necessary colors and sizes, up to 1". The TZ tapes selection and sizes are a big improvement over the older TC tapes. Yes the tapes can get a little expensive but find a online discount store with free shipping and your going to save lots on the tape.

If something needed to be changed it would be the ease of use, there is a learning curve and I could see some getting frustrated easily, so a little easier to use would be helpful. Also, why can't we print directly from the software seems it would be a simple software fix in the machine.

Overall a great machine!

The Brother PT-1650, similar to the more industrial version PT-7600, is priced competitively, has features such as the ability to interface with a computer, supports many bar code types, has many label varieties and so forth. Unfortunately, I decided against the Brother units since, as others have mentioned, approximately 3/4" of label has to be trimmed and wasted when printing a single label due to gap to cutter. It's not so much as the wasted label but the workflow that is an issue, as we all know time is money, when it's required to print, feed excess, cut and sometimes, as others reported, deal with "cutter error". Another thing, the flexible label for wrap-around wire labeling isn't so flexible when the manual states that it's not recommended for a diameter smaller than 1/8". In the end I went with the Dymo Rhino 5200 which doesn't have the wasted label issue, has a smoother workflow as you just print and cut even with single label and the flexible label is truly flexible.

If this was about half the size it would be MUCH better. I carry it in its case and it is nearly as large as my laptop bag. Works great but READ THE MANUAL FULLY or you will think it stinks! It is not intuitive at all and most of the complaints here are from users that obviously have not read the manual.

Please, do yourself a favor: think twice before buying this device. I just did a test with mine: I had 37 five-digit labels to print, so I put in new batteries and a new label cartridge and got to work printing them out. After an hour, I had a pile of my 37 labels -and a pile of 105 useless label strips. See, the thing about this printer is that it prints out a buffer strip before each label. Ok, so there should be an equal number of "buffer strips" as actual labels, right? Well, you'd think so, wouldn't you... Fact is, there were several dozen misprints -either nothing printed, or it printed only a solid colored bar or a couple of bars along the length of what should have been the label. this means that only 35% of what I printed can be used! Consider for a moment the price of the print cartridges... And think twice before buying one of these!

The only reason this P-Touch didn't get 5 stars is because it wastes label tape every time you print one. I knew this before I bought it, however, and am still happy with the purchase.

I love the fact the unit came in a plastic carry case with room for multiple lables. I use this for everything from putting lables on Data jacks to doing inventory lables. I find the 'auto' increment and auto print feature useful since I can generate up to 99 lables in sequance at one time. VEry versatile unit and worth every penny.