Customer Reviews

Dymo Rhino Rhino 3000 Hard Case Kit, 1/Box (18189)

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

 

 

Telecommunications 101 - label everything! Imagine tracing unlabeled 25 pair cable under the unrelenting eye of the Middle Eastern sun or searching for unmarked and unlabeled fiber cable in a patch panel with hundreds of jumpers. I know, I know - the dummy that failed to label the cable should have a tone generator tie wrapped to his empty head for being stupid, and a continuous poke in the noggin with a bright fiber light as a courteous reminder that he or she screwed up - unfortunately, my method of recourse is limited. Because I've traced too many unlabeled cables here in Baghdad, the Rhino Pro 3000 has been a sexy little addition to my tool bag. The size and feel of the machine is beautiful and the label it produces adds just the right touch of professional umph to your installations or whatever you're doing at the time. And the price was unbelievable. Since I've used several different types of labelers I was willing and ready to pay more for this machine, but at a cost of a little over 100 bucks, the Rhino was clearly the best in its class. While I prefer to rate buys conservatively, this is far and away my most comfortable five star rating.

10 of us have this Rhino Pro 5000. My beef is the tape exiting the unit as it completes the printing process. It gets caught on the ridge as it exits, thus getting caught up inside the unit rendering the entire cartridge unusable. Furthermore, we purchased 50 boxes of tape. Each box contains 5 tapes. As the tapes sat in the office in a dry cool place, the tape now curls. If it does come out of the unit, it is very curly. To top it off, it is very hard to peel. I would look at another unit next time. Although this has great features, it is a pain to print out the tape and peel.

The Rhino Pro 3000 is without a doubt the best labeler in its class. To get any more features would only be appropriate if your job involved making exotic labels constantly all day long. For the occasional labeler, this is pretty much the best one I've ever seen. If I were just reviewing the labeler itself, this would be five stars. My only complaint about it is that the rubber boot that protects the labeler has to come off to exchange cartridges, which is a pain if you are frequently switching between label types (I do a lot of regular surface labels as well as heat-shrink tubing with mine, so I find myself switching cartridges a lot). In the end, I just leave the rubber jacket off and keep it in the hard case.

Which brings me to the central problem of this particular SKU: the hard case is ENORMOUS. The labeler takes up the central third of it, the rest is just foam. There's room for about 20+ cartridges in there if you really needed some serious variety on hand; I have five and the remaining room just seems cavernous. It takes up a lot more space in my shop than it needs to. If I were buying again, I'd save a few bucks and get the version without the hard case.

Bang for buck, this is a handy kit if you wish to make your work look nicely finished. When you first start using it, you may be a little intimidated because it looks like it will be difficult to use, but grab a cup of coffee, take some time and read the instructions while going through the motions and you will find that it is quite easy.

The labels look professional and seem to stay put. Dymo makes quite a few different label cartridges for the unit which adds to versatility of the tool. The fact that you can write labels to shrink tubing is an added bonus. The only negative thing I can think of is that the labeling cartridges can be a little costly, but other than that... the tool seems to be good. If you do a lot of "wrap around" labels, you may wish to invest in the 5200 model.