Extreme Quilter

This is a new product for use on newer models of HP inkjets that use Viera inks. Has anyone tried it and does it promote the vibrancy in colors that it promises to do? Thanks.

patricej

Bubble Jet Set (BJS) 2000 has been around for a few years now. It is a great product. Worth every penny (lowest price is usually at Dahrma Trading Co online)

I "upgraded" to an HP printer using a Vivera tri-color cartridge #97. I got the worst results i have ever gotten with BJS. The older printers that used 78s and 23s were so much better.

the HP cartridges in the 10/11 series have a bad reputation (only in regard to whether they work with BJS. i'm not bad-mouthing HP or their printers. work horses; great for lots of things. i just don't use an HP to print my fabric any more. i bought a Canon that uses ChromaLife 100 ink to use instead.)

if you already have the printer, i'm not suggesting you run out to plunk down hundreds for a new one. i just said all so you would understand that if you don't get results that thrill you to pieces, it isn't the BJS. it's the ink.

one more hint - use 200 ct, 100% cotton muslin. white is best. you'll greatly increase your chances of success.

Extreme Quilter

Patrice, I had the same disappointing results before as you did with my HP printer.

But this new HP Bubble Jet Set 2000 is a new product designed to correct the problem and made specifically for the new Viera inks in HP. I was hoping someone would report fabulous results becaue I do have an HP printer.

Thanks for your input.

patricej

ooops! i didn't notice the "HP" in front of the BJS. i'm sooooooo sorry. i had no idea they'd developed a version of BJS especially for HP ink.

shot off my big mouth without the right ammo. that'll teach me.
:oops:

i'd say try it. you'd gamble less money in a 5 minute trip through a casino. i doubt the BJS folks would say it works well if it doesn't. i think it was somewhere on (or through) their site that i read about the problems and the specific inks that were causing them.

Knot Sew

I have a lexmark will that work for fabric?

patricej

almost any inkjet will work. the results vary by printer, ink technology, and the fabric you use. the Bubble Jet Set remains the critical step. You can buy it by the bottle, or you can buy pretreated fabric in sheets or rolls. there are lots of different brands of pretreated fabric. i have never used any of them, so won't say which are good and which aren't. But, since i trust the BJS 2000 from the bottle, i would probably stick to the CJ Jenkins brand of anything related to printing on fabric.

this article has some information about what to look for in your printer's features

http://www.cjenkinscompany.com/category_s/21.htm

Extreme Quilter

Patrice, thanks for the Jenkins site. I'll have to try some of those Miracle Fabric sheets they talk about. I'm not so sure about the claim that they are the only sheets that can be heat set. Wouldn't you think the other sheets could be too? I guess the only way to tell how good their new product, HP BJS, will work on the HP Vivera ink cartridges (mine are #02) is to try it.

patricej

there are not other heat-setable products using inkjet technology on fabric that i know of. it's fairly new from CJJ, too. not even out there for a whole year (i think). i wish they'd sell the heat-setable stuff by the bottle, too, but they don't.

i don't doubt the fabric sheets are every bit as good as they say. but they are around $1.5 per sheet (counting shipping). yeeps!!!
treating with bottled BJS costs approximately 35 cents per sheet if you only get the 50 sheets per bottle CJJ estimates and pay roughly $5 per yard for your muslin.

if i depended on an HP to print my fabric, i'd buy 1 bottle and the smallest pack they sell of the pretreated stuff, then compare. that's the only way to tell whether the expense of pretreated is a value.

there are 2 things i'm not clear on about the pre-packaged stuff:
- is the heat-setable also washable? (i emailed, but got an answer that skipped that question.)
- is the prepackaged/pretreated stuff good for HP inks? (if they had to develop a special do-it-yourself chemical, doesn't it follow they'd need a separate line of the factory treated items?)

i will admit it. i hope you volunteer to be our laboratory technician. get some. Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeze? i'm really curious to see whether or not i can use both printers. i could crank things out twice as fast. :-)

Extreme Quilter

Patrice, the packaged, pretreated fabric sheets are washable only if the instructions say so. Some sheets are dry clean only (ugh). Depends on the company.

Here's what works best for me. Jacquaard cotton fabric sheets (ten per package at Michael's for $15.99, which I buy at 40% off with my coupon). I increase my saturation, brightness and ink output settings before printing. I air dry as well as heat set with a hot iron not once but several times over and over and over. Then I rinse in synthropol and when the fabric is dry, ironed and ready to be sewn, I spray with Wet Guard to make it water repellant.

The colors of the other brands of fabric sheets do not come out as vibrant on my HP.

I think I will try the new HP BJS. It will be less convenient than the sheets but a lot more economical.

patricej

i'm sorry, but i'm giggling as i read your post.

trust me. the from-the-bottle BJS method is less complicated than what you just described. LOL

you don't have to, but i prewash my 200-ct muslin in hot water and synthrapol. (man! is that the worst smelling stuff, or what? but you need a little bitty capful in a max washerload. i'm still working off the same gallon i bought about 5 years ago.) the pre-wash is primarily to pre-shrink. the muslin i got from Joanns didn't shrink at all as far as i can tell, but i'll keep doing it anyway, just in case.

1. prewash
2. cut to size
3. pour the BJS into your soak basin. i can't be bothered measuring. i dump whatever i have into the basin.
4. put the fabric sheets in one at a time until you've either got them all or until the BJS doesn't saturate the top sheet even if you press them all down.
5. let 'em soak. (go flirt with your husband for a while. hee hee hee)
6. take them out.
7. hang them up
8. iron the dry sheets to freezer paper, or stick them to sheets of sticker paper. (some people swear by the full page labels, but i can't get the fabric off those without permanent distortion of the print. the sticker paper is re-positionable.)
8. print, then let sit for at least 30 minutes
9. rinse with the mildest detergent on hand. bubble jet rinse is too expensive. syntrapol, original woolite, and things like that will do just as well.

wash, cut, slap onto paper, soak, print, rinse, done. tooo easy. (and make sure hubby uses the $1.25 or more you save per sheet to buy you a really nice surprise. ;-) )

i'm absolutely not criticizing the pretreated, iron setable sheets as a product, and wouldn't try to talk anybody else out of using them. they just aren't for me. you can't just chuck them into your dryer on its highest setting (i checked with CJJ). no way i'm slaving over that iron any more often than i have to. LOL