Handi Quilter Simply Sixteen
 

I would like to know if 22 million stitches is too many for a 12 year old machine that is for sale. It has had 3 owners and I suspect they all had the machine serviced and took care of it. The former owners are in my quilt guild. She is asking $7,500 for the machine, 10 foot frame and pro-stitcher.
I have no idea if this is a suitable price for a machine with 22 million stitches. Any feedback would be
appreciated.

I’m confused. I thought the Simply 16 was like the Tiara, a sit down machine. Can they go on a frame? Does it include rails, do you have to sand which first?

Prostitcher by itself is 10k so it is a good price. 2 2 million doesn't sound like that much for an older machine

Simply Sixteen is a longarm; Sweet 16 is the sit-down (I have one).
The $7,500 seems like a good price... try to work with it first though!

Yes, I plan to try it out, wise idea.

22 million is hard to fathom, so look at it another way. The Simply Sixteen's stitching speed is 1800 spm (stitches per minute) according to the HandiQuilter site. It isn't always used at top speed, so estimate that an average speed at which it was used is 1000 spm. (Totally a guesstimate.) That would mean it was used for 22,000 minutes, or 367 hours. That's about one hour a day for a year. Doesn't seem so bad now, does it, especially over the course of 12 years. I didn't realize the Simply Sixteens were even available in 2007.

You do need to test it out, and perhaps compare it to newer machines. Longarms have improved a lot in the last 12 years. Also check out the frame. Is it sturdy and easy to load? How old is the Prostitcher, and is it up to date? Lots of questions, but I wouldn't worry about the 22 million stitches.

Yes, I know the pro-stitcher has been updated. She has it set up so I will heed your advice and check it out thoroughly. Thank you for your input on stitch count.

I have a 2008 Handi Quilter Sixteen that I bought used and the original owner only quilted one quilt and got sick and died. So, the machine hadn't been used in a long time when I bought it 3 years ago. I had to send it back to HQ for some maintenace due to it's sitting idle for so long and I updated the prostitcher at the tune of $1500 so be glad the one you're looking at is already updated.

I L the pro-stitcher, but I should tell you about a couple of issues with the Sixteen that seems to be unique with that model. I have stitch regulation and that's the one thing I just had to have. But, when it starts stitching it races at the beginning. You really have to be sure to do your locking stitches well at the beginning. When I stop stitching in a spot, it will stop but not start automatically again. I have to start it again and it races once more. That problem drives me crazy.

You can't change the foot to one that allows you to snap different feet into place. It just won't work on that machine. I do have rulers and use them a lot but would have loved to have that special foot you use with those rulers.

It does the pro-stitcher work beautifully with none of the problems I've mentioned above. Like I said, I L the pro-stitcher.

So, do try it out. Start stitching and then stop like you'd do when quilting to see if the machine you're looking at also has those issues. I've talked with the techs at Handi Quilter and we still haven't figured a way to fix the issues.

As far as the number of stitches, that's not bad at all for a machine that old.

With the HQ Sixteen, you cannot change the feet. There is a $100 conversion kit available that gives you that ability. It’s easy to install- if you want to use the other feet available for the HQ machines. If you are not interested in the other feet available, there’s no need to install it.

I bought the conversion kit and the LA shop owner and I tried to install it on the Sixteen. It wouldn't fit. She called the HQ techs and we tried everything they wanted us to try. We spent half a day and they finally said, you can't put that on the 2008 machine. I wanted to be able to use the interchangeable feet but without the conversion kit fitting there's no way to do it. I doubt you could install a conversion kit on the 2007 either. It's great on the newer models.