The S1-Mini should receive daily and weekly maintenance in line with the maintenance guidance supplied with your machine. Before starting daily production, we recommend performing a nozzle check and carrying out the required cleaning procedures if any nozzles are missing. Regular maintenance is especially important with DTF printers because white ink can settle and dried ink can build up around the printhead, capping station and other parts of the ink system. Always follow the supplied S1-Mini maintenance videos and manuals, as correct maintenance will help keep your machine operating reliably and reduce the risk of blockages or unnecessary part replacement.

You can buy all replacement parts for your S1-Mini from our parts section. You should only use DTF Warehouse-approved parts to maintain your warranty. If there is a part you require for your S1-Mini that you cannot see in our parts section, please contact our support team and we will be happy to help you.

We recommend using DTF Warehouse-approved consumables with your S1-Mini, including compatible DTF ink, PET film, DTF powder and cleaning solution. The S1-Mini uses CMYK and white DTF ink and supports 30–33 cm wide DTF film through its roll-feeding system. Using the correct consumables is important for consistent print quality and reliable machine operation. Mixing incompatible inks or using unsuitable cleaning products can cause print-quality issues, damage parts of the ink system and void your warranty. You can find the recommended S1-Mini consumables in our DTF supplies section.

If your nozzle check shows gaps or missing sections, run a standard head-cleaning cycle and then print another nozzle check to see whether the pattern has improved.

If there is no improvement, check your dampers to ensure they are full of ink and do not contain air. If your dampers are full of air, use a syringe and place it into the valve of the damper, then syringe until the damper is full of ink again. If you have a clean syringe, the ink can be added back into your ink tank to avoid wastage.

Please note: when removing your dampers, this will knock out the corresponding channel for that damper. You will need to run multiple cleans to push the newly added air out of the printhead and fill that channel back up with the new ink.

If none of this works, you can add your DTF Warehouse cleaning solution into the capping station and allow the head to sit on the solution for no longer than 4 minutes. Then run a clean, followed by another nozzle check, and repeat until the blockage has cleared.

Remember, printheads have an estimated life expectancy, but this is widely dependent on the amount of use the printhead receives, the maintenance cycles provided, and the environment the printer is kept in.

First perform a nozzle check. Missing nozzles are one of the most common causes of lines or banding in a print. If nozzles are missing in your check, perform a clean untill all nozzles have returned. If the nozzle check is good, check that your artwork and RIP settings are correct and that the film is feeding smoothly through the printer without slipping or moving sideways.

Check that there is sufficient white ink in the machine and that the white ink dampers are full of ink.

White DTF ink should not be allowed to sit unmanaged for extended periods, as this can cause the chemicals within the white ink to separate and make the consistency appear watery.

If you have had to leave your machine during holiday periods, or you notice a watery appearance or thinning of your white ink, you can remove the white ink dampers and syringe 2–3 full syringes of ink through the dampers, then add this ink back into your white ink tank. This will help to mix and agitate the white ink throughout your system. This process can be repeated until your white ink returns to its normal consistency.

If your white ink does not appear watery and is a normal consistency, run a nozzle check to establish whether all the white ink channels are present. If they are not, this indicates a blockage in the white ink channels, which can be removed by performing printhead cleans.

Please follow your daily and weekly maintenance videos to help prevent and remove blockages from your printhead.

Please note: Stubborn blockages that cannot be removed may require a printhead replacement due to ink having fully dried inside the printhead channels.

Print a nozzle check first. If one colour is partially or completely missing, perform the recommended head-cleaning procedure and check again. Also make sure the relevant ink supply is not empty and that there are no obvious issues with the ink path. If a colour remains completely absent, please remove the corresponding damper and ensure it is completely full of ink. After normal troubleshooting, contact support rather than repeatedly cleaning the printhead.

Start by checking the nozzle pattern, as partially blocked nozzles can cause faded or incorrect colours. Most designs require all of the CMYK channels to create a particular colour.

If the nozzle check is correct and does not show any missing nozzles, check your RIP software settings, artwork colour settings and print mode.

Please note: Your computer screen produces colours in RGB, whereas DTF printing produces colours in CMYK. This means there is a wide colour gamut that cannot be achieved using CMYK, such as neon-style colours.

You can also check your artwork by using Photoshop’s Colour Dropper Tool and looking for the “out of colour gamut for printing” warning.

Check that the film roll is sitting straight and feeding evenly into the printer. Make sure the roll is not pulling heavily to one side and that nothing is restricting the film as it enters or exits the machine. Re-load the film if necessary and test the feed before starting another full print.

Check that the film is loaded on the correct printable side and confirm that the correct print settings are being used. Check inside your RIP software under the driver settings to ensure that your white ink percentage is not set too high. Around 70–80% is the optimal amount to help ensure the ink does not pool or run on the film. If there is high humidity where your printer or film is kept, this can encourage moisture to enter the film and prevent the ink from sitting correctly on the surface. Humidity for printing should be kept between 40–60%.

Check the USB connection between the S1-Mini and the computer, then restart both the printer and computer if necessary. You can try an alternative USB port from your laptop of computer. Confirm that the required printer driver and RIP software have been installed correctly. Ensure the correct USB slot and driver have been selected in your RIP software. The S1-Mini is intended for compatible Windows systems, and Windows XP, 7, 10 and 11 standard editions.

Make sure the S1-Mini is powered on and connected to the computer. Check that the correct printer and driver are selected inside the RIP software and that there are no paused or failed print jobs in inside the print que. If the printer works from the driver but not from the RIP software, check the RIP configuration or contact support for assistance with the software setup.

Before starting production, inspect the machine, make sure the ink system is operating normally and perform a nozzle check. If the nozzle check has missing sections, resolve these before printing. You can apply a small amount of printhead cleaner into your capping station and repeat this process until the blockage has been removed. If you are still unable to remove the blockage, there may be dried ink inside the channels of the printhead. Using a syringe with tubing attached, you can very gently push a small amount of cleaner through the nozzles of the affected channels. Please note: Only carry out this step if you are comfortable doing so and know how to perform the procedure correctly. You must only push a small amount of cleaner through and do so gently, as forcing the cleaner through too forcefully can delaminate the printhead and render it unusable. Always follow the S1-Mini maintenance procedure supplied with the machine rather than immediately carrying out extensive cleaning.

We recommend operating the S1-Mini at approximately 15–30°C with 40–60% humidity. Conditions outside this range can make consistent printing and ink behaviour more difficult, so checking the room environment is worthwhile when troubleshooting recurring print-quality problems.

Do not continue running cleaning cycles indefinitely. Re-check the nozzle pattern and make sure the ink supply, environment and normal maintenance routine are correct. If the same nozzles remain missing or the fault continually returns, this may indicate a blocked printhead. Although there is a rough lifetime for each printhead, this can vary drastically depending on how the machine is used, the environment the machine is kept in and your maintenance schedule. Contact DTF Warehouse Technical Support so the cause can be diagnosed before replacing parts or manually working on the ink system. We also recommend checking the nozzle pattern after each clean rather than cleaning continuously without checking the result.