Label Maker Reviews : Dymo Label Writer 450

Dymo Label Writer 450 Twin TurboI recently bought a DYMO Label Writer 450 Twin Turbo label printer at a local office retailer, and I brought it home for my personal office setup.  When I’m consulting for lean and 5S projects, I sometimes find myself needing to send off a letter, or video, and I don’t necessarily feel like running down to work to do it.

I figured, with its claim that you can “Print USPS®-approved DYMO Stamps® postage directly from your desktop –no monthly fee, contracts or commitments required,” this Dymo would be a cool gadget to make my life a little easier at home.

Okay, as far as small home office label makers go, the Dymo Label Writer 450 is pretty decent.  Its print output clocks in at almost one label per second, which DYMO says is 40% faster than their base model – I’ll take their word for it because I’ve never owned the base model.

The software is fairly straightforward, but I have to say I’m a little disappointed at the fact that I couldn’t print out different types of postage without adding the monthly fees, it is limited to only printing out first class USPS postage, and, I have to say, I could have done that and more by printing labels out on my desktop printer.  I wanted this for a complete postage-only printing source, but it looks like that will leave me a bit disappointed.  The marketing was a bit misleading, and I wish I had done a bit more research before buying.

GRANTED, when I do have to send something first class, this little printer is quick and easy, and I need to ship via first class enough to warrant keeping the unit.  If I wanted to pay an extra almost $10 a month extra, I could open this printer up to more postage and shipping options through the Endicia.com companion website, but I don’t see the necessity of doing that any time soon – I still have my computer printer at home, and I frankly don’t ship out enough from home to force me to find an even better solution.