As you know, I love to look at gadgets, and this Dymo Twin Turbo LabelWriter is a gadget that has taken label making to new heights.

If you are currently using your printer to print envelopes and labels, you are dealing with paper jams and misaligned labels. If you are handwriting them, you are wasting time and effort. In either case, the Dymo LabelWriter will come to your aid to quickly address envelops and packages without any muss or fuss. This label maker prints a label in about 1 second, so it will also save you time. If you sign up for Dymo Stamps, you can save even more time since you can print your postage at your home or office and avoid waiting in line at the post office. By the way if you have been using a postage meter or a postage service like stamps.com, you will also save money. You still have to purchase the labels and the postage but the Dymo Stamps system has no rental fees or monthly charges.

The Twin Turbo LabelWriter that I reviewed is especially handy. It holds two different size labels at once, so you can keep it stocked with the two types of labels that you use most often. For many offices it will become a dedicated “mailing station” with address labels and stamps. For others, including home users, it can be their dedicated “label maker” with address labels and file labels. Of course, any combination of these and the many other available labels would also be workable. The LabelWriter takes labels up to 2.25 inches. Standard address and files labels are available in several colors. You can also purchase badges and labels for shipping, jewelry, price tags, and more.

The Dymo LabelWriter Twin Turbo is both smarter and more capable than the average labelwriter. It integrates with Word, Excel, Outlook, ACT!, QuickBooks, WordPerfect and several other programs so you don’t have to leave that application to print a label and the application knows which label to use so you don’t have to worry about that. You can create an address book right in the Dymo software for easy printing from it. You can also add graphics, photos and bar codes to labels quite easily. This makes it perfect for printing everything from name badges to price tags. The DYMO Address Fixer automatically checks addresses against the US Postal Service database, fixes errors and adds the 9-digit SIP+4 code to ensure faster and accurate mail delivery. It also has an automatic date and time stamp a label counter, and prints vertical and mirrored text.

The set up is easy. You install the software, plug in the DYMO with the included USB cable, remove the spindle from its holder, put on a roll of labels, replace the spindle and thread the labels through a slot on the printer.

The thermal printing is crisp and clear and while you do have to purchase Dymo labels, you don’t have to worry about ink costs. Unlike some ink jet and laser printers, the printing process is quick and quiet.
Like any other software, there is a slight learning curve to using the many features in the DYMO software. It is, however, pretty straightforward. In fact, even setting up the purchasing of stamps is easy. The program takes you through the stamp purchasing process step-by-step and makes it fairly painless.

The only thing that I don’t like about the TwinTurbo is that it has no on/off switch. It has two bright blue lights that show that each spindle is loaded and ready to go, but I find the lights a bit distracting. Even worse, if you don’t have labels loaded on one of the spindles, the light on that side blinks….even more distracting. A simple on/off switch would be a welcome addition for users like me who don’t use it on a network and would like to turn it off when it is not in heavy use.

The LabelWriter TwinTurbo works with both Windows and Mac. You can even share it over a network. At $189.99, it is a bit pricey, but for small office use, it will pay for itself in productivity. (And you can find it at Amazon cheaper.)