Equipment ROI

Will that machine actually pay for itself?

Pick a real DTG printer, screen press, embroidery machine, or sublimation setup. The top sellers in each are pre-loaded with current North-American prices, or type in your own. Put in what you'd realistically run and see the payback period, monthly profit, and return in plain numbers. Every field has a small i that explains exactly what to enter.

0Machines pre-loaded

0Decoration methods

CFDFpromo

Free tool Equipment ROI Calculator Payback, monthly profit & return, per machine

The machine

Model (real 2025-26 pricing) Machine price The all-in price to buy and set up this machine: the unit plus any platen/hoop kit, RIP software, curing or heat press, and install. Autos and industrial DTG are usually quote-only, so treat the pre-loaded prices as a starting range.

What you'd realistically run

Pieces per day How many decorated pieces you'd realistically sell per day: paid work, not the machine's top speed. A press rated for 900/hr still only earns on the orders you actually have.

pcs

Days per week How many days a week this machine runs paid jobs. Most shops run 5. We turn this into months using 4.33 weeks per month.

days

Profit per piece Your gross profit on one piece, before the machine's monthly running cost. That's the selling price minus the consumables for that piece: ink/film for DTG, thread & backing for embroidery, screens & ink for screen print, paper/ink for sublimation, and the blank if you're counting it. Don't subtract electricity, rent, or wages here; those go in "Running cost / month" so you never double-count.

Running cost / month The fixed monthly cost of keeping this machine running, on top of per-piece consumables: electricity, maintenance & parts, RIP / digitizing software subscriptions, insurance, and the floor space it takes up. Not here: the machine's purchase price (entered above) or staff wages (usually built into your profit-per-piece, or counted separately, see the operator note below).

Use what you'd actually sell, not the machine's top speed. A printer only earns when it's printing paid work.

Use my precise numbers Floor space and rent, operators and wages, the Beta factor for real human output, spoilage, financing and the risk you carry. Off by default, so the quick answer above stays exactly as it is. Off

Apply these numbers to the result

Floor space the machine eats

Space used Not just the machine's footprint. Count the working aisle around it, the loading table, the dryer or curing unit, and the pallet of blanks waiting beside it. An auto press plus dryer plus washout realistically occupies 600 to 800 sq ft; a single-head embroidery machine gets by on 80 to 100.

sq ft

Rent per sq ft / year Your all-in occupancy cost per square foot per year: base rent plus taxes, insurance and common area (NNN), or your mortgage equivalent if you own the building. Industrial space in North America broadly runs $9 to $16 per sq ft per year depending on the market, so $12 is a middle default. If you fill this in, take the floor space back out of "Running cost / month" so you do not count it twice.

People standing at the machine

Operators needed How many people it actually takes to keep this machine producing. A DTG or embroidery machine is usually one. An automatic screen press is realistically two once you count the person loading and catching garments.

people

Loaded cost per hour Wage plus everything on top of it: payroll taxes, workers' comp, benefits, vacation and statutory holidays, and the unproductive hours you still pay for. That is typically 1.25 to 1.4 times the raw wage, so an $18/h operator really costs $23 to $25/h. If you run the machine yourself, still put a number here. Your hour is worth at least $35 and the time you spend at the press is time you are not selling.

$/ h

Paid hours per day The hours you pay that operator to be at this machine on a production day, not the hours the machine is actually printing. You pay for the setup, the changeover and the cleanup too.

The human factor and the waste

Beta factor The share of your planned output you really get once real life happens: setups, changeovers, art and RIP prep, pretreat and cure, thread breaks, reloads, cleaning cycles, breaks, sick days and the learning curve. Factories measure the same thing as OEE. Read the note underneath for where the number comes from.

Spoilage / reject rate The share of pieces you produce that you cannot sell: misprints, misaligned prints, scorched or under-cured garments, bad registration, puckered embroidery, wrong size pulled. Decorators commonly plan 2% to 5%, which is why supply contracts allow an under-run or over-run in that range. Zero is not a real number.

Material lost per reject What you throw in the bin with a ruined piece: the blank plus the ink, film, thread, backing or paper already spent on it. A ruined tee is around $6 to $9, a ruined polo or jacket a lot more. This is separate from your profit per piece, so nothing is counted twice.

Why there is a Beta factor, and why we default it to 65 to 75%

No machine ever gives you the output you planned. The day gets eaten by setups and changeovers, art and RIP prep, pretreat and cure time, thread breaks, reloads, cleaning cycles, breaks, a sick operator, and the learning curve on a machine nobody has run before. Beta is that gap, expressed as one number you can move.

Factories measure the same thing and call it OEE (Overall Equipment Effectiveness), and the published reference points are consistent: 85% is treated as world class, and the average discrete manufacturer sits near 60%. A decorating shop lives on short runs, so changeovers hurt more than they do in a long-run factory. But the "pieces per day" you typed above is already a sales-realistic number rather than the machine's rated speed, so Beta here only has to absorb the human and interruption layer, not the demand problem. That lands the default between the two published anchors.

55%Rush jobs, one-offs, constant colour and garment changes, a new operator

70%The default. One trained operator, a normal mix of repeat and new work

85%World class. Long runs, repeat artwork, a clean queue, preventive maintenance

We set it per method: screen printing starts lowest, because screen prep and colour changes dominate the day; sublimation starts highest, because jobs are short and setup is light. Move it to whatever your own shop floor actually does.

How you are paying for it

Down payment The share of the price you pay in cash up front. Set it to 100% if you are buying the machine outright, and the financing lines below stop applying.

Interest rate (APR) The annual rate on the equipment loan or lease. Bank and SBA-style equipment financing for a small shop broadly runs 8% to 12%; vendor and lease-to-own programs run higher, often 12% to 20% once you convert the payment back to a rate. Ask for the rate, not just the monthly payment.

Term How many months you are paying. Equipment terms are usually 36, 48 or 60 months. A longer term lowers the payment and raises the total interest, and the calculator adds that interest to what the machine has to earn back.

months

The risk you are carrying

Risk & claims reserve Money you set aside because some of the profit above never reaches your bank account: reprints and customer claims, an invoice that goes bad, a slow season with the payment still due, a warranty gap or a part on backorder while the machine sits. This is separate from the Beta factor, which only deals with how much you produce. 5% is a conservative starting reserve; raise it if you sell on terms or lean on a few big accounts.

It pays for itself in4.1 monthsafter that, it's about $3,600/month of profit dropping straight through

Monthly profit$3,900

First-year profit (after the machine)$31,000

Return in year one193%

Pieces to break even1,455

The most-bought in this category

Street/MSRP figures gathered from manufacturer and dealer listings, 2025-26. Autos and industrial DTG are usually quote-only, so treat those as a starting range.

Who's running this machine?

A press only prints when someone's standing at it. Before you bank the profit above, count the real, fully-loaded cost of that operator: wage plus payroll taxes, benefits, vacation, and training.

Calculate the true cost of the operator

A machine only pays off if you keep it busy.

The payback math lives or dies on that "pieces per day." The shops that fill the schedule aren't chasing every job by hand. They've got client stores and reorder programs feeding steady work to the machine, month after month.

Idle capacity is the most expensive thing on your shop floor. Let's talk about keeping your production booked.

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Just so we're clear: this is a free tool that gives rough estimates and general information to help you explore your options. It is not financial, legal, tax, or professional advice. Programs, prices, numbers and eligibility change, so always do your own research and confirm the details before you act on anything here. CFDFpromo is not responsible for decisions made based on this tool. Canada & USA.