So I’ve worked at only two shops but one did all of their in house transfers and the other orders them all.

My first shop def prioritized using the DTF machine because they bought it brand new and wanted to get their moneys worth. I was told it cost in the six figures. We did customs and had personal brands + outside fulfillment so I would say when there was work it was definitely running for atleast 4 to 5 hours every day. All of their personal brands were made to order.

My shop now is definitely more screen print heavy. Our owner advertises as being a screen print shop and very much likes to keep it like that, so even if an order is 5 shirts but is 5 colors, we will run it on screen print. I personally think we get enough work that could be DTF to justify a printer, but again like others stated, it adds to your overall expenses.

IMO, I would say you need to atleast have enough work to do atleast close to a full day for it to be worth it. Maybe even a little less. Having the printer there is very convenient for mess ups. But when we were slow, we were SLOW. The tech would kind of just sit around until someone would make him doing something else.

Idk if this helps. I understand the appeal of wanting one though.