EBU affiliated clubs get a £250 discount from the Bridge Warehouse on Duplimate machines, of which there are two sorts. Dealer 4 machines also have a good reputation and can read non barcoded cards.
We recently purchased a duplimator, which works well and you can set deal characteristics which is great for teaching - although in theory you would have to specifiy each hand individually since you can only, I think, programme it in blocks - or move the hands around so the appropriate direction got the appropriate hands i.e. everyone could have some practice. One problem we had was that the boards had to be the duplimate boards - the system was very sensitive when we tried to use other pre-dealing boards.
Otherwise you load in four packs of cards and it deals them in a matter of seconds - the longest time is to take the board out, clip it shut so the cards don't spill and then insert the next one.
Comments
EBU affiliated clubs get a £250 discount from the Bridge Warehouse on Duplimate machines, of which there are two sorts. Dealer 4 machines also have a good reputation and can read non barcoded cards.
I only have experience of the Dealer 4 machine as our club has had one for a few years.
Really impressive that it can use any standard cards without being limited to having bar codes.
I have played at other clubs that have Duplimate dealers, as they seem to be happy enough with them, so I guess that they are much of a muchness.
We recently purchased a duplimator, which works well and you can set deal characteristics which is great for teaching - although in theory you would have to specifiy each hand individually since you can only, I think, programme it in blocks - or move the hands around so the appropriate direction got the appropriate hands i.e. everyone could have some practice. One problem we had was that the boards had to be the duplimate boards - the system was very sensitive when we tried to use other pre-dealing boards.
Otherwise you load in four packs of cards and it deals them in a matter of seconds - the longest time is to take the board out, clip it shut so the cards don't spill and then insert the next one.