Brother P-touch CUBE Plus Review: Labelling Everything for Daycare (2026)

The Brother P-touch CUBE Plus (PT-P710BT) is the label maker to buy if labelling is a household habit rather than a one-off daycare chore, because it prints laminated tape up to 24 mm from your phone with no computer involved. Skip it if you have one child starting one daycare, where an under-$50 pack of custom pre-printed waterproof labels does the job without a device or a tape budget.

Labelling is not a glamorous part of starting daycare and it is one of the parts that reliably causes friction. Centres ask for a name on bottles, cups, lunch boxes, nap mats, spare clothes, sunscreen, wipes and coats, and they ask because thirty children produce an astonishing volume of anonymous property. What you actually need is a label that survives hot water and a hot bag, is readable at arm's length, and does not take an evening to produce.

Brother P-touch CUBE Plus at a glance

Spec	Brother P-touch CUBE Plus PT-P710BT
Connection	Bluetooth from Apple or Android devices
Max tape width	24 mm, roughly 1 inch
Tape type	Brother TZe laminated tapes, many colours and finishes
Software	P-touch Design and Print, Brother iPrint and Label, P-touch Editor
Power	Built-in rechargeable Li-ion battery
In the box	24 mm black-on-white starter tape and 24 mm black-on-gold glitter tape
Templates	Pre-designed home, office, retail and crafting templates
Budget	Under $250

Specifications above come from Brother's published product information. Confirm current pricing and tape compatibility before buying.

Where it falls short

The honest weakness is running cost, and it is the reason to think twice. TZe cartridges are the ongoing expense, wider tapes cost more, and the speciality finishes cost more again. A printer with two years of tape behind it is a different proposition from the printer alone, and Brother is not shy about the tape catalogue. Price two replacement cartridges before you decide.

The second weakness is scope. If the only thing you will ever label is one child's daycare kit, this is a lot of machine for the task. Published owner reviews from parents split cleanly: households that also label pantry containers, storage bins, cables and school supplies love it, and households that bought it for a single daycare start often say a label pack would have been enough.

Third, it is app-dependent. There is no keyboard on the device. If you dislike doing small tasks through a phone app, or if you want to hand it to a grandparent to use, a traditional keyboard label maker is a better shape.

What owners consistently report

Drawing on the consensus of published owner reviews rather than any hands-on use of our own: durability of the printed labels is the standout. People report P-touch labels surviving dishwashers, bottle warmers and repeated washing where printed stickers peeled. The 24 mm width gets specific praise for legibility, and the battery is repeatedly mentioned as the thing that makes it live in a kitchen drawer rather than an office.

The consistent criticisms are tape cost, occasional Bluetooth pairing frustration, and app updates changing the workflow. Some owners also note that the glitter and speciality tapes are attractive and expensive, which is a fair description of how the economics work.

Who it suits

• Families with more than one child in care or school.
• Households that label pantry, storage and cables as well as daycare kit.
• Anyone who wants labels that survive a dishwasher without argument.
• Parents who would rather print from a phone than own another keyboard device.

Who should skip it

• One child, one daycare, one label run, where a pre-printed pack wins.
• Anyone unwilling to keep buying tape.
• People who want a device someone else in the house can pick up without an app.

What actually needs a name on it

Centres vary, but the list is longer than most parents expect: bottles and lids separately, cups, lunch boxes and every container inside them, nap mats and blankets, spare clothes down to socks, coats, shoes, sunscreen and any medication. Our daycare packing list and childcare packing checklist cover the full set, and childcare labeling supplies goes through what works on which surface. The best daycare labels and name tags roundup compares the pre-printed options directly.

Milk needs its own labelling rules, since centres require the child's name and the date on every bottle and have specific storage limits; see breastfeeding and pumping around daycare, and if you are still choosing a pump, our Spectra S1 Plus review covers the usual default. If the wider household admin is the real problem, the Skylight Calendar review looks at the shared-schedule side of it, and the childcare cost calculator puts all of this in proportion.

Alternatives worth comparing

Buying notes

Price two replacement TZe cartridges and include them in your comparison. Buy the widest tape you will actually use, since legibility is the point. And be honest about scope: if the label maker will only ever produce one child's daycare set, the pre-printed packs above are the cheaper and faster answer, and saying so costs us a sale but saves you money.

This review draws on Brother's published product information and the consensus of published owner reviews. We have not tested this product ourselves. Confirm current specifications and tape compatibility before buying. As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases, at no extra cost to you.