what heat press should I buy?

[Mark @ Hurricane Printing]

Did my first heat press/foil job over the weekend and I had to borrow someones press, which was limited in what I needed to do. I am going to do an internet search for one but figured I'd ask here for some recommendations. here is what I want:

1 - Digital timer (maybe a digital temp reader too)
2 - Ability to slip the shirt on the heat press like I can on a my actual press. (the one I borrowed i could not slide the shirt on the heat press platen ..I had to lay the whole shirt on the platen and smooth the wrinkles out.)
3 - Interchangeable platens so i can do smaller shirts.

after my first run thru these are the things I realized I needed to make the job run smoother.

[Denis Kolar]

Stahls Hotronix or Geo Knight

I have Geo Knight 16x14 heat press and I want to replace it with Hotronix 16x20.
Geo is good, but I have seen Stahls presses on the trade shows and I want one of those.

[easyscore]

Geo Knight are solid heat presses and their support is great but if you want the ability to swap pallets (which you can do on the Geo Knight presses) but actually be able to put the shirt on effortlessly your best best is the Stahls Hotronix.

[Mark @ Hurricane Printing]

I went with the Stahls Hotronix auto open clam shell 16" x 16"...and they had a special going on where you get either free $100 of product OR an 11" x 15" platen. I went with the 11 x 15 platen....i also am getting a free teflon sheet with it (surprisingly the teflon sheets do not come with it which I find of odd...but they are giving me one for free)... It arrives Monday...my main selling points were: 1 - Made in America and 2- you can load the shirt on it like you can on a screen printing press.....i will admit the free 11 x 15 platen didn't hurt the decision either.

And the recommendations you guys/gals provided helped too!

[starchild]

I've got the Fusion and it was built with the platen having open space to the bottom so you can thread the shirt onto the platen.. Interesting, I didn't know the clam shell were threadable. You should double check that. The platen should be somewhat off the base of the press. If you purchase the caddie stand however you get the ability to thread the shirt onto the platen. If you take the $100 you would only need $199 more for that option.

[Sbrem]

I have had Knight and Hotronix, and I'll also throw in Insta, good quality equipment from them all. And look around; a lot of folks think they're going to have a screaming t-shirt business, only to find out what most of us already know, and end up selling. Some good bargains to be had...

Steve

[royster13]

I have had Knight and Hotronix, and I'll also throw in Insta, good quality equipment from them all. And look around; a lot of folks think they're going to have a screaming t-shirt business, only to find out what most of us already know, and end up selling. Some good bargains to be had...

Steve

I got my last 2 presses (Geo Knight DK20 and Hix HT600P less than 2 years old) for 250.00 (for both)......I thought I died and went to heaven that day.....

[Inkworks]

Rocking my $75 craigslist Hix here. Would like to upgrade to digital heat control and auto-open when the right deal on a used unit comes along.

[Mark @ Hurricane Printing]

I've got the Fusion and it was built with the platen having open space to the bottom so you can thread the shirt onto the platen.. Interesting, I didn't know the clam shell were threadable. You should double check that. The platen should be somewhat off the base of the press. If you purchase the caddie stand however you get the ability to thread the shirt onto the platen. If you take the $100 you would only need $199 more for that option.

You can not "thread" the shirt on the hotronix clam shell..and "theard" to me means the ability to spin the shirt from front to back on the platen (without having to take the shirt off the platen).

What you can do is load the shirt like you would on a screen press..you cant slip the ENTIRE bottom part of the shirt all the way thru but enough to where all you have on the top of the press is just the side of the shirt you want to heat press...granted the caddie would make this much more efficient and ability to slide platen thru the entire shirt....but there is some space below the clam shell (without the caddie) which would be enough to slip a shirt on it. I just didn't have enough dough to get the caddie also...maybe one day in the future.

I made sure to ask that question before I purchased..plus looked at images online and youtube vids of this exact heat press...seen a few vids where the shirt was slide on well enough.

[Mark @ Hurricane Printing]

I have had Knight and Hotronix, and I'll also throw in Insta, good quality equipment from them all. And look around; a lot of folks think they're going to have a screaming t-shirt business, only to find out what most of us already know, and end up selling. Some good bargains to be had...

Steve

oh , I know it...a lot of craigslist ads ".....wanted to start a biz...etc..etc...no buisness...etc..etc..selling everything..etc..etc"....but none of those ads had what I was wanting and the ones that did were local pick up only, no shipping..and none were local to me hahah...same thing on ebay......so i got tired of searching for last 3 days and just bit the bullet and bought a new one...one less thing off my mind.

[Inkworks]

90%+ of my shop is used equip at screaming deals....  I love a bargain!

[Mark @ Hurricane Printing]

I've got the Fusion and it was built with the platen having open space to the bottom so you can thread the shirt onto the platen.. Interesting, I didn't know the clam shell were threadable. You should double check that. The platen should be somewhat off the base of the press. If you purchase the caddie stand however you get the ability to thread the shirt onto the platen. If you take the $100 you would only need $199 more for that option.

I wanted the Fusion for that exact reason...but the Fusion does not have the auto open feature and the auto open feature trumped the extra space for loading a shirt....i think there is a different model Fusion that runs on air that has auto open feature...but out of my price range and where i am going to set the heat press (my office) i have no air..and im not running an air hose thru the house hahaha.

[Mark @ Hurricane Printing]

90%+ of my shop is used equip at screaming deals....  I love a bargain!

the only thing new for my screen printing biz is my black body flash....and this new heat press i bought this morning...everything else is used....so i guess i fall into your 90% range also....(im not including screen frames onto the list...my aluminum frames are new...all my rollers are used)