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screen printing => Equipment => Topic started by: mimosatexas on April 13, 2017, 02:26:15 PM
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After comparing the Hix Swingman, GeoKnight swinger and the Fusion, I'm heavily leaning toward the Fusion. The ability to change out the bottom platen to a whole host of different options and the ability to thread stuff onto the platen easily are huge. Presets and double pressing etc is just icing. Threading on the Hix would be impossible and it felt kind of cheap. I love GeoKnight and threading would be workable with larger stuff, but not smaller items. It also weights almost 200 pounds so I would have to have help to move it if ever necessary. On the hotronix, I know some folks have complained about the aluminum body, but I'm wondering how big of a deal that will be. It also looks like that should be covered under the 5 year warranty (unless I'm missing some fine print).
It looks like the best deal right now would be to buy through bestblanks.com with a 5% off code and free shipping. They also have a "double the warranty" deal for $15, which seems like a no brainer. Any input on whether bestblanks is shady or on the up and up, or if there is a better deal to be had somewhere else. Not interested in buying used on this one...
Any thoughts are appreciated!
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I own a fusion air. I wouldn't buy another one. I thing the UL certification on these is bogus. We melted the wires going into the circuit board and fried the board. It also melted the power switch. They put puny 14ga wires inside the unit directly from the power supply to the board, which to me is undersized. And they get hot when it's on. Especially when the switch wears a bit and doesn't make great contact.
My advice, don't do it unless you really want to test out how good that warranty is.
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we have the fusion air and love it. we have had 2 circuit boards go bad but stahls took care of it with no issues. but yes I would buy another and will most likely do so within the year.
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We have a Fusion. It is a few years old but has been pretty reliable for us considering the abuse it has had on the road doing shows. I would definitely buy another. Guess we have been lucky!!
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our auto rotate failed as well. forgot about that.
the air regulator on the back failed as well.
all of this on a unit in less than 2.5 years.
Maybe we got a lemon.
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our auto rotate failed as well. forgot about that.
the air regulator on the back failed as well.
all of this on a unit in less than 2.5 years.
Maybe we got a lemon.
Ours is not air so maybe most of the problems are with the air units. I'm with you though if I had all that go wrong I'd be looking elsewhere.
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With all of that going out, was any of it covered by the warranty? How difficult was it to get parts? Not interested in the air option, but definitely interested in how Stahls supports their stuff.
Edit: Has anyone bought anything from this bestblanks place before? Saves about $100 versus going through Stahls directly, but wondering if they will actually honor the extended warranty stuff...
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stahls replaced the boards each time at no cost to us. There service is awesome IMO. they have helped trouble shoot some air issues with no problems.
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Did you buy directly from Stahls or from a reseller?
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we bought direct from stahls
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We had one and sold it after less than a year. The digital display made me nuts. I love the idea of being able to split the shirt, but it came up short in so many ways.
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Can you expand on the issues with the digital display? After using the knight and hix digital displays it seemed A LOT better when it came to most things. The hix in particular was frustrating at best... GeoKnight was workable, just not exactly easy to use.
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The icons on the touch screen were not lined up correctly (out of registration for lack of a better explanation) made it frustrating at best to use.
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I got a Knight air 14X16 at least 3 years ago. I still have a 16X20 knight clamshell that I rarely use as the 14X16 does everything I need. I consider it one of the best purchases I have made. Much easier on the arms and shoulders. And you can get different size platens that just pop in. They'll also custom make a platen if needed. I use it nearly everyday especially since I added printable vinyl.
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Consider Instagraphics
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George Knight 16x20. Bought ours from Conde. Love it. Built like a tank. Bottom platen can be changed out. Wanted to get into dye sub and we needed a new press. Never even considered any of the others on the market, they look cheesy to me.
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Oh yeah, I forgot, the Fusion has literally the worst touchscreen I've ever used. For tech that has been around since I was a kid, how they made one this bad is beyond me. You can calibrate it, but it's a waste of time.
If you can't tell, I really hate this machine. I might be biased against it since we've had so many problems. But I doubt I will ever purchase another Stahls press.
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^ same here.
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Must say that the new Knight 16x20 swing press looks pretty awesome though, with the option to upgrade to the twin sliding platens.
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I love my Geo Knight presses.....But doubt I would buy the dual platen one.....I just do not think they "recover" quick enough to use both platens efficiently....When I need to hurry up, I press using 2 presses side by side...
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I thought about this a bit over the weekend. I know that folks here have had problems with these, and that Stahls has been great to work with. The honest fact is that they shouldn't be having problems. If my new car had this many problems I wouldn't buy that brand again, regardless of if the dealer fixes everything for free.
The only time I turn that press on is when we need to press something. I don't turn it on to test it to make sure it's functioning. I need it now, so waiting 2 days for parts foes me no good when I have work that needs to be done.
My sister's boyfriend drives an Audi. The stupid thing is in the shop pretty regularly. So they take her camry to most places because it gets them there. I said he should look at upgrading, but he says it's not fun to drive a camry. Well, it ain't fun sitting in your dead car in the driveway making motor sounds with your mouth either when you need to get to work.
I am not looking for the sporty and flashy equipment. I want a Camry, or good pickup truck. Something that when it breaks you're in shock because it NEVER happens. I depend on this equipment to earn me money, and if I cant depend on it to do that, it's no good to me.
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switch has broken twice on my hotronix clamshell, its a total piece of junk! We leave it on all the time and just unplug it when we are done, if we touch the switch it wont work at all. I will switch to a Geo probably next, just not familiar with them.
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more votes for George Knight and Insta, both in my arsenal.
btw, luddite though I may be perceived as, I like these things as simple as possible, and besides the more accurate temp settings with digital controls on my Stahls, I still often feel more comfortable with analog over digital let alone touch screens. Heck, I still have an analog Insta and analog George Knight in daily production. Does that say something about dependability?
Not everything in my life needs to entertain like a video game
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Geo Knight or Hix for my money... Heard of and have seen way too many broken Hotronix machines.
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Hey Mimosa, I've got a Fusion Air I'll sell you if you really want one.
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We have the air fusion. Touch screen is offset and the power switch breaks a couple times a month and we replace it.
We also have the larger Hotronix pneumatic presses, have had a couple issues with those as well (mostly a power switch / wire burning out kinda deal) but they are used for pretreat non stop.
They worked a lot better than an Insta heat press for pre treat speed wise. The dropping of the lower platen added too much delay time between shirts for us.
I talked to someone at Geo Knight at ISS a year ago about a clamshell pneumatic model they had - this would be the fastest pretreat curing heat press model but it was 16" wide and I mentioned it would be ideal if it was 18" wide to make sure all pretreat is taken care of (we use a Viper XPT sprayer).