During my 15 years of working at Coastal, this question seems to get asked quite often. Which heat press is right for me?
Taking customer’s opinions and what I’ve learned over the years into consideration, I’ve compiled some important information that you should think about when buying your first heat press.
There are three basic needs you should look for in a heat presses, and they happen to be the same for both the Swinger and the Clamshell styles.
1. Temperature
2. Pressure
3. Time
The most important thing to look for in a press is its ability to provide consistent and even temperature across the platen. An area on a press that doesn’t get enough heat is called a “cold spot.” Cold spots can ruin a transfer by not allowing the image to be evenly and completely applied to your substrate. If you think you may have a cold spot, you can purchase a special thermometer at most craft stores to test the temperature across the heat platen. Correct heat is KEY to getting a good application.
Another key factor is pressure. It is imperative that your press has even pressure from front to back and side to side. If a press fits tighter in a specific area over another, the uneven pressure can cause light scorching, varied brightness across the image and can even ruin items completely. Depending on the press you buy, the pressure may be controlled in one of two ways: through a knob that is usually centrally located on the top of the press or located in the digital components of the machine itself.
The final factor is time. Almost all presses are equipped with a timer. Digital presses will have a digital display timer where you can see the press actually counting down the seconds on the display screen. Non-digital presses will allow you to manually enter the time, but will not show the time elapsing during the press. All heat presses have a buzzer which will sound when the set amount of time is over, so even if you can’t actually see the seconds count down, you’ll still know when the time is up.
At this point you might be asking yourself which press is best suited for your needs. Swinger or Clamshell?
Advantages of a Swinger heat press:
Swinger presses offer a more overall even pressure when pressing items such as plaques and other thick items. Ask yourself “Will I be pressing items over 1/2″ thick?” If so, then you should consider going with a swinger style heat press.
Swinger platens lower all at the same height, so this allows for a perfect fit front to back of the item and can keep “slippage” or “pinching” of the item to a minimum.
This style press also offers a heat-free work area. This is perfect if your applications are going to require extensive time for layout.
Disadvantages of a Swinger heat press:
They can take up a lot of room. The top of the press platen will lift up and then you must swing it all the way around to the side to gain full access to the bottom platen. These presses and small workspaces don’t mesh well.
Advantages of a Clamshell heat press:
Price of the clamshell styles can be much less expensive. Not only can you get a larger press for less money, in many cases, you also have a much larger variety of size options with clamshells.
A lot of the clamshell styles now come with a floating upper platen. This helps when pressing items like mousepads and sweatshirts. The upper platen floats free so it is always parallel to the lower platen. This works great if you are pressing items that vary in thickness.
Disadvantages of a Clamshell heat press:
Earlier, I mentioned that swinger presses allow you to have a heat free workspace. While you do have enough space for extensive layouts with a clamshell, you have to keep in mind that the heating element is right above your workspace. This could potentially heat up the material you’re about to press, which may create issues if you’re working with thin material.
A clamshell press may not be your best option if you’re looking for an elevated lower platen to fit a garment or bag over (this comes in handy when pressing both sides of an item). It can be hard to find a clamshell press with enough room under the bottom platen to allow for this.
For those of you looking for the best of both worlds look no further than the Hotronix Fusion. The Fusion is fabulous in every way I can think of at this given point! It can operate as a swinger (able to do both thin and thick items with ease) or as a draw press (able to do both the above mentioned items and without taking up all that space needed for the swinger.)
The Fusion is the iPhone of heat presses – fully equipped with touch screen digital controls. Some other great aspects of this press are:
-It’s equipped with the easy-on-platen to allow you to dress the press with a wide range of garments and items.
-It has several lower interchangeable platens available
-It’s equipped with a cast-in tubular heating element every 2” to prevent cold spots.
It truly is one of the finest heat presses available today – contact us for more details!