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blackpaws

Best Quality Heat Press? Brands to stay away from?

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Looking to upgrade to a new press in the 16"x20" range. My most important requirement is that it heats evenly. My current press doesn't seem to heat well around the full edge (not sure if that's a common occurrence) and it also doesn't heat as good directly in the middle, I'm guessing there's not as much pressure in the middle of mine anymore because my press is so old, but this is my current frustration that is leading me to purchase a new press. 

 

Budget is a concern, I'd like to stay under then $2k range but would spend slightly more for the right press. Any and all advice is much appreciated. Thank you! 

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I have the Fusion. It's a real treasure but not cheap. The truly threadable and quick change lower platen makes it the top choice for me but the big Geo Knight monster is also a great machine from what I have read. 

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8 hours ago, Wildgoose said:

I have the Fusion. It's a real treasure but not cheap. The truly threadable and quick change lower platen makes it the top choice for me but the big Geo Knight monster is also a great machine from what I have read. 

Thank you for the recommendation on Geo Knight. One thing I read in the description for their machine is " a system of embedded heater windings that wind tightly and closely together throughout the entire platen for extremely even heat ". Keywords for me being "even heat". I don't see anything about the Hotronix on that. Not that I don't doubt it provides even heat, but I feel reassured with the Geo Knight since they state it in the description.

I seem to have boiled it down to the Hotronix 16x20 ($1600), Geo Knight DK20 ($1156, $1351 with auto popup), or the Hotronix Fusion ($2100).

The fusion would be nice to be able to load projects with the platen pulled out, wouldn't be as hot working. I really wouldn't be switching out platens much however, so not sure it's worth the price difference just to load the platen out instead of underneath the heat. 

At this point I'm leaning towards the Geo Knight now I think. Thank you all for the recommendations thus far. Going to think about this another day or two before pulling the trigger, if anyone has anymore insight I'm all ears. Thanks again!! 

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I'll give you a little more of my 2 cents. 

I am certain the winding is similar on the platen with both of the name brand presses. (Another good option is Hix.) 

I started off my experience with a 15"x 15" swing out press (Chinese) and when I got the 16 x 20 I was amazed at how big it is. I was worried about having to place shirts on upside down to utilize the threadable platen. After getting my head used to working on upside down shirts I am SO SO glad I went that way because you are most often working on that side of the job closer to you rather than bending over and trying to align things clear up at the other end of a 20" platen. I'm a large man and still find it uncomfortable to reach way down to that end on a regular basis so I have been real happy with that. The knight is sort of threadable and I suppose you can thread it upside down as easy as right side up so it's probably fine too. If you go with a clam style you might consider one of those press caddies that allow you to thread from the front. They don't work on the heavy swinging presses. 

On the platens, Once you have a quick change that too can be a life changer. When you do hoodies the pocket comes into play and causes improper/uneven pressure because the pocket holds the press up off a large area of the front. The only good way to deal with this is using a press pillow which is a PIA to get in and out when doing large volume. Withe the quick change I just pop the big platen off and throw on the 11 x 15 sideways and it fits perfectly on all the adult sized hoodies and literally takes about 30 seconds to change. 

Drawer feature. Thought I would use this more but I really don't. I have room to swing the press and find that pulling the drawer out causes me to have to move more and as stupid as it sounds I get tired. Also have a few times that hoodie draw strings or parts of the shirt get caught in the roller area so I don't use this feature except when changing platens or cleaning the upper platen. I wish the Fusion had the option to swing to the left but it only swings to the right. I am right handed and the handle works best swinging the way to does but I had to move it to a different location to get away from a wall. 

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Thank you for the further insight! My current press is 11x15 so this is going to be a huge upgrade for me. I didn't even think to consider hoodies and other awkward things that the fusion would make easier.  I will be using the press I'd guess 80% of the time for sublimating so the interchangeable platen still isn't a huge selling point for me, but definitely something to consider. I saw that they sell a 'shuttle station' attachment for the geo knight, so I can start to load the next project while the first one is pressing. I am really leaning towards that scenario, looks like I'll be at about $1700 out the door, still cheaper than the fusion. Thank you again though for taking the time to reply, I really value your opinion. Like I said I'm still not 100% sold, but still leaning towards the geo knight dk20 with twin shuttle station. 

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I started with a 15x15 cheap press from Amazon, it only took a few months/jobs for me to realize I had to upgrade. I got a Fusion in March and it has been the best purchase I have made so far. I personally use the pull out option more than the swing away but both are a lot better than messing under a hot platen with the clamshell style. Compared to using my old press the Fusion has exceeded my expectations but it is still pricey. I also like that I can set pre-sets so I don't have to put in the time and temp each time, I can just choose "Easyweed" and wait until it's up to temperature. Not a huge thing but I like it.

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Just to be fair there are certainly things I would "Fix" on the Fusion if I could. I don't like who it clunks when you release the pressure. I took it apart to see if there was anything loose in the spindle area but it's not built to be adjustable. I guess the original version had a regular spindle like a trailer axle that could be tightened but they had some strength issues or it was inconsistent in some way so they went to this new design. It's not anything big other than annoying. The other complaint is that the fancy timer/counter will let you set multiple press times in a cycle such as a 3 second first layer then a full count final layer but it counts each part of that as a full cycle so when you are pressing shirts and want to see what your overall shirt count is you have to do bunch of math to double check your progress on a job. I would think that as fancy as that computer seems that they could program it to keep track better. It's not horrible if you are doing two sided single press you just divide in half but get a two sided double layer front with a single on the back and you have to divide by three so it's just a waste of time trying to use the counter. I quit trying to set up multiple timer work and just use a single timer now. Not a very big deal but paying what you do I felt that it falls short on that area. 

 

Black paws the knight presses are built rock solid and I think they have the all the same basic bells and whistles that make life nice including a pressure gauge. I was fortunate and got my Fusion just a few months before they hiked the price. I think I paid $1800 at the time. The extra platens cost additional. I also have a sleeve/pants platen that I use often for hoodie sleeves and across the shoulders on football uniforms and such. 

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