If you’re thinking about producing a number of different kinds of products, including T shirts and caps, and/or mugs and other products, you may be thinking about going for a combination press, combo press, or a “5 in 1 press”, “6 in 1” “8 in 1 heat press”, etc.,
Are combination presses a good idea?
Simply put, no, not as far as I’m concerned.
In my humble opinion, the one kind of heat press that should be avoided if at all possible, is the 5 in 1 heat press, or combo heat press.
There’s one exception to this, and that is with just one combination heat press by Geo Knight, the Geo Knight Digital Combo DC16.
Please stick with me, and I’ll explain why…
There’s one very well known, very trusted US made heat press brand who make a digital combo press.
It’s $1295 new, just for the main T shirt press with the flat platen, and the other attachments are $250 and up, each.
This is the Geo Knight DC16, which is the original combination press.
The majority of the 5 in 1 heat presses, 6 in 1, 8 in 1 and so on heat presses which are sold as digital combo heat presses, are much, much cheaper semi disposable heat presses, made with much lesser components, far less reliability, far less durability.
There are two main negative aspects of buying a combination heat press, in my opinion, which are:
- Reduced Production
- Potential for a complete stop in production
Reduced Production
For me, the main negative is that having a combination press is a drop in production potential which comes from only being able to press one kind of product at any one time.
For example, if you had mugs and T shirts to produce, with a separate flat press and mug press, you can do both at the same time – same is true if you had an order for caps and Tshirts at the same time.
When you’re using a combination press, though, you need to do them one at a time, along with a bit of waiting time while the platen gets cool enough to handle, so your production capabilities are reduced quite a bit.
Potential for a complete stop in production
The other negative is that if you have a combination press and it has any kind of issue which requires repair, if the issue is with the digital controller or any other part of the main heat press assembly, and not an issue with one of the individual attachments, this means all of your production stops until the issue is fixed.
If we’re talking about a Geo Knight DC16, then I wouldn’t be too worried about this. The chances of having an issue in the first place are fairly slim. If you do, the Geo Knight support is great, they’ll do what they can to get you back up and running as quickly as possible.
If we’re talking about a cheaply made combination press made in China and imported, then in my opinion, the chances of having a problem are much higher, as are the chances of it taking quite some time to get the issue fixed, which will depend on the reliability of the aftersales service of your supplier.
Why I wouldn’t even recommend the DC16 as a combination press.
Even though Geo Knight are a great, reputable heat press manufacturer, and I highly recommend their heat presses, I wouldn’t even recommend the DC16 as a combination heat press, for most people.
The reason for this is that I don’t think the saving is significant enough to make it worthwhile, when offset against the negative in terms of lesser production capability.
The DC16 isn’t a cheap heat press at $1295 for a 14×16″ heat press, and then the mug press attachment is $400 extra, the cap attachment is $300, the plate attachment is $250 – so once you’ve added one or two attachments, it becomes a fairly pricey setup.
You could, for example (comparing all brand new prices) have a DK16 and a DK7 cap press for $1,670 – or a DC16 with the cap attachment for $1,595. Or a DK16 and a DK3 for $1825 – or a DC16 with the mug attachment for $1695 .
The one exception
There’s one exception, and that is – when available used for a bargain price!
As a flat press (just with the standard Tshirt platens) the DC16 is a great swing away heat press, with most the same features as the brilliant $1600 DK20S, including the ability to press items up to 2″ thick.
I’ve seen the DC16 sell at times on eBay, used, at prices which make them a brilliant option, especially when it comes to just using as a flat press with the standard flat platen.
Looking at recent sold items on eBay, one went for $300, another sold for around $400, and at these kinds of prices, they’re very difficult to beat.
Geo Knight presses are made to last! As I wrote in used Geo Knight heat presses, these presses are proper industrial pieced of equipment, made to work for decades – they’re not the same semi disposable machines that are made in the tens of thousands and imported to the US and other countries where they might last a few years before ending up as scrap metal.
So if you can get hold of a Geo Knight DC16 for just a few hundred dollars, you have a flat heat press that has the potential to keep you in business producing Tshirts and other flat items for years & years.
If you’re thinking of also doing other items such as mugs, and/or caps, you could get setup with the flat press first if you can get hold of a used DC16, and then keep your eye out for a used DK7 cap press for example, and a used DK3 mug press, and end up with a great production setup, allowing you to produce all these items at the same time.
Just to explain the difference. Let’s assume that you jump into your woocommerce or Shopify orders page on Monday morning, or you login to your Etsy or Amazon shop, and you discover you have 30 Tshirts to produce, 6 caps and 10 mugs.
Depending on what T shirt printing method you’re using, each shirt might take 30-40 seconds in the press, so once you’ve prepared your transfers, you maybe have 30 mins or so of pressing to do.
Similar pressing time for caps, so you’ll only need the cap pressing tool for 5 mins or so.
The mugs will take more like 3 minutes each, maybe a bit more.
So if you had a flat heat press, a mug press and a cap press, you’d multi task, and complete the entire production run within an hour or so.
Compare this to using a combination press, you’d probably do the caps first, get them out of the way, wait a bit for the platen to cool enough so you can handle it comfortably with heat resistant gloves, swap to the flat platens, do the T shirts, wait again for the platen to cool, swap to the mug attachment.
If you’re only pressing the occasional T shirt, or the occasional mug, then this isn’t going to be much of a problem, but I don’t think you’re going to be bothering to invest in setting up a printing business just to do the odd one or two items?
If you’re hoping to be getting into some fairly reasonable profitable production volume, then I think you’d be far better off with individual heat presses vs a combination or 5 in 1 heat press.
