If you’re thinking of buying a cheap heat transfer press machine, I just wanted to give you this quick warning. At the end of this post, you still may well buy a cheap heat press, but you’ll at least understand the choice you’re making, and that’s Heat Press Henry’s goal. Hmm, I just referred to myself in the third person, I’m not sure what that means… Anyways.
I’ve been working with heat press machines for longer than I care to admit. I’ve had a lot of experience of a wide range of heat press machinery, from the cheapest heat press machines all the way up to the most expensive well known heat press brands.
So I know exactly what I’m talking about when it comes to the pros and cons of buying a cheap heat press.
Buying a Cheap Heat Press – Pros
There’s only one pro, which is that cheap heat presses are, of course, cheap – or “cheaper”, in comparison to known brands.
Other than cost, there’s no other pro to speak of when it comes to deciding to invest in one of the cheapest heat presses on the market.
Buying a Cheap Heat Press – Cons
Poor Reliability.
In my experience, the cheapest heat presses on the market are among the least reliable. When someone is manufacturing a piece of equipment with price and speed of production (of the heat press itself, not the production the user will be doing with it) being the main priorities, reliability is not likely to be particularly high, especially given that many of these heat presses are generic, the manufacture isn’t creating a brand that they need to protect by ensuring the reliability of their equipment.
Poor Durability.
To make heat presses cheaper, you have to use cheaper components. Cheaper components are usually weaker than their more expensive counterparts, and as a result, the cheaper heat presses tend to be less able to put up with the knocks they’ll often suffer in transit, and also the general wear and tear from daily use. Generally speaking I’d expect something to fail on a cheap heat press much sooner than with a branded press from a reputable heat press manufacturer, made using better quality components.
Potentially Dangerous.
I’ve had electric shocks from heat presses, I’ve seen some scary wiring inside cheaper heat presses, and it’s not hard to see why the cheapest heat presses could be dangerous. I’ve even heard horror stories of cheap heat presses setting on fire! The one that springs to mind was a mug press, the heater blanket errupted into flames, but thankfully the user was watching at the time and was able to deal with it before a fire was able to break out.
Often Impossible to Maintain & Repair.
The reason for this, is that many suppliers of the cheapest heat presses simply “box shift”, they often don’t stock parts, nor offer any kind of maintenance or repair if the heat press has a fault. I receive many phone calls from frustrated printers, desperately trying figure out where to get a part for their heat press.
I’m not saying don’t buy a cheap heat press
The first thing I want to make clear, is that I’m not saying don’t buy a cheap heat press. I’m simply saying do be fully aware of the choice you’re making. What many people do is buy a cheap heat press machine without even realizing that what they’re buying is actually one of the very cheapest heat presses.
Let’s imagine that you didn’t know how much motor vehicles cost, and you bought a brand new Sedan for $5,000. Well, $5,000 is a lot of money isn’t it? If you didn’t know how much a reliable Sedan would usually cost, you may expect to be buying a well built, reliable vehicle that will look after you and your family. So when you’re on the expressway and your new Sedan makes a strange noise, and then comes to a halt – you would be shocked and upset, if you didn’t realize the risk you were taking when you parted with that $5k.
But then someone in the know would say something along the lines of: You paid $5,000 for a brand new Sedan, what were you expecting, a Mercedes Benz?
I’m not saying don’t buy a cheap heat press, it may be your only option, due to your budget, and you can of course upgrade your heat press later.
All I’m trying to get across with this post, is that if you buy a very cheap heat press, it would serve you to be fully aware of the choice you’re making.
Understanding how much money has actually been spent on your heat press.
What many people don’t consider, when it comes to heat presses, is that cheap means cheap. I think this is due to being unfamiliar with these kinds of machines.
Take vehicles for example, if you drive, do you own the very cheapest car you could possibly find?
Most people understand that if they’re going to buy a super cheap car, they’re making a decision based on necessity, which may well come back to bite them.
You wouldn’t expect a cheap sub brand to perform the same as a BMW or Mercedes Benz.
You would buy a cheap car with the knowledge that you’re not going to have the same kind of comfort, power, safety, reliability & total mileage that you’re likely to get if you could afford to invest in a much more expensive vehicle.
When buying machines that folk aren’t as familiar with, however, such as heat presses, people often don’t apply the same kind of logic. To many people, a heat press is just a lump of metal which applies heat & pressure, so it may appear that a heat press is just a heat press, and that paying for a brand name is a waste of money.
Anyone who’s experienced with heat presses will know that this isn’t the case at all. In fact, buying a heat press is very similar to buying a car. If you buy cheap, you’re risking poor performance, poor reliability & potentially poor safety.
The reason that there are cheaper versions of any piece of equipment or machinery, is demand. There’s a demand for cheaper everything – and where there is demand, supply will follow.
Historically, the way such demand for more affordable versions of any popular item has been met was with advancements in manufacturing processes. For example, Henry Ford revolutionized assembly-line manufacturing in order to produce the first widely affordable motor car, the model T.
In more recent history, though, the way supply tends to meet demand for dramatically lower priced versions of popular items, is lower cost production in the far east. Far east manufacturing companies are incredible when it comes to “emulating” popular products & manufacturing them at a much lower cost in order to meet the demand for lower cost versions of these popular products.
This isn’t purely down to where the products are manufactured. Many of the most well known brands across most industries manufacture or at least partially manufacture their products in the far east. It’s due to what the goal is, when manufacturing such products.
If the goal is simply to make the cheapest version of a product, without any focus on reliability, performance & longevity (which are the kind of things you would focus on if the goal was to build a reputable brand, but not if the goal is simply to make the cheapest version of a product), then what you’re going to end up with is simply the cheapest possible version of a product. It’s unfair to expect the resulting product to live up to the expectations of the more expensively produced product being replicated.
A real life example of this is the Geo Knight DC16 Digital Combo heat press, from one of the world’s best heat press brands Geo Knight, vs the many, many cheap copies that are manufactured in China & Taiwan.
The DC16 is not a cheap heat press. It’s very well built, using high grade materials and components. The RRP is around $1500 even just with the flat platen, and the individual tools for mugs, caps, plates & cubes are between $200-$400 each – so with all attachments you’re talking about $2600.
The idea of having one heat press which is capable of producing Tshirts, mugs, plates, caps & other products – is very appealing, but the cost isn’t all that appealing – so it would have been apparent quite early on after the DC16 was launched, that there was a demand for a cheaper version.
I recall one of the first versions, it was such an unashamed copy that the Chinese supplier actually copied and pasted the marketing information from the Geo Knight website and simply changed the name. I’m not kidding! But it was substantially cheaper.
Soon after, there was competition for this copy, and within no time at all there were several competing versions, getting to as low as a few hundred dollars.
Now, the cheapest versions of these cheaper combination presses, are between 8 and 9 times cheaper than the DC16 with all the attachments.
But they’re not the Geo Knight DC16, they’re not made using the same components & materials. The DC16 is likely to out-perform cheaper imitations in all areas, including performance, ease of use, durability & reliability.
Here’s an exercise which should help to highlight my point.
Take the cost of the cheap heat press you’re looking at, which has been imported from the far east (which is nearly always the case with the cheapest heat presses).
Divide this price by five, and you’re probably somewhere close to how much money has actually been spent on building that machine.
The rest of the cost includes the profit of the manufacturer, the profit of the agent (there’s very often an agent involved), packaging costs, shipping costs, import duty etc.
So if you’re thinking of buying a $300 heat press, you’re actually considering running your Tshirt printing business using probably no more than $60 worth of heat press components.
Let’s say I’m way off, and it’s actually closer to $120, this is still nothing when you consider what goes into building a heat press, including the cost of the components, and labor.
We’re talking about steel platens, a heating element, a control panel, a thermostat, opening assist (springs or gas struts), power supply, framework, plus the labor costs of the people employed to assemble the heat presses.
With the leading brands of heat press, such as Geo Knight, Stahls, Hix, Insta and Shulze, just a single, fairly inconspicuous component used in the heat press could have a higher value than the entire build cost of cheaper imported heat presses.
Semi Disposable Heat Presses
The cheapest imported heat presses, are machines that are made to be used until they stop working, and then to be disposed of. They’re not made to be serviced & kept in operation for long periods of time. When the goal is to make the cheapest version of a product, period, then you’re likely to end up with a semi disposable machine, as opposed to a machine which can be maintained and serviced over a long period of time.
If you’re lucky, you may get a year of two of work from your cheap heat press – maybe more, but maybe a lot less, too.
If you’re unlucky, you may get a year or less from your machine before you need to replace it. Although, if you’re really unlucky, you may need to replace the press much sooner. You may have a warranty, but then it depends on who you purchased your heat press from and whether or not they honor the warranty.
If you’re buying your heat press from eBay or Amazon, you need to be careful to ensure you’re buying from a reputable supplier.
“Box shifters” tend to pop up selling heat presses on websites like Amazon & eBay, who see heat presses and other equipment simply as a commodity to sell by offering the lowest prices – and what you’ll often find is that sellers like this aren’t around for very long. This means that many people find that their supplier isn’t around by the time they contact them with an issue.
I know this from experience, I received so many phone calls over the years from people who this had happened to, who were phoning to see if I knew where they may be able to source parts and support for their heat press.
My stock reply was to phone the supplier they purchased their press from, and usually the reply was that they’d already tried that and the supplier doesn’t stock parts, or no longer exists.
The heat press is the most important piece of equipment for T shirt printing businesses.
The heat press isn’t just a piece of machinery that T shirt printers use. It’s the one piece of equipment that you can’t run your business without, regardless of what printing processes you’re using.
You could have a contour cutter, a CMYK laser printer & heat transfer papers, a dye sublimation printer – and they would all be completely redundant without a working heat press.
Given that this is the case, the heat press is the one piece of equipment that you should give the most thought about when it comes to splitting up your budget.
Consider which printing process you’re going to be using.
One thing you need to be aware of, when you’re considering buying a cheap heat press, is that some Tshirt printing methods are more demanding on the heat press than others.
White toner laser no-weed transfer printing, for example, is a process which demands heavy pressure which is consistent across the platen, and also very consistent heat across the platen.
It’s quite likely that if you try to use a cheap non branded imported heat press for this print process, you will find it very difficult to get consistent results at all.
Dye sublimation, on the other hand, is quite a forgiving process when it comes to the heat press, you can get away with using a budget heat press, in terms of the process itself.
In fact, for most sublimation blanks, the quality of the finished, printed product will be no different at all whether you’re using a $300 heat press, or a $6,000 heat press.
The same is still true of dye sublimation printing, though, in that if your heat press stops working, your production stops, so reliability is important.
How to buy a reliable heat press, cheap?
If budget is an issue which is leading you to look into the entry level of heat presses, I would recommend considering two options.
- Buying a cheaper heat press from a reputable supplier.
- Buying a used premium brand heat press.
Buying a cheaper heat press from a reputable supplier.
You’re not going to get quite the same low cost from a reputable supplier than if you buy directly from China, or from the cheapest supplier you can find on Amazon or eBay, but there are lower priced heat presses offered by reliable firms.
The obvious example is the own-brand heat presses produced by heat press nation. This is a well known & reputable company, who also offer most of the most well known brands. While I’d be dubious about purchasing a cheap heat press from an unknown supplier (who may well be simply a box shifter), I wouldn’t have any qualms about purchasing a cheaper heat press from HPN, knowing that they’re one of the biggest heat press suppliers in the US, and that they offer a full warranty with all presses, and hold all parts in stock.
Buying a used premium brand heat press.
The top brands of heat presses, including Geo Knight, Stahls, Hix & Insta, are often found on eBay for a bargain price.
Click here to see ending soon items for used heat presses on eBay.
If you’re UK based, then including the above brands, Adkins presses (a UK made heat press) are a great press to keep an eye out for on eBay, which also sell under the brand names Xpres and Magic Touch.
There are occasionally some incredible bargains to be found in the form of low priced high value Adkins heat presses selling used, particularly the Adkins Beta presses, which are very popular in the UK for white toner laser transfer printing.
Another UK made press you’ll occasionally find a bargain for on eBay are the UK brand Jarin – their mug presses, in particular, are a very well made press, which can sometimes be picked up on eBay at an absolute steal.
Conclusion – Cheap Heat Presses Have Their Purpose, But Buyer Beware
To conclude, I believe that cheap heat presses do have their purpose, in terms of allowing startup T shirt printing businesses to get started on a shoe string.
But what I think is important, is that people understand that if they do buy a very cheap heat press to allow them to start their business on a small budget, it’s really only going to be a temporary solution.
At some point, a T shirt printing business that starts out using a very cheap imported heat press, needs to invest in more serious heat press machinery, otherwise it could have a negative impact on the growth of the business, including periods of stalled production, which is not good for a growing T shirt printing business.
