By Erik Merkley

Why Use a Heat Press?

Whether for hobby or business use, heat presses are the perfect tool for applying flex and flock vinyl or large rhinestone designs. If you’ve struggled with a normal iron to get large vinyl designs to stick or find they peel off after several washes then you will benefit from a heat press.

There are three crucial ingredients to getting a long-lasting vinyl application:

• Precise timing
• Even temperature
• High pressure

While an iron is fine for small designs, it can’t deliver the consistency of temperature over a large design for the right amount of time. Heat presses have specially designed plates which spread the heat evenly, adjustable pressure, solid silicone bases to squeeze the vinyl onto the garment, and electronic control over temperature and timing.

So can I just use an ironing press?

No! Commercial heat presses are fundamentally different to domestic ironing presses. A domestic press is designed to iron and steam garments flat – hardly a task that needs high precision! There are few reasons they are unsuitable for use with vinyl:

• Ironing presses have very uneven temperatures over their heating plate, with some areas far too hot and others too cool
• Even a small amount of steam escaping can destroy a vinyl design
• The soft foam on the bottom plate great for pressing pants, but it doesn’t allow the force needed to bond vinyl into fabric
• You have no precise control over the temperature of the press or the time it is use.

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