List Price: $1,799.99
Sale Price: $537.95
Today's Bonus: 70% Off
I spent about 2 months researching what items I would need to start a simple personalized gift business. I had looked into franchises like the t-shirt and mug photo kiosks you see at the mall. However, most required anywhere from $5,000 to $20,000 startup. This was way beyond my budget and realistically I would not have this type of investment any time soon. I knew two important items were a heat press and a mug press. And for the money, the PRO-8800X does a great job. We have had this since July 2012 and have done nearly 100 sublimation mugs, ornaments, and coasters. We have also done about 50 t-shirts. As far as the heat press goes, very few issues once we learned how it worked. It really is pretty simple.
The mug press, plate, and cap frames connect quite easily to the heat press. And it is fairly simple to switch between the items. The mug press itself involves a little work when it comes to switching the wraps. It comes with four one for small mugs, larger mugs, latte cups, and larger latte cups. We have been able to do 11 and 15 oz mugs, water bottles, and travel cups fairly easily. The most difficult part is that you have to undo the eight screws on the mug press frame to switch out your different sized mug wraps. About a 5 10 minute process. Not complicated, just annoying if you are impatient. We can do drinkware in about 5 6 minutes per item. Down the road if business increases, we can see having to purchase either another 8 in 1 multifunction press or a separate mug press. If we go with another heat press, we would have no problem buying another one of these. But for now, this machine on its own more than gets the job done.
The press area on the actual heat press is only 12" x 12". But it has been more than adequate for our needs. We don't do many large format items. If we do, we simply break the design into several pieces. However, for most of the heat transfers you would use in the beginning, this is a large enough work area to accomodate them. Besides, once you get to commercial production in the thousands or larger formats, you would need to start looking at a more industrial model than this anyway. But for the mom and pop shop, one or two man shop, or small business entrepreneur this is a great investment. With a little marketing and hustle, you could easily recoup your investment in 3 4 months. Sooner if you already have the customers. This press is a great way to get your feet wet in the industry without breaking the bank and still be able to output professional, quality items.
I love the digital readout which allows us to set and monitor the temperature and time. It heats up quickly and maintains a fairly constant temperature while in use. Once we press the button for the timer, we can walk away from the items that take over 2 minutes. The buzzer is loud enough so that we can come running when done. It is also easy to adjust the force or pressure. With the twist of a knob I can go from a light to a very heavy press. Which is important as items will vary in the force required to get good results.
Really, I don't have anything bad to say about the machine. For the price I was expecting some cheap looking toy. I was worried as a newbie this would be a purchase I would regret. But this thing is solid, functions as it should, and looks as good as some of the more expensive presses on the market. It arrived quickly from Mix Wholesale. My only issue was that there were two screws stripped in the mug press frame. It did not stop functionality, but it made it difficult to switch between the mug wraps. I contacted Mix Wholesale and they responded quickly. I had the replacement mug frame within a week of contacting them. So I don't think anyone should have too many concerns about buying this item from them.
Just in case this is helpful for someone starting out this is our setup.
We use the Epson WorkForce 30 inkjet printer, Gercutter Gerprint inks, and Conde mug paper for most of our sublimation items mugs, ornaments, luggage tags, keychains, coasters etc. We have also used the Mugs n More paper with our Brother HL-3070 laser printer with good results.
For t-shirts we use JetPro SoftStretch inkjet for lights and BlueGrid or 3G Jet Opaque for darks. For t-shirts we settled on the Gildan 50/50 or 100% cotton shirts. They quality is good, price reasonable ($2 $3 bucks per shirt)and we have had few problems with the transfers adhering to the shirts. We just purchased a Silhouette Cameo for contour cutting the heat transfer paper. Before that we used a friends until they told us to get our own. We were unsuccessful in getting ImageClip self-weed paper to work. But I cannot say if that is the fault of the heat press, the ink, or the shirts we use. There are so many variables when working with heat transfer paper. Research on various industry forums have shown others with inconsistent results with the paper, so we settled on what we knew worked with our setup.
After nearly 3 months of trying various inks, papers, and sublimation items, rarely has the issue been the heat press. And as a beginner, this machine is going to have everything you need to do the most popular sublimation or heat transfer items mugs, tshirts, keychains, mousepads,and ornaments. The fact that when starting out in the sublimation/heat transfer business this machine has all the extras you normally purchase separately as add-ons with other machines is a huge cost saver. Between this, my two printers, paper, ink, and supplies I was able to get started for under $1500 dollars.
Just a warning, after the heat press, your biggest cost will be sublimation blanks or transfer paper in the beginning. Why? Because it is often not mentioned how many mugs, t-shirts, and pieces of paper you will go through to perfect your item. Our first order for one photo mug, cost us about 8 mugs, three different types of sample paper sheets packs, and two different inks and cartridge sets. So if you factor that into your initial cost, $500 bucks on a good 8-in-1 heat press is a bargain.
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I purchased this press in October , I use it everyday almost. Today I pressed off Tshirts ,turned machine off as i usually do. Well I started smelling smoke!!! The button was in the OFF position!!!! SMOKE everywhere!! Heating element( top part) was very HOT n SMOKING!!! So please double check ur machine!! I'm waiting to hear back from company because I had to call amazon, there wasn't any number to contact company!!!Best Deals for Professional 8 in 1 Multifunction Sublimation Heat Press Machine
Got this press to add to my shop for doing some heat press projects. I am still playing with the different functions but so far have been extremely pleased with the operation. Function change overs could possibly be simplified but the time factor for me is not that important. Great press for the money invested, about half the price of other presses I was considering. I would definitely recommend this press to anyone considering starting up a small heat press operation. Delivery was as promised and the quality surpasses my expectations.Honest reviews on Professional 8 in 1 Multifunction Sublimation Heat Press Machine
I'm new in this area, got this machine which comes with some attachments so I can start my own business. Still working on it. I't not hard, just don't have all I need yet. Good quality, heavy steel, the whole pack weights around 90lb. Very happy with my purchase.Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for Professional 8 in 1 Multifunction Sublimation Heat Press Machine
I am not new to heat presses, cheap or expensive. I bought this one as a backup. I turned it on to test, set the heat at 245 to test press a cotton shirt, it burnt a whole in the shirt. I tested the temp with my laser meter to find out that the temp digital gage was way off. I shut it off so I could come back to it later. After an hour I smelled smoke and found that the machines power was off but the temp kept going up. It was OVER 600 degrees at this time and was melting the metal decals off it. The power cord was smoking too. I unplugged with gloves and turned a fan on it to cool down quickly. While it was cooling, I was initiating a return with amazon. Luckily they have great customer service.I AM JUST GLAD I WAS PAYING ATTENTION, COULD HAVE BURNT MY HOUSE DOWN. From the reviews, i am not the first either.
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