[Music]
hi it's josh ellsworth with stahls and
i'm here to talk to you about a quality
heat press investment hundreds of
thousands of businesses invest in a heat
press every year the problem is they're
often investing in the wrong type of
press which creates results that aren't
quality and that's putting them out of
business so today what I'd like to talk
to you about is the hotronix heat press
this is a machine that's manufactured in
the USA and I'd like to compare the
feature set of this press and the
results that that will deliver to your
business versus an import machine that's
really going to leave you out of
business sooner than later so with that
let's walk in and see the differences so
there's a lot of technical terms that go
into the manufacturing of a heat press
platen but the main thing is you want it
flat to ensure it's delivering accurate
pressure across all parts of lower
surface first check is let's make sure
this upper platen is flat hold a
straight edge from corner to corner
across the machine and you should see no
gaps between the edge of the ruler and
the top of the heating element now let's
do that same test on the inexpensive
machine that was imported
you can see the gap that's showing
between the straightedge from the
corners and towards the center left of
the machine we're seeing a distance in
there and on light pressure applications
that means that it's not going to be
even and you're going to have issues
with that area of the print since we're
on the topic of pressure I'd like to
point out another big difference
this machine has the pressure adjustment
at the back of the press now that's okay
it allows it to adjust the pressure up
and down but it creates a major issue
for application that we call pinching
and you don't get even pressure from the
center out so when you lock this machine
down you'll see at the back of the
machine it's actually meeting down
before the front of the Machine meets
down
which causes application issues
especially on thicker items when you
want to sublimate or do some different
decoration techniques now differently
than that hotronix innovated and
patented this feature of the over Center
pressure adjustment so you get even
pressure flowing from the center out but
also the upper floatation aplan
so when you're locking it down the
platen actually levels out before it
makes contact with your garment or item
creating accurate heat applications
every time with a good understanding of
pressure the next thing I'd like to talk
about is temperature and what the
machine is actually reading versus what
it's achieving and then we're actually
gonna cut open one of these heating
elements to show you the difference with
how they're made and what's inside but
let me grab my digital thermometer and
you'll see we have the hotronix heat
press set for 340 degrees and if I hold
my digital thermometer up against the
platen and give it time to come up to
temperature it's reading 336 degrees so
within three to five degrees of what's
on the control board and there's a
couple reasons why but the point is it's
accurate let's go over to our import
press which is reading at three hundred
and forty degrees on the control board
let's hold the same digital thermometer
to the same location on the press and we
can see it reading nearly a hundred
degree variance that's going to cause
major issues when your customers wash
garments that have been
pressed on this machine and I bet they
won't be coming back to order more so
we've talked a lot about the accuracy of
the machine and the quality of the
results that you can produce now I'd
like to actually talk about the
longevity of the machine in its
framework and then also how you load the
machine and what you can make with it so
when you look at the hotronix machine we
see all laser cut steel framework and we
see nice clean robotic welds so you get
a nice durable high quality machine and
that's covered with a five-year warranty
when we look at the import machine we
don't see a laser cut framework we see a
piece that's been hand welded together
which can create longevity issues over
time and so you'll see the warranty on
these machines typically reflect that
and you're encouraged to throw these
away every year and replace it with a
new machine so when you consider the
life of the press and how long this
one's going to last you you're actually
going to get a lot more for your money
in addition to the quality results after
that we need to consider what can I
actually make with the press this
particular press you can see is flat on
the table there's no ability to change
out the lower platen to split your items
and to thread them on and that's gonna
create further pressure issues when you
start to get seams on here talk about
pressing items like left chest logos on
polos like I'm wearing or bags those
sorts of things with the hotronix
machine we have the quick load
cantilever design where you just open up
change out the attachment load an
appropriate size and then you can split
your item and thread it on so you're
gonna be able to grow with this machine
and print more items which will generate
more sales opportunities for your
business I'm going to talk to you a
little bit more at the end about some of
the extra hotronix features that you
don't get on an import press but I'm
anxious to get this heater cut apart so
I can show you the difference in the
element and the RTD probe
okay so now that we've got the heating
elements cut apart we're able to look
inside of the top heater and see the
difference so when you look at the
hotronix heating element you can see it
has the element cast into the top heater
and so when we put a ruler up against
that we get a much thicker heater which
is going to retain the heat and be a
better build in between applications so
you're not losing temperatures so this
one's three quarters of an inch thick
when we look at the import press it's
pretty thin we're only talking about a
quarter inch thick which is going to
create problems when your heat pressing
a lot of shirts shirt after shirt the
other difference we see is when we look
at the actual element itself on the
hotronix you have the elements paste and
it's cast in here so it's tough to see
but it's every inch and a half apart so
this is the actual piece that goes
inside of the element for whatever size
that it is they're inch and a half apart
which gives you even heat on all areas
of the top platen here this one's
actually not bad they're spaced two
inches apart so not as good as the
hotronix but often on these inexpensive
import presses you see this is where it
gets a little bit you compromise on not
only the thickness with how it retains
heat but you'll often see these elements
in a Z pattern or extra distance apart
creating cold spots on the machine
creating further issues with application
now the other big thing I want to point
out that we found when we opened this up
was where it's actually measuring
temperature from so it looks like this
one on the is actually measuring from a
screw that's into the platen and reading
the temperature back to the control
board whereas the hotronix has an RTD
probe that actually has a location in
each element where the probe reaches all
the way down right behind the surface of
where the element is meeting the garment
giving you an accurate temperature
readout and we saw it to the degree
accuracy when we did the test with the
digital temperature thermometer so all
in all you're getting a much better not
only element spacing but a better heater
all together which is why we give a
lifetime warranty on these heaters so
hopefully you're starting to see the
difference between a high-quality
us-made hotronix machine versus this
enix
import press now I want to show you a
couple additional features on this
hotronix auto open clam before we
conclude but first I need to clear some
space and I consider this saving one
business from a bad heat press
investment let's put this press where it
belongs and show you the last features
on the hotronix the two additional
features on this machine that don't have
a comparable on any other press are the
automatic opening so when I lock the
Machine down it counts down to zero and
it opens and allowing me to multitask is
an operator and the digital pressure
readout which means when I lock the
machine down it actually reads a
pressure number from zero to nine that
can be adjusted when you adjust the over
center pressure adjustment up or down by
having that digital pressure read out
along with the digital time and
temperature it takes the guesswork out
of heat application so when you think
about it a heat press is a big
investment into the future of your
apparel decorating business and I firmly
believe that hotronix presses major time
temperature and pressure better than any
other press on the market delivering
quality results for your business time
after time