halogen oven vs Sublimation vacuum oven

[smiley_mug]

So i came to the forum to research multi mug presses but it sounds like an oven is what I need, but which one?

I need to print quite a few mugs for Christmas but then probably won't use it that much for the rest of the year so i don't want a big one.
If i go for the halogen oven, buy two of them and stagger them, will I have enough time to unload/load one of the ovens before the other one finishes? Is it possible to use 2 at once or do you have to consider the load on the electrics. Can you run them continuously for a quite a few hours?

Is there any advantage to the Sublimation vacuum oven that fits 12 in apart from them doing 12 at once? With this will it waste electricity if i used it to just do 3 -4 mugs in the future.

I think I'm leaning towards the two halogen ovens because of the price but any help/ thoughts on the pros and cons would be really appreciated

[Customprintwales]

Just remember if you buy 2 halogen ovens the sticking point is not the wrapping and unwrapping it's the heat of the silicon wraps and especially the metal parts that will slow you down.

So you need at least 3x the number of wraps for the capacity of the ovens unless you want to burn your fingers. I've tried using heat gloves but its a bit clumsy.

Halogen ovens are low powered so you should easily be able to run 2 domestics ones at the same time.

If you are using the round table top halogen ovens then you can cook 4 at a time and it takes about 20 minutes.

I do most of my mugs in a halogen oven as I think I get a better quality finish.

I have 12 wraps which tend to be - 4 on the mugs in the oven, 4 on the mugs for the next cook-off and 4 going cold.

[webtrekker]

That's a good point about the silicone wraps. They get really hot. I was going to try dunking my mugs with the wrap attached to see if I could cool them down quicker. I've often dunked mugs with the paper wrap still attached and they come out great, so the next logical step is to try with the silicone wrap still on.

[smiley_mug]

thanks for your help guys, I've ordered a couple of the halogen ovens from your link on another thread webtrekker and they have gone down to £19.99.

[Sanj500]

Does anyone know if the wraps that are used have any bearing on the quality and consistency of the end print. I have seen cheap and expensive wraps, so there must be a difference?

[smiley_mug]

Does anyone know if the wraps that are used have any bearing on the quality and consistency of the end print. I have seen cheap and expensive wraps, so there must be a difference?

when i was looking last year i'd say the price was more related to how soon you were going to get them so if in the UK and quick delivery expensive and if in China and 2 weeks - 6 weeks waiting time much cheaper. I bought some and was promised a quick delivery but they took ages and had defo come from China.

[Baldy]

Does anyone know if the wraps that are used have any bearing on the quality and consistency of the end print. I have seen cheap and expensive wraps, so there must be a difference?

I had a play with both the 'premium' red wraps and also the cheaper green ones and there wasn't any difference in print quality. The red ones can be adjusted whereas the fittings on the green ones are fixed.
Got mine from Subliblanks

[AngelaMc]

I bought a few green wraps and took off metal fittings and replaced with long screws/nuts instead - work very well and can be adjusted to fit a few different mugs.

[Daninho]

I have expensive mug wraps and the cheap silicon ones. The expensive ones are made of metal and they use the same silicon "foam" you can see in mug presses, the "red stuff". I am disappointed from them because they dont give pressure completely to the handle which means you can not do prints reaching close to the handle which is a major downside. The cheap silicon ones can do that. I dont think a vacuum oven will give any benefit unless you do smartphone cases which need the vacuum. I have one of those little hot air ovens, looks like a Halogen mini Oven but has no Halogen bulb inside or whatsoever, just a normal spiral heating element. Works great

[Tiamegz]

About to try my first mug in a halogen oven but have a question... so you wrap design around mug, secure with heat tape and then do you use some kind of backing paper between the design and the heat wrap? If so, what paper do you use? I know you can use a teflon sheet for t-shirts, but what paper (if any) do you/must you use for mugs between the design and the wrap? Just hope I've got something lying around I can use as itching to give this a try. Many Thanks