Mug Press for Water Bottles

[Tania]

I have purchased some water bottles and I am pretty excited to get them sublimated.
Does anyone have any experience of sublimating these, they are the same size in diameter
as a 9oz mug.
I was wondering if I should purchase a double mug press to cover a bigger area?
If so which one, there are so many.

Thank you

[Justin]

Hope you don't mind me pitching into this discussion. We use an oven for larger mug runs but do still have 2 Adkins Studio individual presses. I was thinking about selling both of these presses as I want to have one press with a couple of different blankets for bottles etc. The larger Adkins press is ideal but not cheap.

We've often discussed the Genie on here and that gets a good write up generally. There appear to be identical presses elsewhere, not sure if they're as good.

MDP have a decent looking press with sensibly priced blankets (worth factoring in) Does anyone uses these?

We have done bottles in our Adkins with a 10/11oz blanket and an additional silicon wrap to pad it out. Usually works ok but not the best solution.

[Tania]

Hi

Thank you. I already have a couple of mug presses out with people who produce some of our charity mugs.
I thought of buying a smaller 9oz blanket for one of them but then saw the double presses and wondered if they would be better as they would cover a bigger area.
The bottle I am looking at doing are the Bowling style so they are quite slim.

[Justin]

Yes we're looking at the Bowling style as well. I know the multi Adkins press does them. Would like to see if any of the cheaper ones work as well, MDP etc.

[Tania]

Thank you, that give me a good guide.

[socialgiraffe]

I have printed hundreds of "chilly/bowling" style bottles using my Genie III. Getting really good results across the entire spectrum of colours in mat and glossy so would recommend that press. I use the smaller 9oz heat band in the press. However, as the bottles are metal I suspect most, if not all, heat presses will work. It really depends on reliability factor for your press. I have never thought of using a double press, I have one and my immediate reaction is that (a) they are crap and (b) the two different bands tend to work at different speeds so you may end up over cooking one end of the bottle. I would stick with a single 9oz, I think you will be surprised how good the print looks on there and not like it is too small...

If I want larger coverage on a sublimation bottle then I use my oven and heat shrink and have even printed a way up the neck.

[Tania]

I have a vacuum press, is that what you mean by heat shrink. ? Do you use a sleeve around it? Thank you for your reply.

[socialgiraffe]

No, Heat shrink is a film that you can purchase. It forms around odd shaped items using a hot air gun. You can purchase in the UK from Dye Sub Supplies I think.

[Tania]

Ok, sorry to keep asking questions, what oven do you use ?

[socialgiraffe]

I use a Blizzard Convection oven (as do many others on here).