Advice about heat press purchase - Coralgraph

[Domino_Mogwai]

Hi All,

First time posting here and just wondering if anyone would be able to offer some advice. I am looking to buy a heat press for about £200, its not for business use more for making family clothing items and using mainly htv. I have found this heat press from Coralgraph for £120 but cant find any reviews about coralgraph as a company or this particular heat press which i am assuming is chinese? Does anyone have this machine? or know anything about it? had experience with Coralgraph?
http://www.coralgraph.com/heat-press/fl ... heat-press

As you can imagine i don't want to buy something that doesn't work or is a total safety risk. I have looked on Ebay and Gumtree for second hand branded machines but they seem to be in England and collection only due to weight and im in Scotland

Suggestions for alternative presses welcome
Thank you

[arthur.daley]

Hi

Whilst I can't really help you much regarding the press in question I can offer you the piece of advice that just about every member here will give - and most of us have learned this the hard way, buy cheap buy twice. Obviously there are exceptions to the rule but they tend to be few and far between.

The press is undoubtedly Chinese and some one here probably has or has had one and may post their thoughts in the next day or so. Try doing a search on Coralgraph and then pick out the ones relating to heat presses.

Coralgraph are on the whole a decent enough company. You could certainly do a whole lot worse than Coralgraph if you venture onto fleabay.


Good luck!

Arthur

[Domino_Mogwai]

Thanks Arthur.

I ended up buying the Hobby Jack for £135 + vat so hoping i wont have any problems with it as its an Adkins press and its big enough for now.

[Tricia]

Domino_Mogwai how are you getting on with the Hobby Jack? Is the temperature the same all over the platten right up to the edges or does it fluctuate a bit? I like the look of the press as it's small and light, means I might be able to move it myself instead of having to get my son down to move mine any time I need to lol. I'm thinking I could get away with an 11" platten if it heats up to the edges.

[Domino_Mogwai]

Hi Tricia, I have found the Hobby Jack to be a good wee piece of kit however there is no way of knowing what the temperature of the press is as the temperature dial is just 1 to 10 i think. I have one of those laser thermometer gun and have found that the temperature is even all over the platten with maybe a 1-3 degree drop at the corners. I have it set between 8 and 9 which give a temperature of 150 degrees. I have used it for tshirts and cushion covers and find it does the job well but can be a little bit fiddly with positioning the garment due to the small size. It has a bit of weight to it but nothing too heavy so you should be able to move it around easily.
I would recommend this if you are doing small/medium sized garments and you don't need a temperature above maybe 200 degrees?

Hope this helps.

[Tricia]

Domino_Mogwai, thank you so much for such detailed information, it's very helpful and very much appreciated.

[mags1892]

Remember laser thermometers are NO GOOD for measuring heat press kit, the ONLY way is to measure it CLOSED as open it will have a constant breeze running through it and the reflective surface gives incorrect readings to a laser, this combined with cheap laser thermometers being pretty naff also. If your press measures correct temp when opn it will be massivly hotter when closed , a good thermometer with a cable sensor is around the £50 mark this will measure closed.

[gavtheoldskater]

i bought a small swingway from coralgraph. it works, thats about all i can say. it feels cheap even compared to my other larger fairly cheap press.

the unit also failed within a fairly short time and i had to pay to return it, the whole press, which was not cheap.

then when it was finally returned the box had been dropped and one of the legs bent. when i contacted coralgraph i was told that it was my fault for not returning the unit in the correct box, they had sent it back in the box i used, and they said that if i wanted them to look at it i would have to return it at my cost.

pretty rubbish service i think, i definitely do not treat my customers that way, but then its their loss as i won't use them again.

[Domino_Mogwai]

any chance you could provide a link with an example of one of these sensors please?

[Domino_Mogwai]

Thanks Gav, will defo be avoiding them then