DSF

Hi guys

Just run across this listing on Ebay and wondered if anyone has purchased or used one of these? What are your thoughts?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Save-TIME-wit ... 6016.l4276

It seems as if each mug position can be individually used, has it's own timer and heat control.

John

I don't like the single versions of that type of mug press, and much prefer the newer horizontal type, but you essentially have all your eggs in one basket if the power supply goes down, whereas with individual presses you have a lot more redundancy in your equipment.

its chinese and its cheap - warning bells are ringing.

However, if and its a big if, if all the elements heat evenly and the grip on the mug is good, and the temperature controller is accurate, on each of the 5 stations, at £339 its a steal. 5 mug presses with just a Durham blanket are going to cost maybe 200 quid each (reputable supplier) or 70 quid each for chinese unbranded and falling into the buy cheap buy twice category so £350 or so for 5 x cheap or £1000 for 5 x branded.

5 individual controllers is a definite advantage but of course you don't know whether when one fails they all fail and you don't know if they are cheap tat - or rather 5 pieces of cheap tat lashed together

It may not be a .44 magnum and will defintely not blow your head clean off but, "you've got to ask yourself one question: "Do I feel lucky?" Well, do ya, punk?"

I notice that on the ebay page its described as lightweight and portable - if you scroll down it also says that it weighs 32kg!!

If you take the plunge and buy one - let us all know what its like, it will either be a pleasant surprise or confirm all of our prejudices!


regards


Arthur

EBay ad looks like they are merely intermediaries because the press is shipped in from outside of UK....probably from China. At the bottom of their EBay ad there's information on how they fiddled the import duties which is questionable. Looking at their EBay shop they are producing a great deal of 'rip off' items. I say rip off because I very much doubt the items shown are licensed. The images of their products look to be pretty 'crap' as well.

In a nutshell if it was me I wouldn't bother even looking for a barge pole.........I would simply steer well clear. Apart from their 'suspect' Ebay shop I suspect there's little chance of 'support' should something go 'pop'.

Used very similar to this style on a 5 head and they are not very good. You can probably use it for easy prints but anything that needs very good controlled and even heat/pressure is where it will struggle. As we also use other styles of 5 head press and trying out different options I am sure the issue lies in the pressure coming from the back of the press rather than the side/front. It just doesn't form around the mug as well as the latter. As far as Chinese and cheap are concerned, virtually all the presses I have ever used come from there and have experienced the full spectrum of qualities. Rather than saying Chinese is crap what I do tend to find is the "you get what you pay for" scenario rings true. Doesn't matter where it comes from as the Chinese can also produce top notch if that is the spec you give them.

Andrew you are absolutely correct in saying that chinese does not necessarily equal crap build and we have all seen the various mug presses on ebay for 70 quid that look exactly like the mug presses sold in the UK by reputable dealers. They may even come from the same factory, the difference is as you rightly say the spec they are built to. The problem is the chinese are also very good at copying anything and making it look like the real thing. Unfortunately that doesn't actually make it the real thing.

I shouldn't have made such a sweeping generalisation - I'll go and stand in the corner for a while and consider what I did ;o)

Tried one from Coralgraph a while ago, awful machines, mine went back for a refund. Shame no-one has come up with a decent version of this, an Adkins 5 head for example would be good....but pricey!

..... actually, Serigraf do a five head machine that looks better quality. They changed manufacturers a while back and I've not seen any of these in the flesh yet.

http://serigraf.ie/products/e-5%20mug-press

I use the heatpressuk 5 at a time press and absolutely rate the machine. Its well over 10 years old now and still works brilliantly.

I did have a similar machine to this one you are talking about. i used it twice and then chucked it in the nearest skip.

Watch out for these machines especially the ones floating around on eBay very fiddly, the problem lies with each head relying on the same motherboard and once it messes up which it will it is almost impossible to fix by your self you have to haul it back to them and get ir changed and once they fix the returned item they will refurbish it and sell as new.

There was the newer model this was the same concept but instead of 1 board it had 5 but again it is too temperamental just poor quality electronics running the mats. Personally i would wait for someone to mock up a decent controller and after a fair amount of reviews will go into the 5 in 1.