A heat press can be an important tool, achieving color and detail that other methods of printing can’t. When it’s properly maintained, it’s one of the smartest machines in your shop. Ben Robinson, vice president of Stahls’ Hotronix (asi/88984), gives advice on how to care for your heat press platens to take advantage of the machine’s capabilities and increase its lifespan.

Use a quick-slip lower cover to help with garment threading, which will increase production.

Clean the upper and lower platens regularly. At a minimum, platens should be wiped down with warm, soapy water (using standard dish soap) once a week. However, if you’re running high volume through the machine, you’ll need to tweak this timeframe, perhaps as frequently as once per day. “I compare it to a frying pan,” Robinson says. “If you’re cooking more, you need to clean it more. If you see residue from one print to the next on the shirt, wipe it off. If the prints are becoming distorted, wipe it off.” Don’t use cleaners with grit, as they will scratch the platens.

Buy Teflon-coated platens. Keeping with the frying pan theme, Robinson refers to removing a fried egg from an ungreased skillet. “You have to practically chisel it off,” he says. “I recommend Teflon coating 100% of the time. It’s worth paying a little bit more to save yourself the headache and the damage to your garments.”

Avoid scratches. When printing on garments with zippers or buttons, cover the accessory with a Teflon sheet or a flexible silicone pad. Keep all tools away from the heat press, especially when using razor blades or picks to peel off your transfers. If you damage the platen, you can use an upper platen cover as a temporary Band-Aid, but it can throw off the temperature of the heat press since it creates a barrier between the press and the garment. If the damage gets too bad, you’ll have to send it in to the manufacturer to fix. Of course, this process disrupts production, so it’s best to prevent platen damage all together.

Oil your machine. Keep your heat press a well-oiled machine by applying one drop of light machine oil on all the pivot points or hinge points. Robinson recommends oiling the platens once a month or whenever you hear the machine squeaking.

Enable threadability. A quick-slip Teflon cover snaps on the lower platen and has elastic under it, making it easy to slide shirts on the press while protecting the machine. “If you slide a lot of shirts onto the bottom rubber pad, it causes friction and wears the corners down,” says Robinson. “The cover enhances the printing and enables you to thread – or split – the shirt so you’re printing with one side on the press and the other underneath.” This feature increases production as it allows the user to quickly spin the shirt to print the other side without removing it from the press.

Watch This!

In this video, Transfer Express (asi/91804) explains how to quickly and easily clean up a mess on your heat press.