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Are your wondering if your heat press is on its last leg, or preparing for a heat press purchase? You’ll want to have a basic understanding of the prep time required for heat up. This article will reveal the time it took for all different size heat presses to reach a certain temperature so you can use this as a benchmark for your own press.
If your heat press is taking a lot longer than the average time, be sure to read on to see what may be causing the slow heat up time. Now on with the results….
For testing purposes, we chose a middle of the road temperature of 385°F and the results included 46 heat press users! We were also pleasantly surprised to learn that when we tested our own heat presses, they were right in line with all the other heat press users surveyed. Here is what we found…
Average Time for a Heat Press to Heat Up? ( 385° F)
- 9×12 apx. 10 Minutes
- 15×15 apx. 15 Minutes
- 16×20 apx. 20 Minutes
- 16×24 apx. 20 Minutes
Of course the temperature of your environment will have a slight impact on heating efficiency, but overall, a heat press that is in good working order should only vary slightly from these average timeframes.
For example, if your 15×15 heat press takes 20 minutes to heat up, you are not too far off from the average.
However, if your 16×20 heat press is taking 45 minutes to heat up, and you’re not working inside of a freezing cold room, then there may be a problem with your setup or your heat press itself.
Now let’s cover the most common reasons that a heat press would be taking FOREVER to come to temperature.
3 Common Reasons Why a Heat Press Might Take Too Long to Heat Up
We like to think that a heat press is “plug and play,” but the reality is, that they require an awful lot of electricity in order to operate properly…especially as we go up in size to the 15×15 and 16×20 +.
Truth is: the bigger the heat press, the more watts it takes and the more likely you are to be having a problem with it coming up to temperature in a reasonable timeframe. In our experience, there are 3 things you can check out if your heat press is not performing as expected.
3 major culprits of a heat press that takes way too long to heat up are:
- Overloaded Electric Circuit
- Undersized Circuit Breaker
- Broken or Damaged Heating Elements
Let’s take a look at each problem one by one.
Overloaded Circuits can Cause a Heat Press to Heat Slowly
An Overloaded Circuit could definitely cause a Heat Press to take forever to heat up, and in some cases, it may cause it to never reach the high 300’s or 400° required for sublimation.
Luckily, as long as your circuit is appropriately sized and connected, it’s the easiest problem to remedy.
Each circuit in your electric box has only so much capacity. Every single item plugged into outlets on the same circuit, will require a share of that limited capacity. The more items you have plugged in, the less available to heat up your heat press.
Resolution
To correct this. simply unplug everything you can on the circuit while using your heat press. This way, your heat press will be the only device requiring power and drawing watts from the circuit.
If your heat press doesn’t have to share resources (available watts) with your printer, computer, lights, radio, etc… it will heat up so much faster!
If you are still having problems, you might have a bigger problem with the load of the heat press vs. capacity of the circuit.
Circuit Amps Too Small for Heat Press
The reason so many people begin to have problems with larger heat presses heating up in a timely fashion is because our larger heat presses use a lot of watts (power). Watts, as we know, are what devices use to consume the available power from our circuit.
Watts (or wattage) are typically listed somewhere on the device packaging or manufactures website.
Most Household Setups
Most household outlets and accompanying circuit breakers are rated for 15 amps / 110-120 Volts / 1800 Watts. Now again, we say “most” so that doesn’t mean your outlet and circuit have this rating.
It’s important to note that the number of outlets does NOT increase capacity. The capacity is set at the breaker, not per outlet. Every outlet on the circuit shares shares the circuit’s resources.
To Complicate Things – For safety reasons, it is recommended to keep outlets and circuits to a maximum of 80% of their rated capacity. And that’s because pushing circuit limits could be hazardous, plus, the available amps, volts and watts are not guaranteed to be exactly 15/110-120/1800.
The actual limits of a particular 15 amp breaker could turn out to be 14 amps and not 15. Plus, actual wattage of a heat press could be more or less than what is listed. They make tools that measure your actual current, but with both of these variables, it’s easy to understand why it is suggested to only use 80% of a circuit’s capacity.
How Many Watts for Larger Heat Presses?
Many heat presses use between 1400 – 1800 watts, or more! When you have the option, to buy a heat press that uses less watts for the same size, we think it’s totally worth it…even if it will cost us more upfront.
Let’s compare the Watts on two Different 15×15 Heat Presses
For example: we have this 15×15 MPress heat press from HPN (link to heat press) and it’s on the low end of watts, at 1400 watts.
Compare that to Fancier Studio’s 15×15 press on amazon says right in the description that it requires a whopping 1800 watts! (link to FancierStudio 15×15 heat press)
Now let’s compare these 2 different heat presses in a normal household setup.
Let’s say you have a normal 15 amp breaker, which equates to 1800 watts capacity. If you’re being safe and abiding by the recommended load of 80% maximum watts, then you have only 1440 watts available on that circuit (1800x.80).
If you decided to run the MP Heat Press heat press, (link to MP Heat Press) you could still use one more appliance or light along with the heat press. But if you chose the FancierStudio Heat Press, you’d be well over the 80% safety limits…even with nothing else plugged in. (link to FancierStudio Heat Press).
That’s why it’s so important to research your power capacity ahead of time. Both are great presses. One is more expensive, but one will require more power (power you may not have).
Resolution
First, consider buying lower wattage heat presses, especially when they are the same size. Yes they will be more upfront money, but there is a reason they cost more…and hopefully you’re beginning to see the difference.
Second, If the heat press you want exceeds safety recommendations, such as 1800, it’s worth getting a qualified person to install a dedicated 20 amp circuit. A professional will tell you whether or not your electric panel has room for this addition or if any upgrades are in order.
In our workshop, our large heat presses will all have dedicated, 20 amp circuit with appropriately sized wiring. Note: You cannot simply change a 15amp circuit or outlet to a 20 amp circuit or outlet without changing the size of the wiring. Everything will need to be swapped including the outlet, the circuit breaker, and the wires.
Why Install a Dedicated 20 Amp Upgrade for Heat Press?
A fully converted 20 amp circuit (outlet+breaker+wires) is rated for 2400 watts – and 80% of that (safe cushion) is 1920 watts.
That is perfect for our large format presses that require a draw 1500-1800 watts.
If none of the above are the reason why your heat press takes forever to heat up, then it could be a faulty element.
Broken or Damaged Heating Elements
Just like it sounds, this translates to any break in the electrical connection or heating path inside of the actual heating element running through the top plate of your heat press.
The best comparison we can provide is the burners of an electric stove. Think of those round heating coils glowing red, and then one day there is a break and you can see part of the element no longer glows red. It will still get hot because of heat transfer, but that area is no longer responsible for heat up.
Heating elements can go bad, or go spotty and when this happens, your heat press will not only take forever to heat up, it can also lead to a bad pressing experience.
How to Test
A laser thermometer will help you identify whether or not you have a break in the heating element. Simply allow your heat press to heat up for about 15 minutes and then test the temperate with the laser in several areas.
Resolution
If your heat press has swappable replacement parts, definitely go for it! It’s a lot cheaper to replace the top heating element than the whole heat press.
But, most presses do hot have a swappable element, or mayble you’ve never loved your heat press anyway, it may be time to invest in a quality heat press with great technical support and warranty.
For that, we recommend watching this video from HPN (link to video) that helps put you in the right size heat press.
Conclusion
The time it takes for a heat press to reach desired temperature has a lot to do with it’s size. The larger the press, the longer it takes to heat up.
However, our survey showed that when a heat press is plugged into an appropriately sized outlet and circuit, including the wiring, it takes 15-20 minutes to reach the high 300’s F.
If your heat press is taking a lot longer, please get a professional to look at your setup. It could be as simple as unplugging everything else on the circuit, or maybe you’ll go with a dedicated, right sized, circuit that fits the size of your heat press.
Keep in mind the 80% capacity rule and always err on the side of safety.
Happy Sublimating!