Heat presses have several benefits and cleaning them is among the most important parts of owning one.
Depending on your use for the heat-press, commercial, or home use, you will need to clean your heat press often to get the most out of it.
Every expert will advise you to read your manuals to gain the upper hand in using heat presses.
But you have to take time and research the most critical aspects of how to go about cleaning a heat press.
Doing so will save you a lot, especially the expenses of regularly fixing or replacing damaged heat presses.
Then, you should know when to clean your heat-press, the tools you will need, the cleaning process, and the dos and don’ts of cleaning it and in this guide, we will discuss them all.
Cleaning heat presses is not just a random process.
It’s best you understand when to clean your heat press and do it correctly. Well, correctly because you don’t want stains staying there for long.
If you’re using it for business, your money-making machine deserves the best care. Hence, be keen to conduct the necessary maintenance operations whenever required.
So, when should you clean your heat press?
First, start by inspecting the upper platen of your heat press. Should you spot some remnants of letters, numbers, or any form of paint left on it, then it’s time to do the cleaning.
Make regular checks of this area to ensure your heat press is ready for the next task.
That said, once you notice stains, get your tools ready for the job.
You don’t need many tools to do the cleaning. As we mentioned earlier, cleaning small heat presses and large ones is not hard to clean with the right tools.
A good thing is you won’t need to spend much on the tools.
Here are the main ones you should get for the job:
The cleaning process is straightforward.
Using a heat press cleaner ensures heat presses are sparkling clean. Here, an ez off heat press cleaner will do the trick. It works on several heat presses available.
One quality heat press you can use with it is the Cicuit Easy Press 2. Experts recommend it for the professional results as it delivers, ease of learning, and simplicity.
Ensure you maintain this machine by cleaning it after use.
Well, learning how to clean an upper platen on a heat press is useful as the platens are mostly affected by stains.
That’s why we recommend you know how to clean any heat press platen with ease.
Notably, there are various methods for cleaning Teflon-coated platen and non-Teflon coated platen heat presses and we’ll discuss them below.
For presses that have a non-stick coating on upper platens, you should follow specific cleaning steps.
According to the most reviews, the PowerPress sublimation heat press T-Shirts is the best teflon-coated platen in the market. It comes with a silicone gel baseboard, LCD control board, and a replaceable fuse.
Follow these steps for cleaning such a press:
If the process doesn’t remove all the stains, plug the device in a power outlet, heat it up, and wipe the remaining parts after wearing a heatproof hand protector.
After that, turn it off, allow it to cool, then repeat the first step 2, 3, and 4 mentioned above.
Follow these steps for heat presses that do not have a non-stick upper platen or are non-Teflon coated.
There are a couple of dos and don’ts that you must keep in mind when cleaning heat presses.
The first thing you should always do is turn off the heat press before cleaning it. Also, ensure there are no children around your heat press when you are cleaning.
Speed is also crucial. Be speedy in cleaning the machine. As earlier said, make sure you clean it after printing material and when it’s hot to prevent the mess from sticking in.
Lastly, a good alternative for an ez off heat press cleaner is an iron cleaner. You can consider that while doing the cleaning.
The don’ts are equally important to consider. Don’t use abrasives for cleaning Teflon coated heat presses.
You should also not use a scraper or a solvent. Solvent combined with heat results in fires. After using a Teflon sheet, avoid pressing material you suspect might melt.
Cleaning a heat press is not as difficult as it may seem. These machines are straightforward to operate, and cleaning is quite simple.
However, like other electric appliances, be cautious when cleaning heat presses. They catch heat very fast, and most times, you may not notice.
Don’t go all in at first. Instead, inspect the temperature around to ascertain that the presses are not hot.
Another useful factor you should consider is that the longer you take to remove stains from heat presses, the harder it becomes to remove them. Therefore, do it as quickly as possible and use the right tools for the job.
Overall, learning how to clean a heat press should be your top priority so that you take care of the heat press and enhance its life.
