Buying a Hotronix Fusion - Thoughts?

[farmboygraphics]

George Knight 16x20. Bought ours from Conde. Love it. Built like a tank. Bottom platen can be changed out. Wanted to get into dye sub and we needed a new press. Never even considered any of the others on the market, they look cheesy to me.

[mk162]

Oh yeah, I forgot, the Fusion has literally the worst touchscreen I've ever used.  For tech that has been around since I was a kid, how they made one this bad is beyond me.  You can calibrate it, but it's a waste of time.

If you can't tell, I really hate this machine.  I might be biased against it since we've had so many problems.  But I doubt I will ever purchase another Stahls press.

[shirtz]

^ same here.

[Wildcard]

Must say that the new Knight 16x20 swing press looks pretty awesome though, with the option to upgrade to the twin sliding platens.

[royster13]

I love my Geo Knight presses.....But doubt I would buy the dual platen one.....I just do not think they "recover" quick enough to use both platens efficiently....When I need to hurry up, I press using 2 presses side by side...

[mk162]

I thought about this a bit over the weekend.  I know that folks here have had problems with these, and that Stahls has been great to work with.  The honest fact is that they shouldn't be having problems.  If my new car had this many problems I wouldn't buy that brand again, regardless of if the dealer fixes everything for free.

The only time I turn that press on is when we need to press something.  I don't turn it on to test it to make sure it's functioning.  I need it now, so waiting 2 days for parts foes me no good when I have work that needs to be done.

My sister's boyfriend drives an Audi.  The stupid thing is in the shop pretty regularly.  So they take her camry to most places because it gets them there.  I said he should look at upgrading, but he says it's not fun to drive a camry.  Well, it ain't fun sitting in your dead car in the driveway making motor sounds with your mouth either when you need to get to work.

I am not looking for the sporty and flashy equipment.  I want a Camry, or good pickup truck.  Something that when it breaks you're in shock because it NEVER happens.  I depend on this equipment to earn me money, and if I cant depend on it to do that, it's no good to me.

[dirkdiggler]

switch has broken twice on my hotronix clamshell, its a total piece of junk!  We leave it on all the time and just unplug it when we are done, if we touch the switch it wont work at all.  I will switch to a Geo probably next, just not familiar with them.

[Frog]

more votes for George Knight and Insta, both in my arsenal.
btw, luddite though I may be perceived as, I like these things as simple as possible, and besides the more accurate temp settings with digital controls on my Stahls, I still often feel more comfortable with analog over digital let alone touch screens. Heck, I still have an analog Insta and analog George Knight in daily production. Does that say something about dependability?
Not everything in my life needs to entertain like a video game

[Inkworks]

Geo Knight or Hix for my money... Heard of and have seen way too many broken Hotronix machines.

[mk162]

Hey Mimosa, I've got a Fusion Air I'll sell you if you really want one.

[Admiral]

We have the air fusion.  Touch screen is offset and the power switch breaks a couple times a month and we replace it. 

We also have the larger Hotronix pneumatic presses, have had a couple issues with those as well (mostly a power switch / wire burning out kinda deal) but they are used for pretreat non stop.

They worked a lot better than an Insta heat press for pre treat speed wise.  The dropping of the lower platen added too much delay time between shirts for us.

I talked to someone at Geo Knight at ISS a year ago about a clamshell pneumatic model they had - this would be the fastest pretreat curing heat press model but it was 16" wide and I mentioned it would be ideal if it was 18" wide to make sure all pretreat is taken care of (we use a Viper XPT sprayer).