Looking to add a new mug press to my equipment and want one that can (should?) print top to bottom with consistent results. Am familiar with the state of presses from a couple of years ago but not as much with current offerings. Have read that Novachrome's Mug Pro Plus is not what it once was, and am now considering the following:
Cactus Smart Press (love my ORG-2 and have never had a day's trouble with it, will never get rid of it! Will the 4 1/4" heater print top to bottom on 11oz mugs? What is the print size on 15oz mugs, travel mugs, etc?)
Fast Max Mug Press (Don't care about "speed" but wonder if the side load option is more versatile for image placement on odd items, water bottles, thermoses, etc. Says heat pad is 5.5" wide, but how wide is the actual _element_??)
Photo USA's Mug King Press (does not say how tall the element is, but appears taller than an 11oz mug.)
Anyone using these presses for top to bottom coverage and find they actually work for that application, or are there no presses on the market that will accomplish that? I do NOT want to use wraps if I can avoid it at this time.
Build quality, reliability, warranty length, replaceable parts, ease of use with assorted mug styles are all of interest to me in picking a new press. If you have any feedback, please share. I also am concerned about the trend to "self adjusting" tension....I am used to knowing just how tight or loose I need the pad to be for different mugs, do all of these presses eliminate the ability to manually adjust the tension, and is that a good or bad thing? Different coatings can sometimes respond better to higher or lower pressure - if you can no longer make these adjustments don't you loose a bit of versatility? Since I will be keeping my ORG-2 maybe this is not a big issue but I wondered about the change in design approach.
Anyone using one of these presses? Any suppliers willing to post some specs? (or PM me)
Also just realized Photo USA has a Multi-function Mug Press with interchangable elements. This allows for pressing their latte mugs (12 and 17oz) as well as standard and large mugs. Apparently the elements do need regular replacement, at $65 each. Anyone used this press either?
The Mug King BJ850 produces full wrap top-to bottom prints. It can use heating element "inserts" which are swapped out to do large or small mugs, and can do mugs ranging from 6 oz up to 22oz steins. The standard mug element prints a full 3.75" x 8.25". There is a pressure adjustment on the handle of the press. While this press is priced less than some of the other ones on the market, that should not be taken to mean that the press is "cheap". This is a first rate mug press that will provide consistent results and long life.
As it turns out, I went ahead and purchased the Multi Function Mug Press BJ890 from Photo USA which is basically the same type of press you are looking at. (Looks identical, only mine is black not white.) See this link:
I have been using it for a couple of weeks, and while it is a bit different in operation to what I have grown used to with my Cactus mug press, it is very adequate for my current needs. It does indeed press top to bottom on standard mugs with no problems - have not tried 15 oz mugs yet. It does not get terribly close to the handle, for side to side printing, but does cover enough to be very acceptable. Only a mug wrap would get you closer I would think.
The model I bought comes with assorted heating elements which will allow for pressing on a variety of items from small espresso cups to large 17oz Latte (cone shaped) mugs, and this is the main reason I bought it. I don't see that option mentioned on the site you listed, but I bet you could by the extra elements from somewhere else. I also like the side-loading feature, I just pressed a very tall thermos and like that you can print anywhere on the item by sliding it back and forth.
I considered buying direct from China myself, as it is generally cheaper, but shipping is about $100 and then I have to wonder whether tech support will be available or not, so I bought from a company I know.
Not sure how the build quality stacks up to other presses I own or have seen, it is made in China - which does not always mean it is cheap, but I don't know if the components will hold up forever, or not. When I received the press, the electronics did not work correctly. Luckily, it is easy to unscrew the controller, and they sent me another out right away. Screwed it back in and in two minutes or less, everything was fine. It is a pretty simple piece of equipment, the heating elements will be the parts that fail first but they offer replacements for about $65 each.
Happy to answer any questions you may have, drop me a line or post here! Overall I am glad I made the purchase, it does not do everything I would ever want but comes very close to it! (I should mention, the manual and instructional DVD are both nearly impossible to follow, so hopefully you have some experience with mug presses so you can figure out what they mean. If not, you may want some help interpreting the instructions.)
As it turns out, I went ahead and purchased the Multi Function Mug Press BJ890 from Photo USA which is basically the same type of press you are looking at. (Looks identical, only mine is black not white.) See this link:
I have been using it for a couple of weeks, and while it is a bit different in operation to what I have grown used to with my Cactus mug press, it is very adequate for my current needs. It does indeed press top to bottom on standard mugs with no problems - have not tried 15 oz mugs yet. It does not get terribly close to the handle, for side to side printing, but does cover enough to be very acceptable. Only a mug wrap would get you closer I would think.
The model I bought comes with assorted heating elements which will allow for pressing on a variety of items from small espresso cups to large 17oz Latte (cone shaped) mugs, and this is the main reason I bought it. I don't see that option mentioned on the site you listed, but I bet you could by the extra elements from somewhere else. I also like the side-loading feature, I just pressed a very tall thermos and like that you can print anywhere on the item by sliding it back and forth.
I considered buying direct from China myself, as it is generally cheaper, but shipping is about $100 and then I have to wonder whether tech support will be available or not, so I bought from a company I know.
Not sure how the build quality stacks up to other presses I own or have seen, it is made in China - which does not always mean it is cheap, but I don't know if the components will hold up forever, or not. When I received the press, the electronics did not work correctly. Luckily, it is easy to unscrew the controller, and they sent me another out right away. Screwed it back in and in two minutes or less, everything was fine. It is a pretty simple piece of equipment, the heating elements will be the parts that fail first but they offer replacements for about $65 each.
Happy to answer any questions you may have, drop me a line or post here! Overall I am glad I made the purchase, it does not do everything I would ever want but comes very close to it! (I should mention, the manual and instructional DVD are both nearly impossible to follow, so hopefully you have some experience with mug presses so you can figure out what they mean. If not, you may want some help interpreting the instructions.)
Dear Mrs. Tamara, I'm looking to buy exactly the press you mention in this post, the multi-function mug press, and I was wondering how is yours doing?, Is it a really good heat press? I would really appreciate if you can answer this for me.
Hi,
I have used the press for a while now, and I have found it to be dependable so far. A little tricky working out the times for pressing different items, as the documentation is not as great as it might be, but really it does not take long to do some testing and work out the times. I have not gotten around to using the "latte Mug" inserts for the press yet, but hope to very soon. Overall I would recommend the press, especially since as far as I know there are very few presses out there that have the same capabilities.
I did have some trouble when I received the press as the control unit was malfunctioning, but was able to just unscrew it, return it, and they sent me a new one. Everything is good since then, not the first electronic component I have received that was DOA so no worries.
Hope that helps, let me know if you have other questions.
Hi all! New to the forum, I'm going to be purchasing a mug press as well, was just wondering if anyone has found anything better than this bj890 and what's the best printer to go along with this baby?
Thanks!
:edit: just realized this post is only 4 days old LOL... did a search for "mug press" and this popped up, typically pull stuff from the archives, guess i got lucky =)
There are a lot of mug presses on the market, which one is best for you depends on what type of mugs you want to produce, how many, and what your budget is. On one end of the spectrum you have $20 to $30 mug wraps, which are used in conjunction with a household oven or the newer portable convection ovens. On the other end you have $600+ mug presses from companies like Knight or Cactus, and in between are presses like the one mentioned in this thread.
Will you be printing ceramic 12 oz, 15 oz mugs, steins, travel mugs, latte mugs, water bottles? How many at a time?
Which printer you choose really has nothing to do with the press but rather your budget, the method of imprinting you wish to use, and how much space you have. You can go anywhere from a small 8 1/2" x 14" desktop printer to a color laser to a wide format professional printer.
Think about what you want to produce and what your budget is, and then buy the best equipment you can afford so that hopefully you will have room for growth. Hope that helps.
I have recently started a small t-shirt business, the transpro 15x15, and have been considering getting a mug press, I have read some of the post about mug press and convection oven. Some of the information was helpfull but I am still a little confused, if I use a mug press what kind of transfer paper can I use, can I still print designs with my ink jet printer, can I still use small t shirts transfers with the mug press. If I ues a concection oven how do I print designs, will I have to get a different printer. At first I thought I would like the mug perss better now I am not sure.
You can use mug wraps and either a portable convection oven or your home oven to transfer to mugs - or you can use a mug press. To my knowledge, you can print mugs using either ink jet dye sub tranfers, or OEM laser transfers. I have also seen a few people using Laser sublimation toners.
All processes have their pros and cons. Figuring out which is best for depends on a number of factors:
What type of equipment do have/want to buy
What other types of items will you be producing
How large or small will your production runs be
What blanks and supplies are readily available to you
I suggest that you might start by reading through your chosen supplier(s) websites to see what they offer for producing mugs, then research those processes here or on other forums to see if that is a process that would work for you. Then you should be able to ask follow up questions from your supplier or the forum members to help you make a decision.
Current Mug Press Abilities 
