# Anyone tried the Dyepress Poly-T Plus fluid for sublimating to cotton shirts?



## philldetman (Jun 8, 2020)

This caught my eye as a way to get sublimated stuff onto 100% cotton and cotton/poly blend garments:

https://www.dyepress.com/poly-t-plus-sublimation-coating-for-cotton-cotton-blends/

they also have an etsy shop with LOTS of great reviews:

https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/Dyepress

anyone used it and able to report a durability and/or wash test on it? 

looks a bit fiddly.. like a right old faff really.. but interesting none-the-less..


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## PedalJustPedal (Nov 26, 2019)

Let the floodgates open! Never seen a solution that is truly at a production level. If you just read the instructions you are pressing, repressing, repressing again (5X). The time and effort for one shirt is amazing. 

There is one huge thing that is almost always missing from companies selling snake oil - PHOTO's! If you have a product like this would not showing a bunch of pictures be your best selling tool yet they show nothing! 

It is only $30 so if you are convinced give it a shot and report. If you search this forum this is top 3 question over the last decade in on that last decade not a single person I am aware of has successfully done this at a production level and to be honest the results have always sucked.


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## TABOB (Feb 13, 2018)

Don't waste your time with this.
That's all I have to say.


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## webtrekker (Jan 28, 2018)

Beam me up, Scotty!


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## philldetman (Jun 8, 2020)

i know, i know  

but it can't hurt to get a lil old bottle and run a few tests through the mill a bit can it? apart from a few hours time

the magic unicorn fairy solution is only a bit of technology, research and development away.. could be today, could be in a year or two.. could be never.. but i try to be an optimist on occasion.


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## NoXid (Apr 4, 2011)

Unicorn! Did someone say _unicorn_?


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## PedalJustPedal (Nov 26, 2019)

philldetman said:


> i know, i know
> 
> but it can't hurt to get a lil old bottle and run a few tests through the mill a bit can it? apart from a few hours time
> 
> the magic unicorn fairy solution is only a bit of technology, research and development away.. could be today, could be in a year or two.. could be never.. but i try to be an optimist on occasion.


This is how they still sell the snake oil. People so bad wanting it to work that they will shell out $30 even though 99% of people will tell them it does not work. As I stated before if it truly worked they would have examples on their site yet not one single picture.

You have a better chance at positive results spending the $30 on lottery tickets.


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## LancerFlorida (Mar 20, 2018)

Be aware, many of the 'big boys' whose big boy toys that print on both poly and cotton do so via special pre-treatment. So, it is possible. Since PROFIT is not in the picture, then time is no a factor for you.

Spend $30 and take pics when it off the press (save the test swatch for later comparison) and grind that shirt through the wash cycle 15 times and take the second picture along side the swatch. WE will all be grateful.


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## TABOB (Feb 13, 2018)

LancerFlorida said:


> Be aware, many of the 'big boys' whose big boy toys that print on both poly and cotton do so via special pre-treatment. So, it is possible. Since PROFIT is not in the picture, then time is no a factor for you.


It is possible indeed! 

If you screen-print it, then it will work.


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## PedalJustPedal (Nov 26, 2019)

One thing to consider is if this truly worked and there was a market for coated cotton t-shirts this would be done commercially and you could buy the shirts ready to press.


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## philldetman (Jun 8, 2020)

PedalJustPedal said:


> One thing to consider is if this truly worked and there was a market for coated cotton t-shirts this would be done commercially and you could buy the shirts ready to press.


That is a VERY good point.. i wonder how long the pre treat (even for dtg) 'lasts' before it's no longer suitable.. like if they have to be printed/pressed within 5 minutes or something before it goes off? 

I don't have an dtg experience, but that they need pre treat too.. 

Maybe i can get a few litres of the poly-t and a pretreat machine to remove the labour, and put everything though that lol..


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## philldetman (Jun 8, 2020)

LancerFlorida said:


> Be aware, many of the 'big boys' whose big boy toys that print on both poly and cotton do so via special pre-treatment. So, it is possible. Since PROFIT is not in the picture, then time is no a factor for you.
> 
> Spend $30 and take pics when it off the press (save the test swatch for later comparison) and grind that shirt through the wash cycle 15 times and take the second picture along side the swatch. WE will all be grateful.


Maybe i could get a pre treat machine and fill it with this poly-t stuff haha.. remove some of the labour element. 

I'm tempted, but i wouldn't admit it on here for fear of scathing by the professionals.. unless of course it produced the unexpected result of actually doing what it says on the tin..


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## TABOB (Feb 13, 2018)

philldetman said:


> Maybe i can get a few litres of the poly-t and a pretreat machine to remove the labour, and put everything though that lol..


Not a bad idea, BUT it may damage your pretreatment machine. You see regular DTG pretreatment is a temporary coating to keep the ink on the surface, whereas this is a permanent coating and this could cause problems. As always, there is only one way to find out.
The second problem is, that it doesn't solve the "snake oil" issue. Spraying it does not work, because if you spray as much as it is actually required the shirt looks like s... err... excrement. I mean literally, it looks like somebody has urinated on it, and it is permanent.


I wasn't joking when I said that it will work if screen-printed. 
Screen-printable sublimation coatings are readily available in the industry, an this is one of them... Just re-packaged and re-branded. 



philldetman said:


> PedalJustPedal said:
> 
> 
> > One thing to consider is if this truly worked and there was a market for coated cotton t-shirts this would be done commercially and you could buy the shirts ready to press.
> ...


DTG pre-treated shirts can be printed months later. It is not a problem. The same applies for polymer sublimation coatings.
Printing cotton shirts with sublimation coatings is nothing new. It is just like the misconception people have about sublimation inks, automatically assuming they are inkjet printed. Sublimation inks have been offset printed, screen printed etc for decades.


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## philldetman (Jun 8, 2020)

TABOB said:


> Not a bad idea, BUT it may damage your pretreatment machine. You see regular DTG pretreatment is a temporary coating to keep the ink on the surface, whereas this is a permanent coating and this could cause problems. As always, there is only one way to find out.
> The second problem is, that it doesn't solve the "snake oil" issue. Spraying it does not work, because if you spray as much as it is actually required the shirt looks like s... err... excrement. I mean literally, it looks like somebody has urinated on it, and it is permanent.
> 
> 
> ...


sounds like a lot of hassle tbh.. think i'll start with a sub printer and press and get that working first  

maybe look at this if i ever get bored


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