# Hotter Than Hell in my screen printing shop today! Any suggestions to keep it cooler?



## out da box (May 1, 2007)

This is ridiculous! It had to be 110 deg. in my shop today. The flash was on, the dryer was on, and it was hot outside!
We have one big fan to blow some air around. The AC works perfect in the front office area, but the warehouse is an oven! What the hell?!? What do you guys do to make it liveable in your printing area with the dryers going?


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## delakissdesigns (Nov 21, 2007)

*Re: Hotter Than Hell!!!!*

Im glad Im not the only one! Im in Texas and I print D.I.Y right out of my garage... When I moved into my new house I thought it was a cool idea to paint my entire garage black??? And yea, its safe to say Im sweating my tail off every day. No matter how many fans, or if I print during the night! Its hot!!!

I have no A/C in my garage! But, Im right there with you! I hate the heat!!!

<3DK


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## spottydog (Aug 6, 2008)

*Re: Hotter Than Hell!!!!*

Our shop is two stories and it gets hotter than snot. In the summer we come in early in the morning and go off mid-afternoon. We have a extra powerful fan installed into one wall upstairs to suck out all the hot air that is trapped in the building all night. The scary thing is that we have 4 industrial air conditioning units on our roof and it is still very uncomfortable sometimes. The main thing you have to be careful of is having too much air blowing around that it might mess up the cure in your dryer.


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## Binary01 (Jun 2, 2007)

if you can.... blow air in on the cool side of the building...if there is a window/etc..... also try to circulate the high heat thats trapped .... get a few box fans and keep that heat out of the attic/rafters/etc....... install roof vents if possible.....


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## tman07 (Nov 14, 2007)

We thrive on hot weather, bring it on!!! LOL


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## R1Lover (Jun 7, 2008)

That's because you don't get it very often... lol hot weather sucks when it's all the time. 

Try putting on a couple swamp(water) coolers


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## Robin (Aug 28, 2006)

any suggestions? Move north  

Im sorry I couldnt resist...and I dont have any suggestions. I will remember NOT to complain when it gets over 80 in my shop.


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## cookiesa (Feb 27, 2008)

I think your best option will be to look at extraction rather than moving hot air around, the catch is if your pumping the heat out it will be pulling air back in (unless your doing well and are happy to pay for refrigerative aircon of course!) so your only realistically going to be able to keep it to the temperature outside. Evap cooling introduces humidity so generally not viable of course!

If you can cross ventilate that will make a big difference but if you have a shop at the front with AC (and I am assuming it is "sealed" off from the workshop area) then the only opening is probably the roller door. Is there some windows you can open to create a natural breeze? (try to use thermal dynamics and the local wind pattern to your advantage if you can)

Can you perhaps move the layout around so the "hot" equipment is closer to the door/extraction area? Or can you add an extraction system above them similar to a fume extraction system vented to the outside?


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## out da box (May 1, 2007)

Maybe I'll wear an ice-pack tomorrow, stick my head in a mop bucket and stand in a pool of washout sink water.


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## Binary01 (Jun 2, 2007)

hence pull air in from the cool side of the building...mainly the north since its in the shade..... the south side of buildings are normally always in the sun.......

other things.... are you in a garage with a high roof?..... gotta vent the roof or the heat will sit there..


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## COEDS (Oct 4, 2006)

I agree pull the cool air in and maybe like a exhaust fan, maybe like a attic fan. ...... JB


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## gm2k8 (Jul 20, 2008)

you can keep that heat.. thats the reason i moved to the NC mountains to get away from that heat.. i mean now if its 85-90 its hot lol and im from fayetteville so i used to work out in the heat all the time no problem.. not now.. my shop is hot though.. computer repair.. with computers running it gets kinda stuffy.. i have a big squirrel cage fan that blows out the door.. does pretty good..


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## Uncle John (Mar 11, 2007)

Welcome to The World of screen printing...lol Were in Dallas Tx and you can't A/C production and make any money.
We start at 6 AM till 4PM, We have 3 overhead doors that are open, 2 roof exhausts fans and its still hot!! I guess its part of the business because you have to stay competitive.


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## cookiesa (Feb 27, 2008)

Maybe become a "midnight" shop and close during the day!


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## XYLisa (Jan 20, 2008)

We are in Alabama and "hot as snot" isn't even close to what it gets here! It was 100 degrees outside with 90% humidity the other day and OMG it was hot in there screen printing. We open the front door and a back door, put in a fan in the back to pull out the heat and run 2 big fans inside to move the rest of the hot air around! We have AC but with the heat we output there's no sense in running up the electric bill so it stays off most of the time. We just try to dress cool and enjoy the screen printers way of staying thin


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## jeffie (Jan 30, 2008)

Hey,
I just put a 5ton a/c in our shop started it up last week oh yea it works got temp down to 82 when it was 102 last wk...look in a local "shoper type paper get a "package" type unit duct is not nessessary just rig it so the air right into the shop cost a couple of $ but man o man ....jeff


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## propsuper (Mar 23, 2008)

In our first shop, (in the Texas panhandle), we had a resturant equip. co. install a hood above the oven . Worked great. Brought in the cool air from the other areas and took out the hot air. Was a bit on the expensive side but when its 106 in the shade WHO CARES


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## John S (Sep 9, 2006)

I see one answer in your picture. Put a vent pipe on your dryer, dump it to the outside through a wall, skylight, open door or what ever is handy.

You won't be wearing a hoodie to print, but a lot of the heat that is spilling in your shop will be carried out the vent pipe.


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## Unik Ink (Nov 21, 2006)

I feel your pain. It's always 100+ in my shop, and we have extremely humid weather, so it feels even hotter. I drink over a gallon of water a day when printing, and have to peel my shirt off when I get home. I have been losing weight though. lol. I can't wait for winter.


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## out da box (May 1, 2007)

Yeah John, I know. I'm renting/leasing my space. Talked to my landlord Friday about the heat. I'd have to put a huge hole in the wall or ceiling and it ain't my building. I already put holes in the wall for my air and electric lines for my compressor- it's outside. I may have a fix though for the venting situation. Well if I can do some printing in the winter, the heat will come in handy.


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## ivancuriel (Dec 3, 2007)

just make 4-5 of these and put them around the shop! Or make a big one 

[media]http://www.metacafe.com/watch/yt-_PwplxoJSDw/diy_make_your_own_air_conditioner/[/media]


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## spankthafunk (Apr 9, 2007)

I'm glad this was asked because I'm about to move out of the apartment into a house!!! (I'm so excited to have some room finally to work in!!!! )

The garage there is really hot, and being in Sunny Florida I get some pretty extreme heat and humidity. My question is, how does this affect your ink and chemicals? Am I going to have problems with emulsion or plastisol inks because of the extra heat I will be storing/printing them in?


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## spankthafunk (Apr 9, 2007)

. . . anyone? I want to take the necassary precautions before I move everything into the new garage.


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## XYLisa (Jan 20, 2008)

Hey funk I can tell you that here in Alabama I have the same problem, I'm not in a garage but in a strip mall of sorts and the room where I keep my chemicals gets to hot and I put a small window unit just in there...my emulsion continued to go bad until I put that unit in there. It does affect your inks as well at least mine tend to "separate" a bit more but a strong arm will fix it.


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## spankthafunk (Apr 9, 2007)

has anyone tried one of these portable A/C units?


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## antman428 (Sep 1, 2007)

I like it hot
That's what I keep telling myself anyway...


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## spankthafunk (Apr 9, 2007)

antman428 said:


> I like it hot
> That's what I keep telling myself anyway...


lol.

we need to remake the hip hop song "This is Why I'm Hot" into a music video about heat presses, conveyor dryers, and flash units.


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## out da box (May 1, 2007)

If it's hot it means that the smell of money being made, not the unpleasant scent of human flesh simmering. Now I'm missing the steam, getting kinda chilly in my shop with the dryer not running in 2 days- need a 500 shirt order this week. Any takers?


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## Uncle John (Mar 11, 2007)

You guy's are a bunch of puppy's...lol. Were in Texas and have had I think about 17 days in a row of over 100, we have two dryers one gas, one electric with them both running which is most of the time it adds a lot of degree's as you can imagine. The plus side is in the winter we can wear short sleeve shirts and it's comfortable. Thank God it's raining now and 80 degrees. I think the hot weather is over for this summer. There is an exhaust fan the could help, Its used by resterants over there grills and body shop paint booths, it move a lot of air. if you can at least get it close to outside temp it will help. There about $500 and are roof mounted but if you can find a used one you can save some bucks. This is still better than wearing a tie and working in A/C for the "MAN" LOL Hange in the guys.
John


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## martinwoods (Jul 20, 2006)

tman07 said:


> We thrive on hot weather, bring it on!!! LOL


yea me too
No suggestions other than what was already mentioned, but I LOVE hot.
We just got back from Costa Mesa and it was cold. (to me), had a sweat shirt on the whole time. I don't know how people do it. If it were not for my cabins I would be in AZ or LAS VEGAS

Hope you get the air figured out, my husband tells everyone I make him work in a sweat shop. I don't like air, it kicks on I turn it off. He says I need to go to the emergency room asap and get tested.


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## Masco Sportswear (Aug 15, 2008)

Put duct work on the end of your dryers as well. Pipe the heat(since it rises) out over your production area and send it outside. Should help a little bit. If not more


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## standardgraphics (Jul 28, 2008)

same thing in canada i go from -40c to +35c 

12000 btu portable a/c holds it at 24 $500 and i also print at night...


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## alan802 (Mar 24, 2008)

We have a 48" exhaust fan, two 48" heat busters, vented our roof, vented the dryer outside and several pedistal fans so we have plenty of air moving. The temp still gets up to 105 on most days. We have had 45 days of at least 100 here in austin and it has been brutal. 

Then we went to lowes and bought two cheap window unit air conditioners and put one at the end of the dryer right on our catcher and I put one right on me at the auto and it has made the summer temps almost enjoyable. Best investment we ever made.


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## spankthafunk (Apr 9, 2007)

> Then we went to lowes and bought two cheap window unit air conditioners and put one at the end of the dryer right on our catcher and I put one right on me at the auto and it has made the summer temps almost enjoyable. Best investment we ever made.


Do you just sit them on the ground, or suspend from the roof? Also have you noticed any fluctuations with the one located near your dryer?


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## alan802 (Mar 24, 2008)

We just sat them on a rolling cart facing us and use it as a spot cooler. It really helps while your running a job but doesn't cool the entire area and we still burn up while setting up jobs but I would highly recommend this. We got a 6500 btu for 150 at lowes and it was worth every penny.


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