# shirt changes color when heat pressed



## CHIZUCK (Aug 11, 2009)

Hey guys I did some heat transfers yesterday for the first time. I noticed that the t shirts were changing color not the vinyl just the shirt. they were red then the area the was under the press looked to change colors. the temp was 330 degrees is this a normal and does it go away?


----------



## Ib4E (Aug 21, 2008)

The moisture was just removed from the shirt. Red shirts show a color difference more than others. The color will come back within a few hours, the shirt will absorb moisture from the air in the room and things will be ok!


----------



## EVLIND (Dec 13, 2010)

Ib4E said:


> The moisture was just removed from the shirt. Red shirts show a color difference more than others. The color will come back within a few hours, the shirt will absorb moisture from the air in the room and things will be ok!




Thanks!!!! just had a freak out at Midnight.


----------



## Naptime (May 19, 2011)

EVLIND said:


> Thanks!!!! just had a freak out at Midnight.


been there... especially with red..

my first time using red shirts, i was contract printing for a vinyl guy. he brought in his own shirts, but they were gildan 5000's.

i printed about 40 before i noticed that they were REALLY dark red after being cured.

i thought i had scorched them.

i was freaking out, order needed to be delivered the next day. there was no way i could even get replacements for two days.

i went inside and started checking suppliers to see who would be the cheapest. went back out to finish up the rest, and the ones i thought i had ruined were perfectly fine all of a sudden! lol

i still notice it with many other colors, but nothing as prominent as with red shirts.


----------



## piperhahn (Feb 15, 2014)

This will be my first post, but happy to find this here. I just got my press delivered today and decided to start with a red shirt and it turned almost a dark purple. It freaked me out. I only pressed it to prepress it for 7 seconds and there was a huge purple square on it. I thought something came off the platen on it.. it seemed to get a little better after a while so I flipped it over and thought I'd try it on the back and see if I was crazy.. same thing. so I actually tried to press my first imprint on it, and it didn't adhere properly in the middle so I just threw it away and figured the shirt was junk. (it was I hate to admit an old shirt not a new shirt) so all that to say. I did eventually press a design on a shirt and even added foil to it, and it came out ok (except for some lifting on the letter S) but I'm going to go back into it tomorrow and make things amazing.. (sorry for the rambling) but yeah. Red shirt freaked me out just like on Star Trek.


----------



## XstreamGraffiX (Mar 19, 2011)

same **** just happened to me yesterday freeeeeeking out my first red shirt lol


----------



## twominds (Nov 21, 2013)

This has happened to me as well. I run a temp gun and all is good but the red shirts darken like crazy. It also happens with purple and yellows. I am in the same boat as you all, I printed about 20 shirts late night and noticed they were a different color. I panicked and I tried washing a couple and I noticed the color went right back to normal. I then noticed that the ones that had not been washed returned to pretty close to normal as well.

The physics of it is that the moisture is rapidly removed and the shirt color die is denser than the water. the water goes away and the die becomes darker and more predominant. A spritz bottle will put your mind at ease. Spritz one spot and watch the magic happen as the shirt comes back.


----------



## Graveslab (Feb 12, 2015)

haha same thing here. thanks for making me feel better.


----------



## marzatplay (May 25, 2014)

Yup, same thing here. Freaked out the very first time I ever heat pressed a shirt, only to calm down after it came back to normal after an hour.


----------



## Printor (Apr 16, 2015)

It gets everyone the first time. Happens with flash cure units and conveyer dryers also. Knocks a day off your life, huh.


----------



## Minnesotashores (Mar 1, 2015)

Had to stop and laugh a bit, had this happen to me as well and I panicked and washed them all.... Yep, its normal, will be just fine


----------



## Printor (Apr 16, 2015)

Red plastisol ink does that too. Thought about you guys while screening a bunch of bright red on black shirts last night.


----------



## AGGPromo (Jul 21, 2017)

Last night I was working late on a rush order for a client for Christmas gifts. Everything was going fine until I got to the red hoodies. The client wanted a "smooth" finish to the print so I decided to use the heat press to finish them. The red came out of the press much darker where it had been in contact with the platens. I was on the verge of panic. I had never seen this amount of discoloration before. I usually run the entire product through the conveyor and never noticed that the reds discolored so much.

Thanks to everyone who posted on this site. After doing some research here, I decided to wait until morning. By morning they were fine, no noticeable marks on any of the shirts.

My thanks to everyone who posts there experience here.


----------

