Hot, warm and cold peel

Cold peel

Take the garment off the hot platen and wait until the film is cool to the touch. Then peel. Xpres say to peel cold, and their Evolution cold-peel sheets say cold. The finish is often a little more matte. This is the patient peel, and it is the one to follow when the sheet says cold. Peeling it hot lifts the design in patches.

Hot peel

Peel as soon as the press opens, while the film is hot. A typical ready-made hot-peel transfer still spends several seconds under the platen. The time is not automatically three seconds. Amaya ProPeel is an instant-peel film that does say 3 seconds on cotton, 10 seconds on blends and 15 seconds on polyester, then peel immediately. If your sheet is not that film, do not copy the 3 seconds. The lookup shows both.

Warm peel

Peel a few seconds after the press opens, when the film is warm but not scorching. Neither the Xpres cold-peel pages nor the Amaya instant-peel film describe this middle window. Use it when your packet says warm. The temperature and time can match the cold-peel row for that fabric. The wait is the difference. If the packet says cold, wait fully. If it says hot, do not hover.

Glitter follows whatever peel is printed on the glitter sheet. When it is silent, this site treats it as cold, and says so on the card. Nylon is a poor place to experiment with a hot peel. See nylon.

Common questions

Sources

• Xpres, how to DTF — powder cure, pre-press, 150–160°C for 10–15 seconds, cold peel, second press
• Xpres DTF Evolution cold-peel sheets — second press 10–15 seconds; wash up to 40°C inside out; iron on the reverse only
• Amaya ProPeel DTF film — pre-press a few seconds; instant peel; second press 5 seconds