Cricut EasyPress 3 and Hat Press Review

Cricut’s latest EasyPress 3 and Hat Press are the latest tools in my crafting arsenal. Both work off of Bluetooth technology and the new Cricut Heat App to give me the best results for each project.

What Is the Cricut Heat App?

I’ve used the EasyPress 2 in the past and loved it, but one thing was missing. There was no guidance on what settings to use for each project. I had a website saved on my phone that I checked for each project.

With the EasyPress 3 and the Hat Press, I just open up the Cricut Heat App, connect to my press via Bluetooth, and the app asks me what material I’m pressing onto and what material my design is made from. It tells me the steps I need to take for the best results and sends the settings to my heat press.

I realized that while the settings in the app are accurate most of the time, there are times when my own judgment works better. In those cases, I override the app’s recommendation and push my own custom settings, which I can save for future projects, to the device.

What Is in the Box?

In both boxes, you get a sample project, placement stand, instructions, and the press itself. The Cricut Hat Press also includes a heavy insert for the hat to sit on while you press it. It has a handle on it so you can hold it or place it on a sturdy surface. And it’s designed to take the heat coming from the Hat Press. This was a huge help for me because it gave me somewhere to put my work that could handle the heat and the pressure.

Initial Thoughts

The setup for both the EasyPress 3 and the Hat Press was the same. The Hat Press does not have a digital readout. (It’s very similar to the EasyPress Mini.) The Hat Press does have a side button that tells you if the heat is on high, medium, or low. The app will give you exact temperature measurements.

Both the EasyPress 3 and the Hat Press have some weight to them, which is good in something like this. In Cricut Design Space there is a hat project that you can use to make sure you get your design in the space of the Hat Press in one shot. 

Something I feel that is worth mentioning is the safety auto-shutdown feature. After 10 minutes of inactivity, the heat press will shut down. If you’re like me and ::SQUIRREL:: you will appreciate this. 

Project Ideas – Infusible Ink

The EasyPress 3 and Hat Press are compatible with the Infusible Ink products. I’ve made shirts and coasters with the press of a button. From a sensory standpoint, I love the look and feel of the ceramic coasters with the Infusible Ink materials vs vinyl. The tricky thing about infusible ink is that if you are pressing it to fabric, the product you are pressing to needs to have a high polyester count (the recommendation is 95%). Some websites claim to have gotten results with less, so you will need to try that out for yourself. 

Confession Time

In the words of The Grinch, I “loathed entirely” the infusible ink materials at first because I could not weed them to save my life. I tried all the tricks I could find online. I ended up adjusting my pressure and swapping out to a new blade and now, I couldn’t imagine not using it. I’ve never been a fan of the test cut, but with Infusible Ink, you have to. The materials are too expensive to waste time with the wrong settings.

For my t-shirt projects, I created the design in Canva and then imported the image to Cricut Design Space. This worked beautifully and was a lot easier than doing the design in Design Space from scratch.

The only caveat with Infusible Ink is that you can’t press to darker materials. I tried a design on a Cricut blank hat and it didn’t look nearly as good as it would have on a plain white hat. Lesson learned. 

Final Thoughts

While the Hat Press is essentially the EasyPress Mini with a curved base, if you make a lot of hats, the Hat Press (retail $149) is worth looking into. It’s kind of like the Mug Press. Do you need it to make mugs? No. Is it helpful if you do them a lot? Yes.

In terms of the EasyPress 3, the main benefit of going from the EasyPress 2 to the EasyPress 3 is the Bluetooth feature. For some, that might not be worth forking out around $200 (9×9 size), but for me, it is well worth putting on a wish list.

Disclaimer: GeekMom was given a review sample.