Cricut Infusible Ink: Cricut EasyPress vs. Household Iron

Quick answer: Use a Cricut EasyPress for Infusible Ink whenever you can. In this side-by-side test, the EasyPress set to 385 degrees (per Cricut’s Infusible Ink chart) gave crisp lines and deep, saturated color in one 40-second press with light, even pressure. A household iron on a high cotton setting had to be worked one section at a time in 20-second intervals and gave poor results, because the edges of the iron get hotter than the middle and the steam holes left a pattern on the design. A household iron can work as a stopgap, but for much better results the EasyPress wins hands-down.

You’re going to love this comparison using a Cricut EasyPress vs. a household iron when using Cricut Infusible Ink. This is going to be such a fantastic test! We get a lot of questions about Infusible Ink and in particular, about heating it. In this post, we wanted to show you just how well each one works.

We probably know just how much we love the Cricut EasyPress – we use it every day! Still, we wanted to see just how a standard household iron would match up to it. As much as we think everyone should invest in an EasyPress eventually, we’re going to test a household iron to see if it will work as a substitute in the meantime.

Cricut Infusible Ink: Cricut EasyPress vs. Household Iron

One thing we love about the Cricut EasyPress is that you can set it to the exact temperature you need. So, we have ours set to 385 degrees as per Cricut’s guidelines for Infusible Ink in their Cricut EasyPress chart.

With our household iron, we have set it to a high cotton setting.

To prep our t-shirt (the surface we’re using today), we’ve placed the EasyPress mat inside of the shirt. The mat is really helpful because it sends the heat from the EasyPress right back up into your project. We’re going to be using this mat even with the household iron.

We’ve placed a piece of copy paper on top of the mat, inside the shirt to prevent any ink from bleeding through. We also have the butcher paper that comes with your Cricut Infusible Ink on hand. We’ve already cut out our designs from the Cricut Infusible Ink sheet and weeded them.

For the first test with the EasyPress, we’re going to start by preheating the shirt for about 15 seconds. Let this cool completely.

Now, go over the shirt with a lint roller. Any little bits of fiber,hair, or lint could interfere with a successful application of the Infusible Ink. You even want to do this with a brand new shirt right out of the package to get the best results!

Place your Infusible Ink design onto the shirt. Put the butcher paper that comes with the infusible ink over top of your design.

Apply the heat with the Cricut EasyPress for 40 seconds, giving it light even pressure. You don’t want to apply heavy pressure and you don’t want to move it.

Once finished, you want to remove the butcher paper and let it cool. After it has cooled completely, you can peel away the infusible ink backing.

The Cricut EasyPress has given us great results here. Nice, crisp lines and deep saturated color

Now, we’re going to try this same process out using a household iron instead. Since this is a larger design, we’re going to have to hit it with the iron multiple times as opposed to the one time we did with the EasyPress.

Once again, we’re going to preheat the shirt using the iron. Move the iron around to heat up the whole space you’re using and heat it for a bit longer than you would have with the EasyPress.

Let cool completely and then use the lint roller over it as before. Place your design down on the shirt and cover with butcher paper. We’re reusing our butcher paper from before because there’s no ink on it at all.

Start heating your design one section at a time. Apply light even pressure in 20 second intervals until the entire design has been heated. We’re doing right side, left side, top half, and then bottom half to make sure we’ve covered all parts of the design.

Remove the butcher paper and let your design cool completely before peeling up the backing paper.

As you can see, we didn’t get the good, clean results we wanted for our design.

The center section of the one heated with the household iron is not as good as the one heated with the EasyPress, but it’s not bad. Unfortunately, we didn’t get good results with the rest of our design. It seems like the edges of the iron get much hotter than the middle section and the holes for the steam are leaving a pattern behind on our design.

Obviously, we could experiment more with this, but it’s clear that for results that are much, much better, the Cricut EasyPress wins hands-down.

Have you tried using a household iron for your Cricut Infusible Ink projects? We’d love to hear about any tips you have!

Frequently Asked Questions

What temperature should I set the EasyPress to for Infusible Ink?

Set it to 385 degrees, following Cricut’s guidelines for Infusible Ink in their EasyPress chart. Preheat the shirt for about 15 seconds, let it cool, then press the design for 40 seconds with light, even pressure.

Can I use a regular household iron for Infusible Ink?

You can as a substitute in the meantime, but expect uneven results. Set the iron to a high cotton setting and heat the design one section at a time in 20-second intervals, since a single press won’t cover a larger design.

Why did my Infusible Ink turn out patchy with an iron?

The edges of a household iron get much hotter than the middle, and the holes for the steam can leave a pattern behind on your design, so the color comes out less even than with an EasyPress.