Hello Crafters!
Over the past few weeks, several similar questions about H17 usage have come up in the community, mainly around camera pads, color results, and the vacuum process. To make things easier, some of the most common ones were collected and checked with the technical team.
Hopefully this post can help clarify a few things. If you see members asking similar questions in the future, feel free to reference this thread as well.
1. What happens if I don’t use the camera lens pad when pressing?
The lens pad mainly provides support and helps with heat transfer.
If your phone case has a large or raised camera module, using the lens pad is recommended. Without it, the camera area may sink inward during pressing, or the sublimation film may get pulled and rupture during vacuuming, which can cause the vacuum process to fail.
If the phone case has a very thin camera module or an open cut-out, you can also try using it without the camera pad.
2. The lens pad feels too thick and the corners don’t sit flat. What should I do?
This situation appears quite often with Samsung phone cases.
Most Samsung camera modules are relatively thin. With the exception of A71 (which includes a lens pad), many Galaxy A series and S series cases can be used without the lens pad.
If the pad prevents the case from sitting flat, simply removing it usually works better for those models.
3. What does the preheating step do?
Preheating helps soften the sublimation film.
Once the film becomes softer, it can wrap around the phone case more smoothly during vacuuming, which improves the final coverage and reduces wrinkles.
4. The colors aren’t as vibrant as expected. What can I do?
Color transfer can be influenced by both the heat press settings and the printing settings. For example, if the temperature or pressing time is not sufficient, the colors may appear less vibrant. Printer settings can also affect the final color result.
There is a tutorial explaining how to adjust color differences here:
Adjusting printer color settings can often improve saturation and overall results.
5. Black sometimes looks brown instead of deep black. How can I fix this?
You can try the following heat press settings:
Upper / Lower Temperature: 140°C
Preheat: 10 seconds
Press Time: 440–470 seconds
If your printer allows parameter adjustments, you can also increase color density and slightly reduce vertical alignment values in the print settings. This usually helps deepen the black tone and reduce the yellow/brown tint.
6. The vacuum process keeps failing. What should I check?
Things worth checking include:
• Make sure the air holes are not blocked
• Confirm the preheat step is completed properly
• Ensure the sublimation film fully covers the silicone sealing ring.
Also, if you are not using a lens pad, try to avoid aligning the camera area directly with the mold slot, as that may affect the vacuum seal.
That’s a quick wrap-up of some of the most common H17 questions we’ve collected so far. Hope this helps if you run into similar situations while using it.
If you have other questions or tips from your own experience, feel free to share them in the comments as well. 
Real feedback from the community is often the most helpful reference for others getting started.
