Be it important documents or family photos, print copies are fading out of use. Everything is going digital these days — and it’s easy to see why. Preserving paper for years is tough, almost nearly impossible in overly humid areas. Thanks to its longevity and exceptionally low maintenance, digital is becoming the new default.
There is still a way to preserve your important printed stuff, though, and that involves using a thermal laminator. These laminators seal your documents between two thin pieces of plastic using heat and physical pressure. Once complete, the lamination layer will protect them from creasing, bends, and moisture of any kind.
Modern laminators are not very expensive, but not all of them are equally high quality either. That’s where our list of recommendations comes in. Here are the finest thermal laminators of 2025 that are worth your investment.
This thermal laminator from Scotch offers the ideal mix of reliability and functionality, all at a great price. Its ability to laminate papers up to 9 inches wide makes it ideal for most home and school uses. Plus, its double-heated roller design ensures that the final lamination is clean and bubble-free every time.
This consistency in quality is also why it’s used in many modern offices as well. You can even use it to seal off pouches up to 5 mm thick, ensuring that this is the No. 1 thermal laminator in every way possible.
If you need a thermal laminator for occasional home use, this is the one for you. Its compact design makes it only 4.92 inches high, allowing you to store it virtually anywhere when not in use. Its compatibility with everything from A4 to A7 standards ensures you don’t have to worry about compatibility.
The addition of a cutter and punch hole maker on the laminator itself as well as a corner rounding device highlights its all-in-one value. It even includes a smart temperature controller so if you’ve never used a thermal laminator before, you won’t have to worry about burning your fingers.
The Fellowes Saturn3i Thermal Laminator is built to work flawlessly for years in a professional environment. The first indicator of its professional-grade construction and a one-minute heat-up time, which is exceptionally fast for consumer laminators. Then there is its larger size that can work with sheets up to 12.5 inches wide with no issues.
Even features like auto shut-off might seem trivial at first but are essential to avoid overheating in a busy setting with lots of laminating. You also have the option to switch between the self-adhesive and normal pouches, thanks to its toggleable heat settings.
Amazon Basics’ laminator has a clean white exterior with plain black text explaining everything. These indicators include a labeled thickness selector on the back, pouch size markings on the front, and two colored LED lights to show when it’s ready to laminate.
Another attribute that makes this the easiest laminator to use is its reliability. Pouches and sheets rarely get stuck, but when they do, it’s easy to remove them in one piece.
Thermal laminators are one of those things that you might not think about, even if you use them every day at work. So when it comes time to buy one for your own personal use, it’s difficult to figure out which model is best suited for your laminating needs. If you’re in a similar boat, don’t worry — in this buying guide, we break down all you need to know and consider to make a successful purchase.
For thermal laminators, size compatibility refers to the maximum width of the sheet or pouch they can process. This number can be as small as A6 or as large as A3 or even A2. The important thing is that none of these sizes is better than the others; the right option for you entirely depends on your personal usage. For example, if you’re a teacher, most of your laminating work will be no larger than A4, so getting a bigger laminator would be a waste of money and space.
As the name suggests, the thickness compatibility of a thermal laminator refers to the pouch thickness it can properly laminate. The industry standards for modern laminating pouches are 3 mm and 5 mm. Thicker items like photographs and cards work fine with a 3 mm pouch, while thinner ones, like certain legal documents, need a 5 mm pouch for proper protection.
Luckily, you may not have to choose here as most modern laminators can change between these two thicknesses with the flick of a switch. Even if you use just one thickness for most of your projects, it’s still nice to have the other option just in case.
The speed of a thermal laminator is determined by two individual factors:
The vast majority of consumer laminators need to be preheated before use, and the time it takes for them to warm is the preheat speed. An acceptable baseline number for this attribute is two minutes. High-end laminators might go as low as one minute or even 30 seconds in certain cases, but two minutes is the average.
Laminating speed is the processing time of a thermal laminator after you’ve inserted the pouch or sheet. This is usually measured in millimeters per minute with 200 mm/min as the average baseline. You can find faster laminators that can go as fast as 500 mm/min, but they’ll cost a lot more.
If you’re wondering which of these performance metrics is more important, consider your situation. If you plan to use the laminator occasionally for a handful of pouches, prioritize fast heat-up speed. If you use the laminator often but for tens or even hundreds of pouches, prioritizing laminating speed will save you more time.
High-quality thermal laminators are exceptionally reliable. As long as you’re doing everything right, the risk of a jam is minimal. But, it’s still possible and might happen once in a while. Whenever this issue arrives, you shouldn’t have to open up the laminator with tools or anything similar to remove the sheet or pouch. Instead, the laminator you buy should have a quick-release button or level on the outside that completely unlocks the pouches. This feature allows you to then pull out the pouch and its contents from either side.
Overheat protection is the last key factor you have to consider — and it’s an essential one. Thermal laminating machines can get extremely hot, and without overheating protection they can keep heating up until the plastic surrounding them has been melted and distorted. This may not only destroy the laminator but can also cause disaster for essential documents or photos.
Double roller thermal laminators have heated rollers on both sides of the pouch. They provide a generally better lamination with a noticeable reduction in creases and accidental air bubbles.
No, as long as the laminator has proper overheating protection, it will not melt a pouch.
Yes, you can laminate your driver's license with a thermal laminator as long as it doesn't have a smart chip on it.
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