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I have owned and used many irons over the years.
OK, not so much ‘used’ as ‘abused’! The water comes out of out taps courtesy of Blue Circle. Straight out of 1000 feet of solid chalk that is the North Downs, and which dips under the Weald, and pops up again over there —> as the South Downs. This has a devastating effect on yer modern steam iron. Despite using those bottles of crystals for preparing water for irons, they chalk up in no time, and even with regular decoking, generally they turn into blocks of cement and all steam ceases within two years. This is with normal domestic family use…
I sew. Professionally… I don’t do family laundry ironing (that’s Himself’s department!), but I do a LOT of construction pressing, using LOTS of steam. The iron can be on for 8-10 hours per day, used at short intervals for quick blasts. I really don’t have time to switch it off and wait for it to reheat every 10 – 15 minutes, for a 10 – 20 minute session.
In addition to traditional pressing, I use a lot of fusible interfacings and Bondaweb! Heat set glue for fabrics are a total nightmare for irons.
I like a HEAVY iron! It takes a lot of the OOmph out of pressing, particularly pressing wools… I like LOTS of steam. I like a VERY HOT iron for some processes… And I like a stainless steel soleplate, because, however careful one is, fusible glue WILL stick to the iron, and ss is SO much easier to recover from a full Bondaweb lamination than anything Teflon coated or ceramic finished…
A couple of years back my Rowenta P2 Professional iron gave up steaming for the last time and was retired to the loft as Spare Brat Iron (more later…) Himself bought me a very cheap and cheerful Delta steam generator iron from Aldi. It was dirt cheap (professional ones are up to £250, and normal domestics are about £100) at £38! But I have to say that despite a few minor problems, it has done very well, given that I have fed it several 15 hour days, Bondaweb and fusible interfacing by the mile, acres of fabric pressing, and used it upside down to steam things while they hung on hangers…
The cloth cover for the cable (which gets hot as it os both the power cable for the iron and the steam pipe for the generator) has come off the iron end, and I see no way of getting it back or replacing it..
The safety thing that is supposed to stop you taking the filler cap off the tank while under pressure has failed in the safe position, so is constantly UP. This resulted in minor plastic surgery to the filler cap, removing the plastic fins that stop you unscrewing it while the thing is in the UP position…
Despite using softened water (we have a water softener), the iron is chalking up a bit, and on lowe heat/steam settings it can spit chalky deposits on fabric… I can’t see any easy way to decoke it. So far it hasn’t stopped steaming.
This has been my main iron for the past two and a bit years, and has more than paid for itself. My problem now is that when I need to replace it, am I better off replacing with another cheap job, or do I go for the full professional type, knowing that we have killer water and it may still not last as long as it should?
My second problem is the Brat Iron – the cheap jobs I keep for taking to school to use with the kids. Come what may, they WILL attempt to Bondaweb the poor things to the ironing cloth rather than the work, or fuse the glue to the sole plate rather than the work! My present Brat Iron is and £8 Goblin: it has a Teflon sole plate and is a steam iron. I rarely use it for steam, and really would not miss that capacity for the type of use it gets. The Teflon is a bugger to clean… Is there a non-steam, stainless steel domestic iron out there for less than a tenner? It needs to be tough, as the kids tend to drop them on the floor occasionally… And it could be on all day, too…
I loathe that safety cut-off feature that switches the damned thing off if you leave it for 10 minutes. I then waste time waiting for it to heat up again!
Re: The philosophy of flat irons…
Hi Kate
All things considered I would go for a reasonably good steam iron like the Bosch TDA8337 It covers your criteria nicely and doesn`t cost the earth either 😉 We sell more Bosch irons than the likes of Tefal, Philips, Rowenta just to name a few. Not only that but I am a big fan of Bosch products in general as the quality of product is far better than a lot of the tat out there nowadays 😀
HTHDon
Given the amount of steam I use on most projects, a tank/generator iron is a must for home use, and summat cheap and droppable best for taking out and about!
Steam generators I’ve looked at are these:
http://www.kitchkof.com/productDetails. … uctID=1848
(small tank – less than 1lt)http://www.rgk.co.uk/acatalog/Steam_Gen … #aCLASS150
(fifth one down. Disadvantage is safety cut-off switch)http://www.freenet.ltd.uk/details.asp?ProductID=34313
(Has almost everything I need…)Not quite ready for one of these: http://www.freenet.ltd.uk/details.asp?ProductID=21450
Not too keen on the Teflon sole plate, anyway…Any advice on a brat-proof cheapie would be good…
Kate XXXXXX wrote:
Any advice on a brat-proof cheapie would be good…Hi Kate
See if anyone has a Rowenta LA58 dry iron left. It is now discontinued by Rowenta, but someone may have one left. They are built like a tank, have an alloy base, good weight, all this for about a tenner. Yes they are “brat” proof as well.
Anything from the “Chinese” quarter will be rubbish at around the tenner IMO.
Don
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