The Demise of My Most Used Piece of Equipment

Published on by Vicki Kate

Thankfully not my beloved sewing machine! Unfortunately it’s the source of heat and steam, tamer of seams, shaper of darts. The piece of equipment I loathe in it’s usual domestic role but love as maker of garments. Yup, my iron is on its last legs.

The steam is taking forever to generate and I can press almost an entire metre of fabric on the cotton setting with the steam on high and not a puff of it will appear. I’ve descaled it and it makes no difference. Sigh.

To be fair though, its done really well. I have had that iron for well over ten years. It’s worked hard when we had a boatyard, ironing all the sheets and pillow cases (I used to iron over 100 sheets and about 200 pillow cases each week). It’s also been in use nearly every day for ‘regular’ ironing as well as taming seams, darts, pleats, hems throughout my sewing career so far. Not bad for an iron that only cost me £30!

So now I need to investigate the purchase of a new iron before the current one gives up entirely. I’ve had a look on Amazon and quite frankly the range is a bit off-putting! Do I go for a regular domestic iron again, or spring for one with a steam generator? Does anyone have an iron that they would recommend?

Heh, my plans for any money I get for Christmas is going the way of something hot and steamy and not that exciting… unless you make your own clothes of course!

27 thoughts on “The Demise of My Most Used Piece of Equipment”

  1. Tefal with steam generator. Made in France biznezb*tch XD Carl got me one the Xmas before last and it is awesome (totally worth every penny-ironing cottons and most linens is a frikkin’ breeze). It will require the use of a sturdy ironing table tho’. No jerry rigging like in the pic above. The tank is fairly heavy and probably not fun to drop when the contents are scalding XD

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  2. What a pity…but that again it’s the possibility to get a nice new iron. Personally I hate those bulky steam generator irons. My experience is that you need to wait a long time before the water is warm enough. Which is annoying when you need to iron something small quickly. Last year I got a Rowenta DW8110 iron with points I collected from the supermarket (i.e. I couldn’t really choose the model) and was impressed with the results. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Steam-Iron-Rowenta-DW8110-PRO-MASTER-ONLY-34-99-Best-Priced-Irons-ebay-/170883987313
    It makes a lot of steam and has a nice tip. It’s heavier than my previous iron so it’s good when you need to press seams. Certainly you need to refill it quite often if you use the full steam. I find the price not very expensive (it sells for the same price as my old and less effective iron) yet the quality is good. I look forward to see what you buy

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    1. Thank you for the information! I knew there’d be a wealth of information out there and some good advice too. Definitely food for thought… I may have to convince someone in John Lewis (a big department store in the UK with generally excellent customer service) to let me try some out.

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    1. I know! I feel like I can’t see the trees because of the wood at the moment! Hopefully some advice and some research will mean I find a successful replacement. I use it so much though it really does need to be ‘right’!

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  5. We only got a v v v cheap one from tesco. it is awful but kind of does the job. (my place is too small to set up everything up. so i did not splash out on one yet.) look forward to ur reviews!

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    1. It sounds like a mean machine! Mine does need to do double duty so whilst something with weight would be great for pressing it may not be so awesome when ironing shirts! So much to consider…

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  7. I know nothing about irons except mine sure is necessary for my sewing projects! It sounds like yours lasted a good long time! Hope you find a great one at a great price…

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  8. I have no recommendations but am interested to hear what other folk say. I’ll be in the market for a new iron next year and need some weighty steam too. Good luck.

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  9. I’ve got an epic Tefal iron of glory. We went the fancy version with great steam control and some fancy steam vents right at the top which is great for pressing between buttons. I love it so much. Hope you can find a great one!

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  10. I was also overwhelmed by all the options – especially when you’d have an iron with half “best thing ever” reviews and half “piece of crap” reviews. Makes you worry about quality control.

    I wish I could remember the name of the model I went with. It’s a Rowenta made in Germany and it has purple on it. It heats up very quickly and can do vertical steam – I feel like it has the right amount of weight.

    The only downside is the dial is right below the handle and easy to hit by accident when grabbing the iron. I wish for a dial that had click settings, but I’ve not ruined anything so it’s not too terrible.

    I couldn’t find my pressing cloth and ended up ruining my last iron by putting it onto nylon at too high of temperature. Since that was 100% my fault, I didn’t go with the highest end replacement…

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    1. Argh! Sorry to hear about the demise of yours! I’ve come close to doing that but always just stopped myself!

      Thank you for your thoughts I appreciate them. I’ve never had a Rowenta appliance so it’s interesting to hear a users view. I know what you mean too about love and hate reviews, is it a quality control issue or an expectation issue?!

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  12. WOW! Your iron has has one heck of a life. I’m not a guru on irons but I enjoyed reading the comments – I learned a little about what makes a good iron. Thanks and good luck with your search!

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  13. I’ve faced the same problem recently and was also overwhelmed by the choice. I went for a normal one that has a security and shuts off when not used for a few minutes. This feature is great for me as I tended to forget to switch the damn thing off!

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