Customer reviews, item descriptions, and technical specs – they all help when choosing an iron. Personally though, I trust the advice or testimonial of someone I know versus someone I don’t and who gave an online review. You never know what their situation is or was – they could have been drunk reviewing (you know… like drunk dialing or drunk texting). So what iron are other sewing ladies using? I’ll let them tell you (click on their names to be connected to their blogs)…
I own the “Black & Decker: The Classic Steam/Dry Iron”, mainly because it’s a reproduction of an old vintage iron I found at an estate sale in LA. I love the weight of it but like it’s vintage ancestor, it spits out steam if you leave water in it for too long. So, it’s mostly a dry iron…
My current iron is a Rowenta Focus. I purchased this iron because I’ve always had a pretty good experience with Rowentas and it’s one of the few irons without auto-shutoff. Personally I HATE auto-shutoff, I need that iron to be ready to roll for hours at a time. Unfortunately this is a home iron which means I burn through the heating components pretty quickly keeping it on for so long. Bummer.
My dream iron is a Sapporo Gravity Iron. This is the iron we use at work and it’s a dreamboat. It’s on 7 hours a day, 5 days a week and we’ve had the same one for at least the last 4 years – the one before it met it’s maker when it was dropped on the floor. These irons are meant for heavy duty pressing and they do an amazing job. The only reason I don’t have one is that you need to hang the water tank and I don’t have a permanent place to iron at the moment. As soon as I get a studio outside of my living space though, it’s on!
I currently use a Rowenta Professional DX8800 iron. I don’t have a lot to compare it to (previously, I was using irons that I found in the dumpster at Vanderbilt – yep, crazy kids throwing away brand new stuff. Ugh!) but it is pretty amazing. My mom bought it for me as a birthday gift about 5-6 years ago after insisting that I upgrade from the dumpster irons. It’s not a cheap iron by any means but it has definitely held up quite well over the years. I really love the steam on it – it gives a HUGE burst of stea, and it gets super hot, really fast. It also has a nice weight – whether or not it has water in it – which is good for pressing seams. Not a huge fan of the auto shut-off feature, although I think it’s pretty par for the course when it comes to home irons. I also tend to forget to turn my iron off (I purposefully hooked it up to a power strip that also turns lights on/off so I’m reminded to shut it off when I’m done for the day. But… y’know… shit happens and I’m super forgetful) so it’s probably a good thing. It doesn’t take long to heat up after it shuts off, so that’s nice. I wish the water reservoir was bigger because I blast through it SO FAST since I steam everything. But I’ve tried the ones with a tank (my mom has one) and I don’t like the way the iron feels – it’s almost too light-weight and the sole plate feels weird. Maybe it’s just because I’m used to mine.
Eventually, I’d like to try a gravity-feed iron but that’s going to have to wait, at least until my current iron bites the dust. It’s starting to leak water so maybe that will be sooner than later! I don’t have any reason for wanting a gravity-feed other than I heard they are really awesome and that they look cool as shit. Ha!
”My iron and my sewing machine are my favorite sewing investments. I use a Reliable steam generator iron. I know that sounds hardcore! I saw a lot more of these types of irons when I was living in Europe–I don’t know why they haven’t caught on as much here. About four years ago I had a “last straw” moment with regular irons when my cheap Target-purchased iron spit all over a leather project (and I didn’t have the steam on). It totally ruined the handbag I was working on. And it was my first leather project, so you can imagine how frustrating that must have been! I had some Amazon gift cards saved up so I went for the steam generator after a lot of research. The actual iron itself is slim and is connected to a small boiler. I love that I have steam at any temperature–and very controlled steam. I always hated pressing before I bought this iron but I really love it now. I also use it as a steamer to preshrink things that can’t be washed (like wool or a silk on which I don’t wish to get wet–I don’t like how charmeuse loses some of its shine after washing). As a steamer it’s genius. I can’t think of anything I don’t like about it. I’ve had it for four years now and no problems!
P.S. This is a sewing blogger from Montreal – I’ve been reading her blog for some time and she recently posted about this same iron, if you’re curious!l“