I finally replaced my old iron with this beauty (Rowenta® Pressure Iron and Steamer DG5030). I had to wait two weeks for it to arrive since Macy's had it on sale but not in stock (??). I was a little concerned at first because it kept splurting water but my smart husband pointed out that it was probably because the water settled into the hose when it sat for a while so now I just hold it up and let it splurt out each time I start using it again and then the steam is free to flow. It's 1740 watts which is nice and hot (I never buy one under 1600 watts) but the hand held part is really light which takes some getting used to when you're used to more weight (but all the weight is in the tank unit so it makes sense).
I was so thrilled when it finally arrived that I flung the plastic wrap off and didn't even realize I had thrown it onto my old iron (which was still hot, of course). Poo.
My old one crusted out far too soon and I was pretty irked because the instruction manual said to use tap water and that's what I had done. Turns out Arizona water isn't really tap water (more like gack water). Our water is so hard that it really does a job on all of our appliances/faucets and I should have considered that before I started dumping it into my precious (and not cheap) Rowenta. You can see where the minerals caused the plastic to chip away and finally the tank wouldn't hold the steam because it was leaking out the side (which scares the living daylights out of me because it reminds me of those presser cookers from my childhood).
My new iron was dribbling out the bottom at first and it turns out it was because I was using distilled water because I was so frightened of mineral build up again. So now I'm using tap water that's been filtered through our Brita pitcher and it seems to be the right balance. Sigh. So much effort in the pursuit of ironing perfection. So far so good.
And here is a cute, fat cat who likes to be in the middle of everything.
Have a great weekend and keep on sewing!
