Electric Irons Central

How much you spend on an electric iron really depends on what you are looking for. From size to features to strength and quality of construction and longevity, there is a considerable amount of variation. But for the most part, it should not be hard to find a decent iron within your price range.

The cost of an electric iron can be anywhere between $10 and on the high end, several hundred dollars. For the most part, you should be able to get a perfectly good, quality iron for standard in home use for no more than $40.

On the most affordable end of the price range, the $10-$15 range, you will find mostly electric travel irons. These are smaller, lighter weight, and generally less powerful because of the decreased size and weight. They will not perform as well as a full size iron, and it will therefore take longer to get the desired result. But if you are travelling, the space you save it your suitcase is probably worth it; just make sure you plan your time accordingly to to ensure you have the time you need to iron your clothes well.

On the high end, in the several hundred dollar range, you have high performance electric steam irons with full water tanks separate from the irons themselves. These can cost $300-$800, and while these electric irons are incredibly impressive, they are probably a lot more equipment than 99% of people actually need to buy for personal use. Perhaps if you run a tailoring and seamstress business from your home, this is worth it. But if you just want it to flatten out your work clothes or cocktail dress, you really don’t need to spend that much.

As noted above, the $40 range is more than sufficient for at home use. You should be able to get an iron with some good features. These may include auto shut-off, steam and spray features, heat shields, insulated cords, retractable cords, and a variety of settings for different fabrics. Shop around for a good deal, as these types of home products are often on sale and can be purchased at a very good price.

The electric iron is the best way there is to smooth out wrinkles in clothes and add crisp polish to a professional look. Irons work because their heat helps soften the fibers in your clothes, then the weight of the iron and its flat surface smooth out those fibers, and they cool in the flatter configuration, for a wrinkle-free look.

But it turns out that electric clothes irons can be used for a lot more than just getting rid of clothing wrinkles. Sure, nine times out of ten, that is exactly what you will be doing with it. But if you have a house or apartment with anything other than clothes (and of course you do), there is a good chance that you will find some of these more creative applications of the electric iron useful.

(These are just suggestions; always be careful with your iron to make sure you do not burn anything.)

The heat and steam features of an iron make it a very useful cleaning tool when used carefully.

• Carpet. Some people set their iron on a low heat setting and use it to steam their carpets to loosen the dirt before vacuuming.
• Candle wax. If a candle spills into a carpet, let the wax dry so it stays in a clump, then run a low-heat iron over it a few times to soften it just enough to loosen it from the carpet fibers.
• Steam treatment. You can steam your hanging curtains and hanging clothing by holding your iron upright and using the steam button to moisten the clothes and curtains.

Crafting is also something that benefits from the heat of an electric iron:

• Pressed/dried flowers. The heat and flatness of an iron makes it ideal for preserving flowers. Take the flower you want to preserve and place it between two sheets of wax paper. Carefully run the low-heat iron over the paper.
• T-shirts. Iron on t-shirts are a great project for kids. You can buy application materials at any office supply store.
• Bead crafts. Certain kids’ beads are designed to be melted and pressed together, making fun shapes and designs. This doesn’t work without an iron, which makes bead shapes simple and fun.

An electric iron is a great tool to have around the house. From the obvious purpose of ironing clothes to less obvious and more creative crafts and cleaning methods, having the ability to heat a flat, metal surface ends up serving a lot of useful purposes around the household.

Today, there are electric irons and travel electric irons for sale at almost any department or dollar store, as well as many online retailers. You get a wide selection of settings, safety features, performance options, design differences, and even sizes. Among the top electric iron brands/manufacturers, you will almost always find:

• General Electric
• Panasonic
• Continental Electric
• Shark
• Sunbeam

Certainly, other brands make acceptable irons as well, but these are the leading brands across the market.
Features you are likely to find on electric irons often include some or all of the following:

• Various heat settings. This lets you adjust the temperature depending on the type of material you will be ironing and how wrinkled it is. Some temperature controls are so specific that they give you a digital temperature display for exact feedback.
• Moisture/steam settings. This also helps customize your iron’s performance depending on your fabric. Steam may mist, cloud, or spray.
• Retractable cord. This is a nice convenience that makes the iron very easy to store. It also decreases risk of accident or injury to children, pets, or competent adults who just didn’t see the cord draped while the iron was cooling.
• Auto-off. An excellent safety feature, auto-off measures how long the iron has been face down, or turned on in general. If it’s been too long and there’s a chance you’ve forgotten about it, the iron will shut off automatically.
• Anti-drip design. This reduces dripping from the reservoir that holds water for steam, decreasing the chance of water spots on your garment.
• Anti-calcium filters. These prevent calcium build up from the water you use for steaming.
• Non-stick soleplate. This reduces the chance of your iron sticking to your clothes when they get hot, which means less spotting, less burning, and more safety.

When you go to buy an electric iron, you’ll find that while all of the products you are choosing from perform the same basic function (they take the wrinkles out of clothes), you will have a lot of selection to choose from. How do you pick an iron if you are not sure what you are looking for? Well, here is an overview of some of the different features you are likely to find the modern electric irons equipped with. Knowing the purpose of each feature will help you decide if it is something you would like to have in the iron you take home with you, or whether it is something you do not care about or plan to use. Armed with this knowledge, it should be much easier to find an appropriate electric clothes iron for your needs and budget.

• Auto shut-off. This is a good safety feature that turns the iron off if it has been in use for a certain length of time, or if the iron senses that it has been sitting, heating up, but is not actually being used. This indicates you have walked away without remembering to turn it off, and the iron will do so for you.
• Cooling sensors. Similar to the auto shutoff, some irons can tell if the clothes you are ironing are getting too hot. They will beep, indicating you need to lift the iron up and let both the appliance and the garment ‘breathe’ for a moment.
• Retractable cords. This is good if you appreciate un-cluttered storage or worry about children and pets getting at the cord while the iron is cooling or heating up.
• Steam/spray features. If you plan to iron a variety of materials, you may want different levels of steam capability. Spray steam, blast steam, and vertical stream are all options.
• Heat levels. The more variety you have in which setting you select, the more specialized you will be for the garments you iron.
• Non-stick plate. This reduces the likeliness of the iron sticking or burning on the garment you are ironing.

Being able to iron a garment with a convenient electric iron is something that most people in developed countries today take for granted. But the history of the iron, or iron-type devices goes back hundreds, indeed thousands, of years.

The earliest iron type device was called a “smoothing stone,” a heavy, smooth stone shaped somewhat similar to a mushroom (so there was a part that could be held). These smoothing stones were used as far back s the 8th and 9th centuries.

The iron that is more like something we recognize has been around for just a few hundred years, first in the 17th century. The irons used in this period were first called by “irons” because that was, of course, the material from which they were made. A flat iron would be heated by being placed in a fire (either wood or coal), and it was important for the person using it to wrap the handle in cloth so as not to burn his or herself.

From there, the flat irons developed into box irons, which had a space inside for hot coals. These would retain their heat better, and were safer because they didn’t require the person to reach directly into the fire as much. Box irons were often affixed with wooden handles to also help avoid injury from burning.

In places where irons were used frequently (such as a tailor’s shop), people would not want to wait for flat irons or box irons to be reheated. For these, special furnaces were designed that could heat several irons (around the sides) at once. When one iron cooled, it was simply replaced and a hot iron picked up in its stead.

The iron as we know it today comes as a direct response to fueled irons from the turn of the 19th to 20th centuries, which were fire hazards. The electrical iron was first used in 1882 and has since developed to the aluminum plated electric irons we know today. These are more affordable, reliable, safe, and quick-heating than irons of the past, and allow people to smooth fabrics after just a few minutes of heating time.