I've had this Sunbeam Steam Master (model 4228) for about 5 years and used it heavily during that time. It actually did break a year or so ago (the cord at the base became loose and wires weren't connecting) but my super hubby fixed it. It has been a great iron! I'll be honest, I didn't treat it the best either. I always left water in the tank and only used tap water (distilled is always recommended). But aside from a bit of drippiness now and then I was very happy with the steam it made and the heat it produced. But sadly, we all know that irons don't last forever...
My son was kind enough to label it "shut down" for me.
So last month I started researching irons. Luckily, my Sunbeam was still working but I didn't want to take the chance of being without and iron (because no iron, no quilting!).
What I concluded is that picking an iron is basically a crapshoot. It's hit or miss! There are good and bad reviews for every iron out there (if you've ever shopped for irons on Amazon and read the reviews you'll know what I'm talking about.
I settled on a Reliable Velocity V50 and ordered it from Aamzon.
I'll be honest. This thing is really different from my other iron. It has a little motor that produces continuous steam and it makes a loud humming sound when you have it on (kind of unnerving at first). The good part is that you can turn the steam off and on at the easy touch of a button. So I just turn the steam on when I'm actually ironing something and then turn it off when I set the iron back down. And this sucker gets nice and hot too!
I've been using it for almost a month now and at first I didn't like it but after a short while I started getting used to it because this thing really works great!
When you iron a seam, it stays ironed FLAT! Case in point:
The picture is not as impressive as in real life but that center seam is so flat and crisp! It's awesome.
A little warning though, the steam it produces is some serious steam! watch those fingers, ouch! Oh and, I'm trying my best to treat this iron well so I'm using only distilled water. This thing is a water hog! It goes through a TON of water to make all that steam. But for me, the most important thing is that it irons seams nice and flat. So, with that, I'm really happy with it!
I had that iron before and ended up selling it because the auto-off was so short I constantly had to remember to press that weird button to turn it back on (not just shake it like most irons). It drove me crazy. I will say, the steam was great, though, and the heaviness of it really did do an awesome job on seams!
ReplyDeleteI bought a Shark iron that I was told was a good iron. It died after a few months. Hubby put a new plug on my old iron and I use it all the time. Hope it lasts....
ReplyDeleteHave a great week end my dear and watch those fingers