Why don't irons have on/off switches?

[User1053051066]

Just wondering. You know, you plug them in and switch on. Then have to switch off at the plug. Nothing else is like this.
I know, trivial......

Mine does

Yes but mine has an automatic cut off so I would like to say for safety reasons. But what about the poor buggers who don't have this function on their iron?

I think that may only be true of older styles or models. My old 'conventional' iron had no on/off switch, but my newer fancy-shmancy pressure steam iron does. Likewise my ancient, decades-old curling tongs have no on/off switch, but my newer straighteners do.

My straighteners and curling tongs have an on/off switch. Would never trust that though, always turn it off at the plug. So even if my iron did I wouldn’t use it

My iron has an on/off switch. It can be switched off even if it's plugged in.

It's crap isn't it. My neighbor phoned me the other day from a motorway service station about 100 miles from (at 8:30 in the morning). Could I please check she'd unplugged her iron? She hadn't. No emergency cut off either. Thankfully there was no damage done but, well, it could have been very different...

Interchangeable- I've done that with my straighteners. I always unplug them even though they have an on/off switch. Yet tonight, I've ironed but not finished so I've left it on the ironing board in the living room plugged in but definitely switched off. Gosh I'm appalled at my double standards! And feel I really would invest in a new iron but really don't need to since I learned that a paracetamol tablet cleans the plate!!! Who knew??!!

Mine does but it's years old

Safer to have to unplug it to switch it off. Clever, really.

Just to be on the extra cautious ultra safe side of things, we don’t own an iron

Because people can barely cope with having to unplug the things before they leave the house - if they could flip (or more likely, not flip) a switch, there would be more places burned to the ground.

(My super posh steam thingy has a switch, but that's for the pressurised boiler system, not the iron, technically - and that means you can hear if you've left it switched on)

A paracetamol cleans the plate?

Yes! Like magic! Get the iron nice and hot and rub it all over then wipe with a damp cloth!

Doesn't the twisty thing for the temperature not have a bit where it doesn't heat up at all? Any iron I have ever owned I've had to turn it a good half inch from the minimum setting before it comes on, it clicks when you go past a certain point and doesn't start heating up till then. It doesn't heat at the 'min' setting, so technically is off then, even though not plugged in.

I always unplug it anyway, and store stood on its end on a heat resistant silicone mat in the kitchen I use for putting hot pans down on the worktop, just in case a child bumps it and knocks it over. Also when leaving hair curlers/straighteners to cool I leave a mat under them in case they fall/get knocked. Just seems an extra layer of security just in case.

Even though still plugged in, not not plugged in at the end of first paragraph.

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