How to clean the iron?

[SlinkyPebbles]

Any good tips for getting the black 'stuff' off?

Astonish and a scourer

Is that a specific iron product?

Nope it's a wonder all purpose cleaner and cheap as chips.

My mother uses it and she's very particular about products. I always use it on my all singing, dancing steam iron with no ill effects

I bought some special iron cleaning pads once and they were a total waste of money. Did nothing. A mild abrasive is the answer, and astonish is a good one.

here are the pads I wasted £3.99 on.

You need an iron cleaning stick - you can buy them in old fashioned hardware shops or Amazon.

My one is from HG, but there are lots of brands. It is a stick which seems to contain a mix of soap and wax. You put iron on low setting rub stick over it and then wipe with old cloth. Iron is clean and smooth in an instant.

I would never use abrasives on my Iron as it has a special non stick layer, which could damage easily. The sticks range in price from approx £4 to £8 and last a long time, well worth it to make sure your iron lasts a good many years.

I have my iron for about 10 years now, I do lots and lots of ironing and I really think everybody who regularly irons should have one of these sticks as it makes ironing much easier as it keeps the iron smooth.

you can use soap on a hot iron too and scrape it off.

this you don't have to scrape off as it is a mix of soap and wax, really, once you have tried it you don't want anything else (maybe I should see if I can become a sales rep for these companies (there are several brands, all seem pretty much the same) ...)

Barkeepers friend does a reasonable job (until I can find a new iron stick as dikkertjedap said)

I agree with dikkertjedap , those iron sticks are just the best. The only thing is , I wouldn't say they last a long time. You just need to put the iron on a warm setting , run the stick over the iron and wipe the excess off with a paper towel. Good stuff.

I agree with dikkertjedap , those iron sticks are just the best. The only thing is , I wouldn't say they last a long time. You just need to put the iron on a warm setting , run the stick over the iron and wipe the excess off with a paper towel. Good stuff.

I use hot iron cleaner, you can get it from Lakeland but I believe you can get it elsewhere too, see this

It is amazing, I have it stashed by the ironing board so I can get to it easily. I have used it for years.