steam generator iron , help me please :)

[thriftychicken]

I have just given my iron to ds1 , as he has gone off to university . So . i need to get myself a new one .
I do have this notion that maybe i could start taking in ironing as i also need a job that i can do from home . I tried this before in the past but didnt get much custom , probably because i didnt really go at it full on .
anyway , i am thinking maybe a steam generator iron would be better ( thinking back to the horrifically creased bedding one old lady used to send me to iron) but i have no idea what i am looking at and i am also slightly dubious about spending loads in case i dont get much custom again.

can anyone please recommend me an iron ?

If you haven't used one before prepare to be amazed. They are flipping brilliant. I just bought one that was on special at the local supermarket. Do you know anyone with which membership? If you do, can you get them to tell you which iron is recommended.

They are fantastic! but be careful because some take cartridges to demineralize the water, I have a Tefal one, its bloody marvellous!
I did however find it worked better with a mesh ironing board

what sort of price range should i be looking at ? are the cheaper ones as good ? think dh might faint at some of the prices i have seen

IIRC mine was something along the lines of £160, but I had a cheaper Morphy Richards one for a week before having the Tefal, it was horrific! used to spit an awful lot and was really bulky, I really wanted to like it as well but clearly it just wasn't up to it.
This is a pretty good price IMO and its a good model :)
www.amazon.co.uk/Tefal-GV5245-Pressing-Steam-Generator/dp/B00F0NRJ4W/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1410380421&sr=8-6&keywords=tefal+steam+generator

I spent £80'ish but it was half price. I use the water from my condenser dryer and I buy the cartridges at amazon - they are cheap.

I've had a look at these and they seem quite pricey although I'm tempted... Rocks, where did you find your iron and are you happy with it?

thankyou missing that looks a reasonably priced one

Thrifty, Tefal or Philips are all I go for now TBH, I find they last and do a good job with minimal effort

thats good to know and i'd agree with philips , the iron i gave ds1 was a philips , i'd had it years .

I've got a Teflon one. It was £££. And I absolutely hate it. It spits chalky deposits all across the clothes ramdomly. So often find sh shirt that I just spent 4 mins ironing has white streaky lines across the sleeve which means I have to wash it again and iron it a second tine. Mind you I do live in a very hard water area.

Apparently you MUST NOT use distilled water in them..

Can't say I find it reduces ironing time or improves results either.

Hate it.

Hth

we have a Phillips one that I got half price for about £80 last year (direct from the phillips web site) - it's brilliant.

I second the Phillips. It is very light and practically glides over the clothes with a strong steam shot. and it does not require a filter. it's self filtering so you just have to rinse it out and 4 times a year

I belive we bought ours for £120.

One thing I do with mine is, I rinse the boiler out every few months to freshen it up so I don't get scale deposits (I use tap water)

I think this is the one we have:

www.philips.co.uk/c-p/GC7619_20/perfectcare-pure-steam-generator-iron-with-optimaltemp-technology-and-puresteam-anti-calc-cartridge

myother , does it automatically adjust temperature to the fabric ? how the hell do they do that ? or have i got it wrong ?

earnest , which one do you have ? so i can avoid !

Mine is a morphy richards one, it was £80, recommends de ionised water for hard water areas and has no cartridge nonsense. Just needs the odd rinse out. I love it.

temperature seems to adjust - never burnt anything, nothing gets soggy with steam, the sole plate still looks brand new after a years constant use for a family of four. My teenage boys use it without mishap.

We do a load of ironing most days so it gets constant use - not had to replace the cartridge yet but we do have soft water so that may be a factor. My next door neighbour has 4 kids and has the same iron :)

I could never go back to a normal iron now.

I recently bought one if those Phillips ones with no controls because it knows what temp any fabric should be ironed at its amazing. I use half tap water and half deionised water. Apparently that is optimum as tap water alone causes calcifying and deionised water alone is too acidic. I don't find it inconvenient, I buy the deionised water very cheap in the car section of local Morrisons.

I recently bought one of those cheap models and it was surprisingly better than I expected. I got #2 on this list ironitaway.com/cheap-steam-generator-iron/ for under £50. Cheap and cheerful.