Am I just shit at ironing or is it the irons fault???

[twocultures]

I'm prepared to hear that it's just me.
I'm currently using DPs iron which I've not used that often up to now as we used to have an ironing lady who we can't afford now. It's an old Phillips iron I want to say it's probably about 5-6 years old (or older) and has been stood collecting dust for a good couple of years before me and DP got together as he had a high pressured long hrs job and used to have a lady do his cleaning + ironing once a week and she used her own iron.

To get to the point every time I hang up an ironed shirt as I look at it from a distance I can see lots of little creases, some that can only be seen under certain lights, I make sure to iron properly, use the right temperature and use spray for tough creases and pay attention to iron everything, it all looks crease free yet when I hang them up the creases can be seen!

I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong, or if it's me or the iron although I can't imagine that an iron gets worse with age?

Has anyone had this happen to them?

I've had lots of different irons, expensive and cheap and I've found them all to do this, the only time they iron perfectly is when you accidently crumple a bit of material under the iron and it irons a perfect crease in it that you then can't iron out

Onlytimewilltell. Oh yes the struggle of the crease I've just spent a good 5mins spraying one down and trying to de-crease it!

I think we need a new iron either way, the one I'm using ATM has a bit of yucky green stuff in the water tank I can't get to or wash out at all as its been stood for so long and I cannot risk trying to use the steam option on the iron as I am petrified of it getting on the clothes
Will have to speak to DP about investing in an iron so I will stop nagging and complaining every time I need to do the tiniest bit of ironing ...

If you are not using the steam function that goes some way to explaining it. It sounds as though they are cotton or cotton rich. If you don't let them get completely dry before ironing, that makes a big difference. You can put the slightly damp shirts in a large carrier bag you've sprayed the inside of with water, roll the open end shut and secure with pegs then iron within a couple of days. Less effort than spraying everything as you go.

I used to hate ironing but have had a steam generator iron for years now and I find ironing tolerable

The constant steam makes a huge difference. Before that I had decent irons, like a Bosch £50 but the steam generator just cuts through the creases and massively reduced the time it took to iron.

I think irons do get worse with age. I'm not sure why it is but they eventually stop getting properly hot (mine do anyway). I generally find about 5 years is the end of their useful life.

I did buy hugely expensive steam generator ones twice but they only lasted about 18 months.

Limescale kills mine.