~ Firstly - what is your general opinion of ironing?
I like having ironed clothes - but not so much the ironing :)
In theory it's great, stick tv on, you can do it any pace, but I never get around to making the time, then stare at piles of clothes / ironing board in the way of everything and it starts to get on my nerves.
~ First impressions - what did you think? How easy to follow were the instructions?
Looked good, nice and sreamlined but then I guess most irons are! We had a previous steam phillips one and it looked and felt quite similar.
~ First use - what did you try it on? A mountain or did you ease it in slowly? How did it handle the first few items?
We always have a ready waiting mountain at the moment so got started on that - did a t-shirt and then some trousers, they really didn't get 'shiny' at all which I was impressed about
~ Did you have to adjust how you iron at all? How did you find not changing the settings?
Didn't really have to adjust how I ironed, it gets through the water quick so maybe had to fill it couple more times, I was quicker to iron things I may not have before - lighter fabrics and trousers mainly as I wasn't worried about damaging them.
I didn't really change settings that much on my old iron so can't say I noticed a big difference there.
~ Any comments on ease of use? Including size, weight, storage etc?
It's quite heavy - this is good in that it's easier to put enough pressure on the clothes, but it might be a bit much for anyone with weaker hands. I liked the lights and that there wasn't much to it - just plug in and go.
It is quite big but our old iron was the same size so storage isn't any harder - I think it'd be hard to get a good iron any smaller. I find it makes a lot of steam and I had to be a bit more careful placing my clothes so I wouldn't burn my fingers - but this is a positive really as shows the
~ Any one else in the family used it? What did they think?
My partner has mostly used it, he's impressed. He chose the original phillips that we had and he likes the auto shut off features and the continuous steam.
~ Is this an iron you think you'd recommend to other people (should the conversation arise)?
Yes - I have discussed it with a couple of people, but they are cautious to spend so much on an iron.
~ How would you rate the value for money?
Quite good - I think a basic iron is fine, and gets the job done. As we already had a good iron (I think it was about £80 new) I think we were accustomed already to the benefits of continuous steam and high power. I think it probably is value for money over time as our old iron has lasted great. But it's a big initial outlay when you can get irons for less than £10
~ Any other comments on the product?
I'm pleased with it - I like just plugging it in, waiting for light to stay on - and getting to the ironing, without checking settings or worrying about sorting my ironing pile. It's made me much more likely to iron the odd item - whereas before I wouldn't turn the iron on unless I had a few things or needed something specific. I even ironed some of the babies things to soften them up!