Originally Posted by luvstitches
I worked at a large chain fabric store for 11 years, mostly in customer service. I've returned many Rowentas and purchased two of them that were returned at a damaged price plus my employee discount. The two that I bought have nothing wrong with them however, I don't think they get as hot as some of the cheap brands of irons. When I no longer have these two irons, I will buy a Black and Decker.
You can't put distilled water in Rowentas.
The water thing and the fact that they are heavy are my biggest complaints about the Rowenta's. It seems that my daughter's takes forever to heat up. My Shark has little blinking lights that tell you what temp it is at; I like that feature and that it is not Teflon and has lots of steam holes; also you can set it at how much steam you want or none. I don't remember exactly how much I paid, but it wasn't over $40. I got mine with my rebate check from BJ's wholesale club. The only disadvantage I can find in it is that it is a little tippy and won't sit in the holder on my ironing board. That is not a problem for me as I rarely use my ironing board, since I have the big ironing table.