I had a good iron that I liked, can't remember what brand, but it had a retractable cord that would "whap" me every time as it recoiled. I gave it to my youngest daughter when my oldest daughter gave me a new Rowenta. She has since had problems with her Rowenta spitting. She always used tap water until she got this new one, now uses only distilled water. It spits. I read the instructions on the new one she got me, it said to use half and half, half tap, half distilled. I have used it now for two years and no problems, (fingers crossed). So far so good. I do not like the auto-turn off, but it does recover steam quickly, so guess it is doing well.