I'm glad you didn't buy a cheap iron. I had a Black and Decker that was also probably 20 yrs old. I loved that heavy iron. But it started leaking. I found one (almost) exactly like it at the hardware store. The only thing I don't like is that it goes into a cool down mode if you don't use it for a few minutes and takes 90 seconds to start back up. I hate that. I want my iron hot when I want it. I wish I had looked at Rowenta's instead