Hi Nana Jan - That sleeve you speak of was on my iron as well - it blew off about 1/4" down from the bottom of the sleeve - it was snow white - it looked like someone had cut it off there - not one bit of smoke on it at all - but the rest of the iron had smoke all over it and my hand was BLACK......and burnt. One would think that if the cord had a short in it from a wire breaking - as they told me - from using it - there would be smoke at that point - but there was NO SMOKE there. And - there was NO bend in the cord at all - that was why I was so interested in their telling me exactly what happened INSIDE the iron. But - that didn't happen. It made NO SENSE TO ME at all. But - you can't fight city hall - so here sits the new iron and I don't know if I'll use it or not. I believe something shorted out inside the iron. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.............LOL!