Way back when quilt magazines had a lot of great articles there was one called Ironing 101. It explained why so many irons spit and sputter yucky water. The main reason was filling the iron with the steam on, a big no no. And having the steam turned on when bringing the iron up to temp. With the new irons having auto off and on the steam dial has to be off until you are ready to use it and the iron has to be at stream temp before you turn it on. You can't leave the steam turned on with auto shut off while it cools down and heats back up.