Originally Posted by
origamigoldfish
... my iron won't heat up! Looks like I am stuck trimming until I can get a new one...the hard part will be deciding to order a nicer iron and having to wait for it to arrive, or running out and grabbing a $20 walmart special to keep me moving. My vacation starts tonight, I don't want to lose time waiting on a package in the mail.
Honestly, I love my TFal iron more than any other I've ever had. From JC Penney many, many years ago, but they are widely available. The worst thing I can say about it happened while working on Frolic. I have been soooo careful to keep my units together as directed. But during Clue 8, I was suddenly missing a unit. I looked all over. Did I have it in my hand when I went to the kitchen? Nope. Did it fall behind the ironing board? No. Did I leave it at the sewing machine, or did it fall next to it when I got up? No, not there either. Well, irritating as it is to make another, I can. I decide to finish pressing those that I have, then dig through the scrap pile to find the same prints and make a new FG.
Low and behold, when I pick the iron up, there is the missing unit waving in the air. It was caught up under the edge of the sole plate and the body of the iron. No idea how that happened, but it's all good, lol.
Really, I was not a fan of the Rowenta's I had. Two regular plus the travel. Travel one handle broke when I was pressing, really pressing, to convince a seam to lie flat. I've heard many have had the broken handle issue with this model. The other two leaked within a relatively short time. I was using steam bc I was still working and ironing work clothes at that point.
Have thought of trying the Oliso, but have seen several comments lately that the feet stop engaging, leaving the iron to scorch, a potential fire hazard.
My second favorite iron is a small (but not travel sized small) Black and Decker from WM. It is what I keep in my sewing machine case as it is fairly small and lightweight, so is a good substitute for a "real" travel iron. I think when I bought it, it was less than $12.