I have a Black & Decker from Kmart that I bought nearly 10 years ago at least. It was the cheapest one they had because I had a "good" iron in storage, I just couldn't get to it. I never did use my good iron again, and the cheapy still works great, even though the teflon is pretty much gone.

I have a shark as you describe, my lights flicker too, as the temperature drops from whatever you have it set the light will flicker and the next lowest setting will then come on, which appears as if it's blinking but, it is not. If temperature starts to drop shaking the iron from side to side will turn it back on. I love my shark. It keeps really hot

I think most things these days even expensive are made so much cheaper and poor quality than back in the day. Back in the day you had single working families that couldn't afford much so stuff had to be built to last, now a days it seems like stuff is built to last a year or less, you never know what you are going to get, vacuums irons, sewing machines, cell phones, cars, houses, even toys like barbies now look super cheaply made.

I don't think irons with teflon sole plates get as hot as the stainless plates. And they never glide as nicely as the stainless plates.

I like the teflon bottom on mine. It gets hot enough to burn my fingers, iron the fabric smooth and it doesn't get all stuck up with starch after awhile like the stainless ones do!

My iron with the teflon bottom is a Black and Decker from Wal Mart and it is many years old and still works fine.

This is why a teflon coated iron will never get as hot as a stainless iron.

http://www.ehow.com/about_5032728_sy...eflon-flu.html

The best iron I have used so far and I have a Rowenta, Oliso, and even the Chi iron is the Reliable Iron. (I seem to be an iron magnet when it comes to finding mom a gift) It has a separate steam chamber so it can't drip or leak. I had one non stick coated sole plate and it was awful. The coating peeled off when I tried to clean it.

Welll, I meant the lights in the room... not the one on the iron. :wink:

This iron does set a seam well--I'll give it that--better than the Shark was doing. But, it feels like I'm running over my fabric with sand paper! :|

my last iron had a stainless steel bottom and I loved it but it got dropped :-( and i foolishly bought a teflon one which as you said does not glide. i wish it would break but unfortunately it keeps on going. My next iron will have a stainless steel sole maybe I should accidentally :twisted: drop my iron....but then i would have less to spend at the craft show in a couple of weeks...