I don't buy expensive irons. When my faithful GE refused -- and still refuses -- to come on recently, I bought a Hamilton Beach for $25. It's heavier than the GE and larger, and I don't think it gets as hot -- weirdly -- but it works well enough.

I'm trying to get one of my sons to take the GE apart and see if it's just a loose wire or something fixable. One of them said it would cost as much as a new iron. But I don't care if it does. It's an iron I like and am used to and I'd love for it to work again.

All this to say I don't have a recommendation, just testimony to what I bought when my own iron died.

Thanks for the suggestion on waking up the iron. I'm one for moving about my sewing room.

My iron might be on its way out the door! For those of you who purchased Panasonic 360's earlier this year.....how is it working after 7 months? I use steam when I press for quilting. Do you all use steam? Is it lighter in weight than a traditional iron with a cord? Just checking in for everyone's additional comments. Thanks for this original post....it helps when we all have to replace our irons.

I was at JAF today and was looking at irons too. I decided what I saw was to pricy. What I decided to do was go home and reexamine what I could do the job and did I need and expensive Iron that could raise itself from the ironing board for safety and give me a moment of no worry. I told myself I have been ironing for years and am alway safe with the iron. I didn't need one today but I do have a couple well weighted irons here that I use and my one travel iron that I take with me when I go to quilting bees and the such will do just fine. Sunbeam and Black and Decker make good irons that are inexpensive and do the job just as well as other irons. You may have to wait an extra second or so for it to get hot enough but it still gets the job done nicely. It takes no more muscle that other irons. Believe me I would love to have a Rowena but it it way out of my range for an iron. Just my thoughts.

I generally use the cheap ones and they don't take that long to heat up for me. That being said, I wanted a dry iron with no holes on the soleplate. I ordered a Wasing online. It's rather heavy, does not get as hot as I'd like, and I always get nervous as the button to slide the temp does not stay all the way in the off position, although the iron does not seem to be running when it's 'off'

I buy a Sunbeam or Black & Decker from Wally World for about $20 and find they work about as well as the more expensive one's I've bought in the past. right now I'm using a Simplicity that I bought at Tues Morning a year or so ago--the steam doesn't work very well which is just as well as I'm trying to kick the "steam habit" anyway.

I prefer to spritz my fabric and seams with homemade Best Press starch substitute. My go to iron is a solid soleplate dry iron instead of a steam iron. I see you can order the Continental Electric[h=1]Continental Electric Retro Classic Dry Iron in Chrome from Bed Bath and Beyond[/h]

I looked this one up and learned something new. https://www.bedbathandbeyond.com/sto...chrome/5313371
click on the picture with the words describing the parts. Over the years, I've seen many irons with a little 'slot' in the side of the soleplate. It is described in this picture as the button nook! Who knew? LOL

I got one from WalMart.... a Teflon brand steam iron. It was reasonable and the spray starch or sizing I use does not build up on it. Works great for me. And I don't use steam on my quilting either.

I have a Black & Decker iron I received as a gift from my mom probably 35 years ago. It still going great and it has been used a Lot over the years!

Is funny the things we like/don't like. Personally, I don't like irons that turn off. They do it too fast and most take too long for me to heat up. I also like fairly heavy irons, and prefer them on the long side to short. Most of all, I'm hard on irons, I drop them all the time...

So I either take a chance on a good brand used iron at the Goodwill (only to get home and find it doesn't steam) or I go to Target and look for the cheapest iron that has the longest cord. I want that extra long cord! They cost under $20 and last several years or until the case cracks from me dropping them. That usually happens before any other problems.

I use steam, we have good water here in the PNW, but I usually use day old water so the chlorine is gone.

I’ve just read through this thread, because my 3 year old Oliso (blue) caused the electric breaker to pop twice in my last session of using it. :shock: It also leaks a bit, but I was wiling to live with that, but it had also developed other electrical issues like not turning off automatically or even sometimes, if I turned the dial to “off”, it was still hot. A bit scary...

Anyhow, I wanted to see if anyone had anything to add to this thread about your favorite iron and why you like it.

Thanks.

A couple months ago I was piecing squares into strips and pressing the seams as I went with the (3 year old) Black and Decker Classic iron, just had it on low to get the seams flattened, when I pressed a seam I noticed an odd smell, looked at the piece and it was scorched, almost burnt through. Somehow the iron just went wild overheating, after unplugging it, it took a couple hours before it was cool enough to wrap the cord around and take it to the garage. I went to Walmart and bought one of their 10 dollar irons, so far it's working just fine, heats quickly and no auto shut off to annoy me, or grabby steam holes that somehow constantly snagged the edges of seam allowances. Not all that unhappy to see that particular iron pack it in.

I had an Oliso until a few months ago, I was ironing and smelled smoked and poof it caught fire. I used the fabric I was ironing to smother it until my husband used the fire extinguisher. I bought a Hamilton Beach Durathon from Walmart for $49.00. I had just started ironing, didn't have 6" done when this happened and I ruined 3 yards of fabric.Oh well, no one got hurt and the house didn't burn down. Oliso won't do anything for me because it was out of warranty.

My Oliso started spitting and spewing brown water yesterday. I have had it for 15 months. It was the yellow one and I won it at a quilt show door prize. I'm glad I didn't spend my money on it. I ordered the Reliable steam generator iron with tank yesterday from Amazon for $242. Less then two Oliso irons. The quilt shop here has one for all class members to use and it is over five years old and still working like new. Should have gotten one to start with.

Oops the price is $173! I was looking at the $242 one before I ordered. About the same price as one Oliso! LOL

Recently bought a Chi iron for $49.00 and I do like it. I kept having problems with fabric catching in the steam holes while ironing open my seams, especially the tips on HSTs. Went looking for an iron that had a soleplate without holes and ended up with the Chi because of the tiny holes and it's reasonable price. The science of a ceramic soleplate is beyond me but it didn't put me off, and I also like the ten foot cord.

I went to look at the Black and Decker ‘Digital Advantage’ but ended up with their Light and Easy instead. It was about $16 (after coupon). At least if it dies it will be less painful financially!