Last night in the middle of pressing the seams on a flannel quilt, my iron gave up. Of coarse it was several years old and had been well used. It was an inexpensive black and decker. I bought another one but the newer version doesn't have the sharp point on the sole plate that was on the old model. My husband decided to take the old one apart to see if it could be fixed.
This is where the shock came in. The inside of the soleplate had a thick covering of dust and lint! I am surprised it didn't catch on fire! I can't see how anything could get inside but it obviously can. I wonder if one of those cans of air would work to keep the inside cleaner? I only paid about $12.00 for the new iron at wally world so my only real concern is safety. What do you think?

Ditter

I would sure try the can of air - just make sure it's cold and unplugged when you do it. Worst that can happen is you buy yet another iron.

You are lucky it didn't catch on fire. Thanks for the "heads up."

Very interesting!

Hmmm Makes me think that I need to check mine out occasionally too!!!
Thanks for the heads up :D:D:D

Good tip - I need to check my iron.

I have had that happen to one of my irons.
I took a brush and got out what I could, then filled it up with water, and set it on top of a sauce pan and clean it real good using the clean setting. When you sew a lot there is an awful lot of lint, having fans going can sent that lint just about everywhere.

Canned air would be ok to use, be sure to give it time to dry up before plugging it back in.

my old black and decker was trying to give up the steam holes were pluged and the spreyer would not spray i have a new iron from dollar grenearl but dose not work as well i had some stuff call awesom it is a cleaner i get for 3 dollars i poured it in and let the iron steam it didnt take long and it was a good working iron again i never found a cleaning product that is so versital

Thanks for the tip, minnow, about Awesome I have some so I will try it too.

Wait till you lift the top on your dryer...!

You could stuff a quilt with all the lint in there..DH cleans out the whole thing twice a year..very dangerous!

thanks for the info on the Iron!

Also check your hair dryer..it gathers lint in the filter too..you can take it out and wash it off really easily!