I find if I'm using spray starch I'll spray on the backside, let it set in before pressing on the top side. I find I get little to no residue on the bottom my iron this way. Letting it soak into the cloth helps too.

I also love my Panasonic cordless iron. DD has one also and loves it.

Great thread and excellent tips and suggestions.

Don't have any advice as to how to use starch. But to get the brown stuff off you iron, you need to let it cool and clean with a Mr. Clean eraser. It works fast and take everything off completely.

For those of you who said that you loved your cordless Panasonic would you share what model(s) you are using. I am so close to ordering one with ceramic sole plate. Yes, my iron now is so yucky because I am not patient enough also.

I started using spray starch a few years ago and always tried to remember to clean my iron and sometimes I would forget. And since I was ironing shirts for my DH to wear to work I could not have the marks it could leave. So somewhere on this board someone wrote that they use the Mr. Clean Magic eraser on the cold iron and it worked well. Gave it a try and sure enough it worked. But someone else wrote they kept the "used" dryer sheets and ever so often while ironing they would run the iron over the dry sheet kept on the ironing board. I started doing that and have not need to use the Magic eraser since. I just leave it on the end of my ironing board and spray it with a bit of water and run the hot iron over it. Mr friend thought I was crazy but it cleaned up her iron quite a bit too.

I tried it out of desperation because I needed to iron a shirt and didn't have any iron cleaner. The salt and brown bag did not work for me but the Magic Eraser worked. Not as much as I had hoped though so bought a new iron and kept it clean since. I was worried the heat of the iron would melt the dryer sheet but it didn't. The Magic Eraser is on a cold iron.

That's a good idea. If you don't have the Mr. Clean eraser, try a used, moistened dryer sheet.

I never use spray starch or best press. If I need to remove wrinkles I just spray with water from my little bottle.

Best Press is spray starch. The reason why you don't get scorching or brown stuff on your iron is because Best Press has added surfactants to make the starch absorb into the fabric faster and easier.

Try spraying the starch, then either let it sit for a few minutes, or if you're like me and can't wait, spray a fine mist of water on top. The water will help the starch absorb into the fabric and you won't get the brown flakes.

I have Best Press to use but do use water more often. I have a Panasonic 360 that I purchased 3-4 yrs ago & love it. I am tempted to buy another if I found it on sale. The only corded iron i would use is a small travel iron.