I have 2 reasons I unplug: 1- my DBIL who is a commander in the fire department and I live in the lightning capital of the world....

Please note, we suffered a fire in our first Motorhome, in 2005 - our parrot and two dogs were in the RV, and we had gone off to a concert, the concert wasn't keeping us interested, we decided to leave early - upon returning to the RV Park, we noticed the awefully darkened windows, when my husband opened the door, there was a fire inside, he went in- got out the dogs and the bird, grabbed the curtains and tossed them outside, along with the power cord which also had a surge protector on it, it was a very expensive cord, however it failed. The surge protector was what the insurance investigators told us started the fire, apparently it smoldered for quite some time, before it caught the curtains on fire.

Our dogs and bird survived and we had an aweful lot of smoke damage, so PLEASE do not trust those surge protectors, unplug your appliances, etc, when you are not in the area.

I always unplug the iron, that's what Mom taught me.

Ask a fireman how many fires have been started by irons. I always unplug.

I always unplug my iron. If I don't one of our cats will chew on the cord.

AudreyB I've got to look for that toggle switch. I've not seen those and need one for another application. But I am concerned about your drop cord. Does it have a high enough rating for your high wattage iron? That in itself can be a fire hazard. Regular household drop cords are not rated for high wattage appliances.

I didn't use to unplug my iron after turning it off until one day I noticed the iron was still warm to the touch even though it wasn't on. This was the next day. I've unplugged it ever since.

My 2 machines and irons are hooked up to one of those surge protectors. I unplug the whole business when I leave the room and am done for the day. I turn it off (the light indicator) for short periods of time but unplug at end of day. I still turn my iron off when not in use just like my machines.

Because I have blocked most of the outlets in my studio with bookcases, I have installed (not sure what they're called) multi-outlet strips with circuit breakers that I plug everything into. At DH's suggestion, the iron is on one all by itself. He said it was not a good idea to plug the machine (which cost more than my first NEW car,) into the same outlets as the iron.

When I am done in the studio, I just have to turn off the two circuit breakers on the bars and everything but the overhead light is shut down. I am very happy with this solution.

I have this set-up too. My iron has a light that blinks when it is not heating. While I'm ironing something very large, and have the iron flat on the ironing board for a long time, the heat goes off and the light starts to blink. I just have to flip the iron up and down again to go back to heat mode. But if the iron is turned off, the light continues to blink, and when I come back the next day, the handle is very warm. So it is continuously using current. That's why I use the set-up ManiacQuilter has.

But my sewing machine is a different story. Even though it is plugged into a strip with a switch, that switched strip is plugged in somewhere behind the table. (I forgot where, but I would have to crawl on my belly to find it.) I know that lightning can follow wires even if the switches are off, so the best way to interrupt this flow of electricity is to unplug. But I didn't want to unplug from the strip either. I pull the plug at the machine and hang that end of the cord around the thread spool holder. That way I can see immediately that the machine is unplugged and have learned to replug it by brail. I can feel where it goes.