qnana

What kind of iron do you like best? My general purpose iron died this morning, and I need to choose a new one. I want a good one that will steam as well as dry iron. Since all quilters iron fabric all the time I know you will have good input! :wink:

quiltsillysandi

I would not recommend the Oliso...My son gave me one for Christmas 3 years ago, had to send it back, and the 2nd one gave me problems as well..and it bit the dust here about 5 months ago...Way to expensive to have such a short life......Plus I've known three other people that had the same complaints as me....I'm interested to see what others recommend as well...

San
FL

The Creative Seamstress

You know, honestly - for the longest time I thought I wanted a really pricey Rowenta or an Oliso after using each that friends had, but I found an awesomely cheap all purpose Proctor Silex iron at Kmart for $9.99 and it has outperformed every other iron I've used. Name brand and pricey one's don't always mean everything. I am now very glad I saved all that money (well over $100) by buying this cheap one. It's awesome!

Explosive blessings, abundance and inspiration to you all!
- The Creative Seamstress

Lori S

I have had two top of the line Rowenta's both died the same way ... just kept getting hotter and hotter and hotter , melted the thread and scorced the fabric. Never again. I loved all the steam but not worth the price . Two Rownenta's in five years was enough for me.
I think they are not what they once were.
I can recommend that you do not get a teflon coated plate. They just do not clean up well if you get some fusible or starch build up. Look for a good Stainless Steel sole plate.

ckcowl

my fabulous black & decker i bought for $12 at wally world has lasted for 4 years now...stays hot and works great...i never ever put water in an iron...i keep a spray bottle of water on the end of my ironing board. i found that it does not matter if you spend $12 or $159 on your iron, if you put water in it it will start spitting and sputtering at you in a very short period of time. i like my iron to stay hot and it does-for hours and hours some days...and no problems...best $12 i ever spent

Yarn or Fabric

I have a B&D - probably the same one as ckcowl. I have had it for a few years now and it's a work horse. Several of my friends liked mine so much they went and bought one for themselves - now we all have the same iron!

It's an awesome iron - and I paid about $12 for it.

side note -
For what it's worth my parents volunteer twice a year at a massive rummage sale for the Visiting Nurses and they both are in the electronics department. My mother says that the irons that come in that don't work are usually the high end ones. It's sad but tons of people donate broken things and the Visiting Nurses have to pay for dumpsters to dispose of things that they can't sell - and the people get really irate when they tell them that they won't take certain things.... lots of stuff make it through that they find out later is broken or too damaged to sell. It is horrifying the amount of money they spend on dumpsters.... and yes, a lot of the stuff that is broken is donated to places that will fix them - like schools for vocational programs and whatnot...

hobbykat1955

Me Too B & D...just bought another at Walmart for 12.00...nice and light with teflon bottom. If you get heat bond on the sole just wait for it to get superhot and then iron it off onto a piece of discarded fabric...no problem.
I find that stainless steel will sometime melt fabric.
The more expensive irons are soooooo heavy....you want light

llcox

One feature I look for in an iron is it must be cordless. I had one that was great until I dropped it and cracked the casing and the water leaked. Now I have a Panasonic and am very happy with it.

justwannaquilt

My iron bit the dust last night (in the middle of ironing a piece of fabric might I add) I quickly ran to walmart and inspected all the "sample" irons they had. They were all HEAVY I am not interest in lifting weights, just ironing some fabric when need be. I ended up getting one like I had. A 6.64 Proctor Silex. The last one I had lasted awhile and probably would have lasted longer had it not been dropped off the ironing board and wall hanger so many times.

sewwhat85

good luck choosing it is the hardest thing for me