How to choose a steamer

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

Is a steamer a necessary thing in the house or a useless nonsense? We will tell you how to choose a steamer so that the purchased unit does not gather dust in the far corner of the pantry. Which characteristics are really important, and which are just marketing gimmicks of sellers.

There are hardly many ironing fans among our readers. Home appliance manufacturers have long thought about how to make this process easier and faster. One of the solutions was the steamer. He processes things with a jet of heated steam without direct contact with a hot surface. As a result, not only folds are straightened, but also odors are eliminated, and the appearance of clothes is improved. This is in theory. And how really?

What a steamer can do

1. Steams fine and delicate fabrics. It is impossible to damage even the thinnest and most capricious fabric with a steamer - neither synthetic nor natural. The product comes into contact only with steam, the temperature of which does not exceed 100 ° C.

2. Indispensable for clothes with numerous decorations: ruffles, laces, frills. Everyone who has ever tried to iron an elegant dress with many decorative elements knows how hard it is. The steamer copes with this task with ease. In addition, there is no risk of damaging jewelry: buttons, bows, rhinestones.

3. Powerful models are capable of steaming lined items and outerwear. If the steamer is powerful enough, then it can steame jackets, jackets, fur coats. This is simply beyond the power of an ordinary iron.

4. You can iron the curtains directly on the eaves. Curtains are another type of home textiles that begs to be ironed with a steamer. But it should be borne in mind that the length of the steamer hose will not be enough. To reach the curtain rod itself, you have to place the appliance on a chair or higher stand.

5. Saves time. With a little practice, you will iron with a steamer much faster than an iron. Several times faster!

What a steamer can't

1. Does not replace iron. As much as you would like it, the steamer is not able to completely replace the iron. For example, it is almost impossible for them to make arrows on trousers.

2. Will not get rid of stains or disinfect. Manufacturers and retailers often claim that a steamer can fight stains on clothes and even furniture. In practice, there is a special device for this - a steam cleaner. It differs from the steamer in that it supplies superheated steam (with a temperature of more than 100 ° C) under pressure. There are hybrid devices that combine the functions of a steam cleaner and a steamer, and only they will be effective when cleaning. The same can be said for disinfection.

3. Poorly copes with dense coarse fabrics. The denser and heavier the fabric, the worse it is steaming. Budget models are not capable of steaming even jeans, not to mention fabrics such as tweed, drape, cashmere and so on.

4. Uncomfortable for bed linen. Many models cannot work in a horizontal position, which excludes their use for ironing bed linen (unless you hang the linen like curtains). Some units have a horizontal mode, but long-term operation with a horizontal position of the hose is still impossible.

What are the steamers

Steamers are divided into two groups: hand-held and floor-standing.

Manual outwardly they often resemble an electric kettle, and in design they are not very different from it. The light weight and compactness of such steamers means low power and small volume of the water tank. For the most part, this is a device for travel and business trips, when you need to quickly tidy up one shirt and trousers. Resourceful Russian people have adapted to boil water in them and even use them as an inhaler.

For home use, it is best to consider floor devices. Floor-standing steamers, in turn, are divided into gravity and steam pressure. In gravity, steam flows from the boiler directly to the iron. In units with steam pressure, there is a valve that creates a small pressure. Steam pressure steamers are suitable for denser fabrics, the pressure increases the intensity of the steam jet, it penetrates deeper into the fabric, steaming is faster. But keep in mind that most of these appliances are only capable of delivering steam under pressure for a short period of time. Then the steamer works like a normal gravity steamer, and to get the next portion of steam under pressure, you have to wait.

A separate line goes combined aggregates. If this is a steam cleaner with a steaming function, then a special nozzle is included in the kit. If it is a steamer with a steamer function, then outwardly it looks like a regular steamer. These devices supply steam at a constant pressure (at least 3 bar) with a high intensity (at least 70 g / min.). Their only drawback is the high price.

Important characteristics

Steam power and intensity. Interrelated characteristics, the main of which is intensity. Measured in grams per minute (g / min). The higher the steam intensity value, the denser fabrics the steamer will handle and the faster it will smooth out creases. Apparatus with intensity less than 30 g / min., Most likely, will not please you.

Steam pressure. There is no gravity steamer, in other cases 3 bar is already considered a good indicator.

Time of continuous work. Depends on the volume of the water tank. All modern steamers with a tank volume of more than 1 liter will work for a long time.

Ironing material. There are steamers with plastic and metal irons. The latter is better, especially if there is a function for heating the iron. Heating reduces the formation of water droplets and increases the intensity of the supplied steam.

Water requirements. Some steamer models are very demanding on the quality of the water poured into them. Up to the point that only distilled is allowed. Be sure to find out this moment in advance.

Additional modes. Judging by the reviews on sites and forums, in 90% of cases, only the highest intensity mode is used. The rest are more for beauty. Only for steam cleaners, the use of different modes makes sense.

Equipment. The nozzle with a brush will definitely be useful: it can be used to clean clothes when steaming. The clip for aiming the arrows on the trousers will also come in handy. It will still not work to make arrows from scratch, but it will help to update the existing ones. The rest of the bells and whistles, judging by the comments of the owners of steamers, are rarely used.

Other pleasant things. Functions and features that turned out to be convenient: adjustment on the handle, auto shut-off, the ability to add water without turning off the device, telescopic stand, wheels for moving.

A steamer is a specific device, the handling of which requires a certain skill. Some housewives get frustrated the first time they try to use it (especially if they expected too much). It takes some getting used to, however, and the benefits of a steamer make themselves felt. Unless, of course, you bought a high-quality and suitable device.

Do you have a steamer? Share your experience in the comments.