Iron Mans New Gadget

I’ve blogged before about how we share the household tasks in our home – for example, hubster does the grocery shopping each week.

He’s also pretty handy with an iron, which is just as well because I very rarely iron any more!

Over the years I’ve gotten pretty clever at taking most of our clothes from the washing machine and putting them straight onto hangers to dry – it’s amazing how little actually needs ironing when you do this. When dry, our clothes then go straight into our wardrobes, and get ironed only as we need to wear them. That way we don’t have an ever-growing ironing pile getting in the way!

In fact, I probably only have half a dozen items in my wardrobe that benefit from the occasional pressing.

Iron Mans New Gadget

The hubster however wears business shirts and trousers five days a week, all of which require ironing. We have our ironing board set up in our walk-in wardrobe, and most mornings hubby can be found there ironing his clothes for the coming day. (I used to do all the household ironing when I was a SAHM, but when I went back into the paid workforce in 2002 we each took on the responsibility for our own ironing).

So when I was asked to review the Philips PerfectCare Aqua, it seemed only fitting that the hubster should actually be the one to try it out. Here’s what he had to say …

• That’s fantastic! as he opened the box, examined the contents in minute detail and EVEN READ THE INSTRUCTIONS IN FULL. What can I say except that he was fascinated by this new gadget!

• I can’t believe I’ll never burn a shirt again! Yes, he’s scorched a favourite shirt more than once and it is one of his pet peeves. (This pic on the right is of the most recent casualty, however as you can see from the photo above, he still wears it. Fortunately the burnt area gets tucked in so nobody is any the wiser!). The great thing about the Philips PerfectCare Aqua is the OptimalTemp technology – which means you can iron any type of ironable fabric, in any order, without adjusting the iron temperature or waiting for it to heat up/cool down.

• It’s so light! Although at first glimpse it looks like a bulky setup, most of it remains on your ironing board. The actual iron weighs only  a kilogram.

• I keep trying to sit the iron on the board vertically! However because of the OptimalTemp technology, the soleplate of the iron can be placed flat on the ironing board – even when hot – without damaging it. Once you get used to it, it does makes ironing that little bit easier.

• It glides over the fabric so well it feels like a  hovercraft! Are all these exclamation marks really necessary – yes, because that’s the way he spoke! Needless to say he was very impressed (excuse the pun!).

• It’s so quick! The hubster noted that you don’t have to push the iron back and forth – just once and the job is done, achieving results a lot faster than with a traditional iron.

• Miss 16 should start an ironing business, it’d be easy with this iron! I don’t know if Miss 16 was exactly thrilled with this idea, but the hubster wasn’t far wrong because a friend has an ironing business and as it turns out, uses this exact exact iron. If a professional iron-er uses it, it’s obviously pretty darn good!

He also mentioned that he hasn’t needed to use ironing starch since we got this new iron – the perfect combination of heat and steam makes it unnecessary. Upon reading through the manual, I discovered that it it can also be used in the vertical position on hanging clothes (but not while somebody is wearing them, please!). Another feature I like is that it switches off automatically if it is not used for 10 minutes.

The water pump makes a funny little noise every now and then, which takes some getting used to, as well as the horizontal positioning of the iron on the board when in use.

Also, the iron generates a LOT of steam so like all irons, use it carefully and make sure children aren’t anywhere near. As our ironing setup is in our walk-in wardrobe, we can’t help wondering if all the steam/moisture might not be so good for the clothes in there? But as it is usually only used for 10 or 15 minutes a day, it shouldn’t be a problem.

We haven’t had the opportunity yet to try the Easy De-Calc function (to remove buildup of scale) but it looks easy enough for when the time comes.

In summary: This is the Rolls Royce of irons. It’s not cheap, but if you do a lot of ironing, or want to make a mundane chore (almost!) a joy, then this is definitely the product for you. Imagine being able to watch TV or DVDs while ironing and not having to worry about scorching anything!

Disclosure: We received a Philips PerfectCare Aqua to trial for the purpose of this review.