Steam Generators Reviews

Just used the steamer for the first time and was impressed with how well it got up to temperature. It produces a good amount of steam for dewrinkling clothes, but keep in mind this is for short term use i.e. you will have to refill several times if you need to do several articles of clothing.
The reason I purchased this was to block sweater pannels after knitting. I will need to send this gem back because the instruction clearly specify that you must keep the steamer verticle i.e. you can't use this with your clothing article on a table. Your item must be hanging.

Firstly, smallappliances.com provides a much better price on this product than amazon.
Secondly, I write this review based on a 2-week holiday experience in which I utilized the steamer on a diurnal basis.
Pros: sub- 5 minute warm up period; uses hard or soft water; compact and durable; does an adequate job of steaming dress slacks, trenchcoats, jeans, ties and dress slacks; 800 watts of output power (most powerful portable steamer out there); never clogs; lengthy power cord; straight-forward and easy instructions; steams vertically as well as horizontally (really!); and, balanced.
Cons: goes through dihydra-monoxide quickly (which is a testimony of its steaming power and the limited water chamber); no on/off switch; only 4 steaming vents (bores); steaming head collects dirt and lint promptly & easily; have to purchase plug converters separately (utterly stupid since this unit is designed for the traveler--it's always about $, $, $, $); and, aesthetically unattractive.

Is it quicker and more efficient than a clothes iron? Are the results better than a clothes iron? In my humble opinion... sometimes yes, sometimes no. For trenchcoats, ties, suit coats, jackets and jeans--this steamer definitely has the edge. For dress slacks and dress shirts--the jury's still out. As it stands right now, I would have to say, "No."

All in all, it is a wise investment with ample potential.

Hope this helps.

This light weight travel steamer has saved me many dollars. For the price of what I would have paid a hotel valet service to press my suitcase wrinkled clothes I could probably have room service breakfasts! The Esteam made quick work of the folds in a gabardine skirt, and spiffed up the collars of many a blouse and jacket.

While Esteam has become a must-have for our travel, it has also become a standby at home. We do have the J-2000 which is great, but because of the easy maneuverability of the hand held steamer I find that we use it more often.

Try as I might, a steam iron was leaving shiny spots on a taffeta skirt. The steamer smooths wrinkles with no trace whatsoever. There is a silk table skirt that we love but it was impossible to get it home from the cleaners unwrinkled - Esteam to the rescue. The uses we've found for it are countless. It's simply one of those household items we now wonder how we ever did without.

We like the wide mouth on the water tank, which makes it easy to fill and the fact that we can use plain or distilled water. The handle is ergonomically friendly, and the nine foot cord allows us to move about as much as needed.

Thanks to Jiffy Esteamer wrinkles are no longer a pressing issue for us!

I really like the way the steam iron works. I used last night for the first time it's easy to set up and easy to use. Just be carefull around small children. It puts a nice crease one the jeans and other things.

I have purchases several irons in my life and have always thought there was a better way to iron. I believe I found that when I purchased the SteamFast SP-660. I've been able to use on a variety of items from Jeans to nylon shorts and dress shirts. It does a wonderful job on the big areas but I haven't mastered the small hard to reach places like around pant pockets or the upper side of a dress shirt on the back side (shoulder blade area). It does speed the ironing process a lot. I'm not sure that the steam does its job. I do keep a water bottle handy and that works great. All in all I'm glad I purchased it. I hope it lasts for at least the next 5 years and then I will totally sold that it was the right purchase for me.

The Steamfast press is faster than a conventional iron, but may not be as fast as you think. With a little practice you can get it down. I would suggest that if you iron a lot of shirts and don't want to pay the cleaners, go ahead and get it. It will save you money in the long run.

This steamer was only useful to get the wrinkles out of clothes that had been really balled up... it gets them to a state where you can IRON them more easily, but basically saturates with the steam so the fabric is damp. Sure there is technique to learn, but I spent a good long time on several different items. It heats up quick and produces steam well etc, but it performed far below what I thought were reasonable expectations. It also has a low hanger so you constantly have to extend the hose to let the condensation run back down or else get gurgling and low output. I returned it, amazon was good about that, and the return shipping was less than what amazon charged me in the first place.

It's very nice and you can "iron" tons of clothes very fast but it's a little bit trick with shirts. The problem is that you have to pull the shirts down to get them very straight so the steamer can work perfectly but when you get the staemer close to your hand your can really burn yourself. If you don't pull the shirt it doesn't strainght them very well. I usually put the shirts on a hanger and put the hanger on the dor so I have the door as my background and them I don't need to pull the shirt. To put them on the bed also works fine.

This is a great product, and you can get it, along with any other products on Amazon up to $500 Free! Participate in this special promotion and get a free $500 Amazon Gift Card at this web site: stuffnocost.com/amazon

I bought this when I bought my Rowenta DX-8800 iron. It's nice and wide, and quite sturdy. I'm not crazy about the rack where the iron can rest, but that's a minor issue.

This was exactly what I was looking for! This ironing board is very well made and has a few extra nice features. The rack below stores clothes waiting to be ironed and the hanger piece allows me to hang recently ironed items. I'm no longer hanging shirts over the doorway... :) All in all I am very happy with this ironing board and it is worth the extra money.

I must admit that I'm an occasional ironer, having long ago embraced a wash-and-wear lifestyle and wardrobe. There are, however, articles of clothing which simply demand to be ironed. There is also from time to time that load of laundry that has stayed in the dryer for several days because everyone in the house is too busy or too lazy to attend to it until it has wrinkled beyond the dryer's poor ability to address. So I iron when it's absolutely necessary, and never more often.

But even an occasional ironer needs the proper tools - both to do an acceptably good job and to reduce the seemingly inevitable dread. Every time I pulled out my old ironing board, it screamed "I AM SO CHEAP." It was the kind of lightweight, poorly designed and constructed thing that typifies our throw-away society. It was short (and I am not), and it made my back hurt every time I ironed for nearly twenty years. Somewhere along the way I had bought a good iron - it was time for a good board.

A hundred bucks may seem like a lot for an ironing board. It did to me, anyway. Spend the money. This thing is worth it. It's solid - not at all tippy as mentioned in another post. The height adjustment has positive detents to give you that confident, "yes, it's going to hold" feeling when you set it up. There's a stand for your iron that appears to be perfectly proportioned for Rowenta's high-end steamer. There's a handy fold-away rack so you can hang your freshly ironed shirts and trousers. It also has a wire shelf underneath that I haven't figured out how or if I'll use, but it isn't in the way, and perhaps it'll come in handy for some people. The muslin cover isn't anything fancy, but it's well secured and, like the rest of this piece, refreshingly and admirably functional. The best part is its height: It adjusts from 25" to 39" ... a full four inches higher than my old board and most others I've found. If you're over six feet tall and you're ever going to lift an iron, do yourself a favor. I'm 6'5", and it's at the perfect height (arms extended, palms flat) for me at its vertical limit.

To sum it up, life's too short - get a good ironing board ... and this one's as good as it gets.

I hate to iron and despise the cost of dry cleaning...so, I was really excited when I saw this steamer at CVS. It was reasonably priced and sounded wonderful. I was bragging about how much I loved this steamer after using it just once! It was easy and fast....then, the second time I used it---Water everywhere!

Water started to spit and spray out of the (sealed and closed) base of the steamer. I had turned the top to the locked position...but, the black rubber ring (supposed to keep the thing sealed?) was all twisted up---explaining why it wasn't working. Well, I fixed that rubber thing back into place, but it still kept spraying boiling water. SO, right now it's sitting in the corner waiting to be thrown out.

I'm very frustrated with this product, but love the way that clothes steamers work. It looks like I'm going to have to bite the bullet and buy an expensive one. But, how expensive should these things be? All they do is boil water and shoot it out of a nozzle, right?

This product is a waste of time and money...I can't believe that there were any good reviews.

I am a trained research assistant; therefore, I try to research products before I purchase them. In the case of this purchase, I saw the item during an early bird sale at Kohls, so I grabbed it. I owned a professional steamer that was purchased at a store that was going out of buisness, but it is really bulky, so I thought that the compact steamer would be a great choice. On the contrary, it was a big waste of time trying to dewrinkle a blouse, and although it was on sale, it was a waste of money. The problems I had were:

1. The cord is too short: directions instruct user to hang nozzle on the door hook which hangs over the top of any door. The nozzle would not reach to the top of the door, and I live in a mobile home, so it is not like I have the tallest doors in a home.

2. The most important thing in steaming a garment, for me, is to avoid the garment getting wet. I did not fill the steamer to the maximum line, because I know from past experience that this could sometime cause the spitting affect. After 2 minutes of waiting for the steam, I began to try it out on a silk blouse, and what a big mistake I made. The water spat out on the material. I thought that I should not hold the nozzle so close, but it did not matter, because water continued to spit out on the blouse.

3. The steam pressure would not dewrinkle the blouse. The is not a case where the material was so hard to dewrinkle; it is silk, not that hard of a material.

I have read other reviews, and if this machine worked for them, I don't know how, but I can attest to the operation of the steamer that I purchased. I dabble in selling clothing on another website, and I have owned my other steamer since 2002, and I will continue to use it; I will just have to deal with space that it takes up in my home. Conair GS4 Compact is a bust.

This is a dangerous steamer. Sometimes it will pour steaming water and burn you badly. definitely not recommended. I am throwing mine away.

I have own this product for nearly 2.5 years and just threw it away. Despite following care instructions explicitly, this iron developed problems fairly quickly. The steam adjustment function stopped working first so that it was almost impossible to vary the steam quantity. Then, about 1.5 years into it, it starting having problems keeping the steam pressure. I had to turn the iron off and on again to rebuild the steam. Then, about 2.5 years into it, it started leaking hot steam and water out of the steam chamber...almost scalding my hand. They apparently want to charge a fortune to fix this problem...I can easily replace it with a different brand. I have had similar problems with Rowenta irons...dripping and spitting, steam not adjustable, etc. even when you use bottled spring water (recommended by them) and clean the items on a regular basis.

The Rowents steam generator iron is fabulous. I do lots of ironing of all cotton jackets for work. They are very difficult to make look good. This unit speeds right through them with no problem. The iron keeps up to temperature so I can just keep on going without having to stop to wait for reheat, etc.
I found the unit less costly on other internet vendors, though.

The Rowenta DG-980 Expert Steam Generator revolutionizes ironing. The iron produces the strongest burst of steam of any other steam iron I've tried and makes my weekly chore a pleasure. It is surprisingly light-weight for such a powerful machine and has a large capacity water tank. It's very easy to use and clean, and requires the use of just simple tap water. It also has a longer than standard electrical cord and adeqaute storage for the cord built into the base. The iron is so efficient, that I find I no longer need to use spray starch for those extra crisp, clean edges and creases.

Take a few minutes to read the 1 and 2 STAR ratings...This product has ISSUES! Worked for a few months and now will regularly and unexpectedly shoot brown, chunky substance onto clothing. It actually shot so aggressively that it marked my carpeting with the brown residue. I have never seen anything like it...DON'T DO IT...DON'T be tempted by higher ratings. This product is pure junk!

So far so good. I have only used the iron once, but am very impressed with its power. It cuts ironing time in half. I know the other reviews say that it has a short life, so I am still reserving some comments until I have had it that long and can see for myself.

I grew up with a father who owend cleaners. He always said the secret to a perfect iron was it's ability to provide deep pressurized steam. This iron does that. I was able to iron a shirt in about 5 mins where it used to take me 10 to 15 mins. It was incredible how fast it got rid of all the wrinkles in my clothes with only one pass of the iron. The up right steam capability is great for coats and suits. My only word of caution to any one is that this is as close to a professional iron as you will get without going to the cleaners. Treat it with respect. I would have given this iron 5 stars had it not been for the fact that there is a great burst of steam that occurs when the iron is set upright. This only happens when you the steam setting are at it's highest. In any case this can be dangerous if someone is standing in front of the iron. Over all this is one powerful iron.

I found using this steamer on a garment actually took longer than it would have ironing it. Also, water would drip from the wand when the steam was coming out. The water droplets would leave water stains on my garments. I returned this item.

Over time this machine will save you far more money in dry cleaning than it ever cost. Do not expect miracles though. If you think it will replace ironing shirts or pants you will be sorely disappointed. It will remove most wrinkles from "wrinkle - free" pants and shirts. Do not expect them to look freshly starched. For most of those items that need dry cleaning, it will remove the wrinkles from daily wear. I have a blue blazer that is fairly light weight that it does not work with -- the blazer looks like it was caught in a fine spray -- sort of "peeblely" looking. On the other hand most wool slacks and wool sport coats or suits it works miracles -- quickly removing wrinkles. Do, however, let the cloth dry and cool off after steaming (a few short minutes) before donning-- otherwise it will wrinkle again fast. Highly recommended -- if your expectations are reasonable.

Just joking about grandma... But I have a few shirts that are just as wrinkled. The Jiffy steamer works great on them. You know the shirt that you love to wear but because it requires ironing everytime, you just don't feel like it's worth the effort. Not any more! It really is easier and fool proof. I almost didn't buy a steamer because someones review said it was "not for the professional". I don't iron, so i guess thats me. What I get is a shirt that looks wrinkle free. If you need starch and razor sharp creases than an iron is what you need. I have never been fond of starch. Packing a starched shirt only sets the wrinkles and who likes the dermabrasion you get from wearing cardboard. It's cloth! Not wood!

I just purchased this steamer and I expected more from it. The instructions say to attach the brush to the steam head but does not address why and when to use the brush and whether there are times one should not use the brush. No tips as to best way to steam in the instructions, whether to pull on the fabric or just hold it up and steam away so you are on your own to figure this out.

I followed directions and attached the brush to the steam head. Started to steam a newly washed knit sweater. The brush pulled at the fabric and casued it to pucker and wave so I quickly abandoned that and moved on to a newly washed 100% cotton shirt. It was OK but ironing it would have given better results and the collar definitely could use an iron to touch up.

Then I tried a linen-type jacket and it, too, puckered so I put that job aside. Then I removed the brush attachment and got better results but still not as good as expected. I washed a cotton shirt and medium weight cotton capris, took them out of the dryer and started to steam. They looked better than when they came out of the dryer but still look like they could use an iron.

Next test was a cotton knit shirt and that did well as did a very lightweight pair of cotton slacks. I steamed a heavier weight denim-type pair of pants and they didn't do too well. Garmets felt a bit damp so I hung them out in the air to completely dry.

Conclusion is that this steamer would work the best on lightweight fabric and knits, like T-shirts, but one can always put those in the dryer for a few minutes with probably the same results.

The steamer was easy to set up. When I first started steaming clothes everything worked fine--heated up quickly. I used distilled water. Mind you the instructions say you must use distilled water even though the picture on the box shows the water tank being filled at a sink faucet. The steamer shut off when the water reached a low point. I refilled the water container and touched the "on" button but after no steam came out I realized I have to press the reset button to get the steam started again. A couple of times I turned the steamer off while I looked for more items to steam and when I turned it back on I also had to press the reset button. While on my 3rd container of water, the steamer started to shut off for no apparent reason and I had to keep pressing the reset button.

From reading other reviews I thought I could whip through a bunch of clothes in 40 minutes but it took me much longer than that since I kept going over and over the garments trying to improve the results. In the end I could have ironed these garments a lot faster and I would not have used 1 gallon of distilled water. Maybe the steamer gets too overheated after steaming for over 40 minutes which causes the constant shutting down and resetting. Maybe it's intended purpose is only for a quick touch-up of a previously ironed item or maybe I am too picky and expected too much.

A lot of steam comes out of the steam head but it is not like a shot of steam from an iron (no force behind the steam) and from time to time the steam head spit water on the garments. This is definitely not a COMMERCIAL steamer. I have seen those in operation at stores and have witnessed the wrinkles magically disappearing from garments without all the tugging that I was doing.

I was using the steamer next to a sliding glass door in my kitchen when I had an idea. I aimed the steam at the glass door and quickly wiped it down with a microfiber cloth--no streaks. Try it on your windows!

Conclusion: It took me longer to steam clothes than to iron them. Steamer will spit water on clothes at times even when hose is held high. Steamer has a tendency to shut itself off for no apparent reason. Probably is OK for quick touch-ups especially since you don't have to drag out your ironing board. I wish the power cord was longer.

I might return it to the store after I decide whether I would get enough use out of this or if it will just sit abandoned in a closet. Maybe a new iron with vertical steam would work better for me.

The steamer is nice, it does get clogged often even with distilled water...you have to use distilled water in it. It is difficult to make creases with it but it does help with wrinkles in skirts and sweaters. After using it a few times I would still buy it again.

The garment steamer was easy to assemble and begin using. The user manual is adequate -- we'd recommend special attention to the need to hold the hose up high frequently to drain any condensation back to the reservoir -- to avoid sputtering on the garment. Because it does exactly what we expected it to do, we rate it at 5 stars -- a very nice applicance for a reasonable price.

I just received my Jiffy Steamer J-4000 Pro-Line. It was missing a funnel which would be no big deal if they had not printed the words "USE ENCLOSED FUNNEL" in caps every where. I sent an email and they said they will send me one (they seem to have a good customer service).

Now that we have dispensed with the whining, lets talk about the product itself. If you need sharp lines on your pants or shirt stick with your iron, this is not for you. However if you would like to take wrinkles out of your clothes and you don't want to bother with hanging them in the bathroom while you take a shower or taking them out of the dryer on time, this does do an amazing job.

I have also purchased a JIFFY personal hand held steamer that works fairly well and provides adequate amount of steam for most of your needs. However if you take wrinkles out frequently and have the space go for J-4000. You get the wrinkles out faster.

If you have a concern about startup time, you do have some control over that. I just put enough cold water in there for a few shirts and it started steaming in 4 minutes. If you put hot water out of the tab and reduce the amount of water you can get even quicker startup time. Or you can put it on standby in the morning before you go to the shower and put it on steam when you are ready to use it. Standby setting uses a thermostat to keeps the water temperature at 90C degrees (close to boiling).

If you can afford it, buy one. It would make a great re-gift item if you find out that you don't like it.

As an attorney with offices in two counties, I travel quite a bit and used to run up hefty dry cleaning bills because my suits would wrinkle. The Jiffy has saved me some money and works fairly well on my wool suits and cotton shirts.

It doesn't give a really crisp dry cleaned look to the shirts- not a pressed look, but it's good enough in a pinch to freshen up a shirt that's been a little wrinkled by the closet.

On wool suits, it's masterful. It takes the wrinkles completely out and leaves you with a suit that's ready for court. It takes me about 3 minutes to steam a completely wrinkled suit.

I've also used it on my ties with success, though i've been warned that it may be bad for more delicate ties.

The only downside is that it takes a while for the Jiffy to heat up- sometimes up to 10 minutes, so it's not really the solution if you're in a big hurry. I'll turn it on before I get in the shower and will usually do a few garments at a time- it's pretty fast once it has heated up.

I just got into nice clothing and a salesman at a clothing store in Boston said if you have the space for it, get the real thing - a comercial Jiffy steamer. I took his advice and am very pleased with it. Works very well and it steams up my 510 square foot condo well enough to activate my fire alarm in about 20min.