September 2006
Home-use steamers
Our roundup of these products leaves us, well, steamed
GETTING STEAMED The Rowenta Expert Steam works as either an iron or as a steamer and produces much more steam than an ordinary iron.
Sending your clothes to the local dry cleaner to remove wrinkles from them may not be as pricey as paying for Botox to remove
wrinkles from your face, but sourcing out your laundry is not cheap. So you might be tempted to buy a steamer to do the job.
We used three home machines--the Conair Steam Press FSP5, $85; Home Touch Perfect Steam PS-200, $50; and Rowenta Expert Steam
DG980, $250--to remove creases from rumpled cotton shirts and linen.
What we found
CR's take
The Rowenta is the smoothest operator, though it generates so much steam that you might need to run a dry iron over linen and cotton items after steaming. It is top-rated as a steam iron and is included in our Ratings of steam irons (available to subscribers). One caveat: It has no automatic shutoff.
The Home Touch is a good second choice--but, again, you'll need to iron the shirt collar and placket after steaming. Overall, with the Home Touch the time required to steam a shirt was roughly the same as to iron it, negating the claim that the Perfect Steam PS-200 works five times faster.
The Conair might leave you more steamed than your clothing. In our recent steam irons report, we found conventional irons that worked well and cost less, including the Black & Decker Digital Advantage D2030, $60, and Hamilton Beach Professional 14970, $35.
For more information on traditional steam irons, see our buying advice and Ratings (available to subscribers).
What we found
- The Rowenta easily removed wrinkles from dry linen. The Expert Steam is a tad larger than a regular iron and emits three to
nine times more steam. You hold it vertically for steaming.
- The Home Touch smoothed our shirt but left the collar and placket a bit rumpled. When extended, the unit also proved easy
to kick over, whether or not shirts were hanging from its hooks.
- The Conair is bulky and generally hard to fill and left fabric wrinkled. The unit took 5 minutes to warm up to steaming and needed to reheat after 3 minutes of ironing. We also frequently needed to stop to reposition what we were ironing.
CR's take
The Rowenta is the smoothest operator, though it generates so much steam that you might need to run a dry iron over linen and cotton items after steaming. It is top-rated as a steam iron and is included in our Ratings of steam irons (available to subscribers). One caveat: It has no automatic shutoff.
The Home Touch is a good second choice--but, again, you'll need to iron the shirt collar and placket after steaming. Overall, with the Home Touch the time required to steam a shirt was roughly the same as to iron it, negating the claim that the Perfect Steam PS-200 works five times faster.
The Conair might leave you more steamed than your clothing. In our recent steam irons report, we found conventional irons that worked well and cost less, including the Black & Decker Digital Advantage D2030, $60, and Hamilton Beach Professional 14970, $35.
For more information on traditional steam irons, see our buying advice and Ratings (available to subscribers).
