Hinari IR620 Vivaci > Reviews > Vivaci!

Author's product rating:   

Performance	Excellent
Ease of use	Very easy
Durability	Long
Cleaning & Maintenance	Very easy
Value for money	Excellent

Advantages:	Good at getting creases out, cheap, nice colour !
Disadvantages:	A bit heavy, only sold in Co - ops (as far as I can tell)

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

I keep my iron in my bedroom, as I tend to iron my clothes as I need them rather than doing a big pile of ironing. Unfortunately one day I knocked my old iron off the desk - at which point the soleplate fell off (the base of the iron which heats up). The next day I was at my local Co-op when I saw they'd started selling electrical items - including irons. They only had a choice of three, but the Hinari Vivaci IR620 caught my eye immediately with it's lilac/pink colour. The colour matched my bedroom, and as it was also the cheapest at £9.99, I purchased it straight away.

*Features*

Upon taking the Hinari IR620 out of the box, the first thing I noticed was that it was much heavier than my previous iron. It does have a stainless steel soleplate, which my previous one didn't, so I'm assuming that accounts for the extra weight. It came with an instruction manual which is very clear and helpful, and has diagrams showing you how to use each feature. It also comes with a little jug for filling the iron with water.

There's several methods you can use to iron your clothes with this iron. There's dry ironing, where you use the iron as it is without water. Then there's normal steam ironing. For this you need to pour water into the hole at the front of the iron, using the little jug. One of the things that most impressed me about this iron was that there's a lid that you can clip down over the hole where you pour water in. My previous iron just had an open hole, so water use to leak out and go everywhere. Once you've poured the water in, you turn the large dial on the base of the iron to the 'steam' position and away you go.

The iron has a translucent 280ml water tank, which means you can easily see how much water is left. I don't know how big the tank was on my previous iron, but when doing large items such as curtains or bedding the water always used to run out halfway through. Last week I managed to iron all my bedding and curtains in one go - and there was still water left in the tank.

Another feature is the 'burst of steam' option. If you have a stubborn crease that won't come out, you can press the burst of steam button on the right-hand side on top of the handle. This produces a big burst of steam that will go into your fabric and hopefully remove the crease. There's also a water spray, which can be used with delicate fabrics which aren't able to be steam ironed. Simply press the left-hand button on top of the handle and a spray of water will come out the front of your iron.

Finally there's vertical steam ironing, which can be used for steaming curtains, or clothes on coathangers. You press the 'burst of steam' button and hold your iron vertically in front of the fabric you want to steam. This can only be used at high temperatures though, otherwise water will leak from the soleplate. I find this extremely useful, especially when wanting to freshen up suits, and curtains.

In between the 'burst of steam' button and the'water spray' button is a slide which allows you to select the amount of steam you want - either none, minimum, medium or maximum. Also, if you push the slide past the 'maximum' setting, it turns on the iron's self-cleaning function.

So, not bad for £9.99.

*Technical details.*

There's a special 'heel' on the back of the iron, so you can stand it upright and it makes the iron perfectly stable. It has a rubberised handle, making the iron easy to grip, and there's also a power light indicator. The iron automatically switches off when it gets to temperature.

The steam rate runs at 20-30 grams per minute
The burst of steam runs at 40-55 grams per minute
The iron runs on 2200 watt output.

*Verdict*

My last iron cost £24.99 two years ago, and had only half the functions as this one, so for £9.99 I have no complaints. As I said before, the Hinari Vivaci IR620 is slightly heavier than my previous iron but this isn't noticable when you're actually using it. It's not hard to manoevre, and it glides over my clothes. The IR620 is extremely good at getting creases out and it takes me much less time to do my ironing now - especially with large items like quilt covers.

What I like best about this iron (and this is a girlie thing to say, I know) is the fact that the lilac/pink colour of the iron matches my bedroom, which makes the iron less noticable when I'm not using it. It also has a good length cord (almost 2 metres), which gives me plenty of room to move.

The spray of water and burst of steam functions are perfect and give just the right amount of water without either drenching your clothes or meaning you have to repeatedly press the button for more.

In fact the only bad thing I can think to say about the Himari IR620, is that I can't find anywhere other than the Co-op that sells them. Most Co-op department stores should stock them, and there's a list of Co-op grocery stores which stock them at http://www.midlandsco-op.com/food/megadeals_nonfood.asp#stores (scroll to the bottom of the page, or click the link under the iron) It may also be possible to find one on Ebay.

Comparing this iron with other irons of the same price, you get much for your money with the Hinari IR620. The only iron I could see with the same features as the Hinari cost £10 more!