Morphy Richards Travel Steam 41520 Iron > Reviews > The Out of Towner

Author's product rating:   

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

Advantages:	Compact, heats quickly
Disadvantages:	I hate to iron so just owning it is a disadvantage !

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

A couple of years ago my husband and I were wandering around the Duty Free electric shop of Ben Gurion Airport when we happened upon this little iron being sold as a set with a travel kettle by Morphy Richards. Seeing as we are usually quite desperate for coffee first thing in the morning when we're away, and seeing as we don't always stay in places that provide you with a kettle, we thought that the kettle itself would be a great idea. But no, they weren't selling the Voyager Kettle without the Voyager Iron. We debated for a while, and then decided to get them both anyway because, at that time, my husband was doing quite a bit of traveling for his job, and he figured he might need the iron as well.

This is a very small iron that has a pad that is only about 15cm long, and is hardly more than 9cm wide at its widest part. Its housing is an unimpressively dull blue-gray colour (the newer ones are a prettier royal blue and white) with a bright orange light to tell you when its heating up, which turns off when its reached the desired heat. Just underneath the handle is a dial that regulates the temperature, using the international dot system of one dot for cool to four dots for very hot. The opening for the handle is somewhat small and closed, and may not be convenient for larger hands (the newer model has a handle which is open at the back, which solves this problem).

The iron specifications say that this is an 800 watt iron. Now I know what you're thinking - 800 watts isn't very strong, and you might think that it can't get quite hot enough to get the wrinkles out of a cotton item. But remember, this is a steam iron as well. So if the wrinkles don't come out on when using this dry, using the steam really helps get stubborn wrinkles out. However, it didn't do all that well with my linen pants - but then, what iron not in a professional laundry does?

Now personally, I don't much care for steam irons (well, actually, I hate ironing in general, but hey, this is a review of the product, not an op on my seven deadly sins, right?). They scare me and make me worry about burning myself on the hot water. But this little wonder seems to be quite sturdy and seems to have some sort of mechanism that keeps the water from spitting and spluttering when its hot. Also, there is a little flap to cover the spot where you pour the water in, so water won't go spilling out after you've put it in. (I bet you can see that I haven't owned a steam iron in many, many years.) There's also a little button that you push to make a little blast of steam come out when you have it on your clothes.

The plate of this iron is made of a non-stick material, so that it glides easily over the clothes. In fact, its much nicer and requires a much lighter touch to keep it moving over the fabrics than my regular dry iron (which is about 15 years old, if not more), even when you don't use the steam. And its very light-weight - maybe only ½ to 1/3 of the weight of my regular iron.

The fact that its small means it can get into small areas easier - like between buttons on a man's shirt. Of course, the size is also an issue for the traveler. I mean, you're not going to want to lug a huge, heavy iron with you when you're traveling, are you? You want something light and small that fits in a corner of your suitcase and doesn't make you feel like you've added a few bowling balls to your luggage.

The fact is, this is just one very good iron. It irons clothes very nicely, its lightweight, its small, and it has all the basic features needed in an iron - not just when you're traveling, but also at home. You turn it on, and it heats up very quickly - maybe 1 or 2 minutes, depending on how hot you want it to get. The thermostat works well, and the iron seems to hold the heat for quite some time, since the light is off more than its on.

I think that this iron would probably be quite a good purchase - with or without the matching travel kettle - for students going to live in dorm rooms at university, or a person getting their own place for the first time. For that, I see no reason to not recommend this product, unless, like me, you really, really, Really hate ironing!

(But hey, I got it with a travel kettle, and at about £30 (about $45) for the two items, it seemed worth it.)

*****
You can see the new models of this at the Morphy Richards' web site at http://www.morphyrichards.com/main_frame.htm

On that page you'll see that "for details of your local Morphy Richards retailer you can contact our help line on 08450 777700".

Also according to that page, Morphy Richards products are available at Allders, Argos, Asda/Walmart, Bentalls, Boots, Comet, Co-op, Curry's, Damart, Dimpco, Electric Tempo, Empire Stores, Express Gifts, Freeman's of London, Grattans, GUS/Kays, Homebase, Home Hardware, House of Fraser, Index, J D Williams, John Lewis, Littlewoods, Makro, Miller Brothers, Olympic, Powerhouse, Quality Electrical Direct, Robert Dyas, Savacentre, Scottish Hydro, Scottish Power Shop, Tesco, Trago Mills, Woolworths, Big-W and Welcome Break.

I found this product at Agros for £14.65, and they seem to sell the travel kettle for the same price. At Comet its £12.68, but they don't have the kettle. Currys sells it for £12.69
*****