Philips GC 7420 > Reviews (1)

There's only 2 of us in my household, and so the need for an all mighty steam iron has never really been needed, as we probably only iron 2 or 3 things a day. However I received this particular iron through the Amazon Vine program, and now that I have it I can understand why some people do have a need for iron's like these.

First of all I should point out this iron is huge. The base itself is twice the size of the iron, but then you also have the iron sitting on top of it. Then you have the wire to plug it into the socket, and the cable connecting the iron itself to the water filled tank. It doesn't make for easy storage and so you do need a decent amount of storage space for this iron. Despite how fancy and technical this iron may seem, it's actually extremely easy to use and you don't need to study manuals for ages before you use it. In fact the box it comes in had 2 cardboard instruction cards you simply detach from the box, and a quick glance at these and you know what you have to do. You simply fill up the tank with water using the jug provided, switch it on, set the dial on the iron to the correct setting as you do on any iron, wait a couple of minutes and then you're set to go. Due to the huge size of this iron and it's tank, and the fact we only have a small ironing board, it was obvious from the off set that this wouldn't be sitting on the ironing board. Instead we have to put it down on a table next to the ironing board just to use it. It might sit fine on much larger ironing boards however due to the size and weight, I would be wary about doing so, especially if you have children or pets running around.

Using the iron is impressive. It irons everything in no time at all, and when you have a tougher material to iron creases out of, for example a pair of jeans, then you simply press the steam button and the iron actually glides smoothly across the material and the steam instantly smooths out all those creases. Pressing the steam button for the first time can be alarming, it is rather powerful and the steam does blast out of it, which means ironing isn't a quiet and peaceful experience when using this. You don't have to keep your finger down on the steam button either if you require it to be kept on for a while, you simply press the steam trigger lock and it continuously blasts out that steam until you switch it off again. The tank also makes a noise if you've used much of the water as the pump kicks in, so again it's also noisy here too. These are just minor negatives though as the time it takes to iron is dramatically cut using this iron, and for large families this sort of iron is almost an essential item.

I wouldn't be put off by the pictures of this iron as it's not as bright blue as it seems. In reality it's a nice shade of blue which isn't too garish at all, and the whole iron is excellent quality and sturdy. There are also some other good features about this iron which makes it even better, one being that you can fill the tank up with more water at any time, even during ironing.

The iron is always ready to use in less than 2 minutes, meaning an early morning rush iron of a shirt is possible, and there's also never any drops of water that leak from the iron as I have found happens with other steam irons. It also has permanent anti-calc tablets which delay the formation of scale build up, and also means you don't have those annoying white flecks appearing whilst ironing. Safety wise it has an overheat safety stop to prevent the boiler from overheating, and it also has rubber feet to prevent slipping. I should however point out that this iron does get very hot, and I suggest leaving it to cool down after use before moving it as even the base and the cable gets hot. This also means being careful when using it around children and pets.

I was sceptical about having an iron so big, however I can see the many benefits it has. It irons everything with ease and seriously cuts down on ironing time, making this perfect for someone with a large family and a huge quantity of clothes to iron. For people like me whoever, where there's only 2 of us, we only really get it out if we are ironing a few things at once, because it's large size makes it awkward getting in and out of storage. On Amazon.co.uk this is currently selling with an astonishingly high price tag of £127, I personally would never pay this much for an iron although I can imagine it being very tempting if I did have a large amount of clothes to iron because it really does make a difference.