Russell Hobbs 14723-56 Steamglide Professional

I hate ironing, I really do but with the amount of clothes my family get through each week I find that I spend a considerable amount of time doing the ironing. So after many cheap irons I decided to get myself something from the more expensive end of the iron range, and to be honest it was not really worth paying extra for, it may just be that I loathe ironing and the only good type of iron is one that is in someone else's hand.

I purchased my iron over a year ago from my local Tesco for £39.99 it is now available on Amazon for £37.99. I chose this particular iron as the list of features on the box was very long and this conjured up visions of me gracefully gliding through my mountain of ironing in a matter of minutes.

~~Technical bit~~

Ceramic Soleplate.
Dry / Steam / Spray And Burst.
Powerful Vertical Steam.
Self Cleaning Function.
Easy Fill 350ml Transparent Water Tank.
Extra large ceramic soleplate for superior heat distribution and glide ability.
Powerful steam output.
Auto safety feature - the iron turns itself off if left unattended.
Soft grip handle for the ultimate comfort whilst ironing.
Extra long power cord for added convenience.
95g burst of steam and 40g continuous steam.
Water spray.
Anti-scale.
Anti-drip.

See what I mean it sounds wonderful.

The iron is simple to use, you plug it in, fill the water tank from the little jug that comes with the iron, set the dial to the recommended setting for the clothes you are ironing, set your steam level with the little switch located on top of the iron wait a very short amount of time for the iron to reach temperature, the small greenligh onn the handle will switch off when it is up to temperature and away you go.

The iron does move smoothly over all fabrics it very rarely catches and creates more wrinkles; it is quite a light iron so I do find that I have to apply some weight to it when I am ironing thicker fabrics such as jeans. The water spray spray's a lot of water over a wide area so you do have to angle the iron in the direction you want to spray otherwise quite a large area gets wet, the steam is fairly consistent and does aid in the ironing, the shot of steam button is good for stubborn creases but you do have to descale the iron regular otherwise you get a shot of lime scale all over your clothes.

The soft grip handle is made of rubber, my hand does not get sweaty while ironing so that is good, but I do find that after an hour or so the palm of my hand is red and staring to feel a bit tender.

The iron comes with an auto-switch off feature that kicks in if the iron is not moved for five minutes; you know when it has done this as the light behind the water tank starts flashing. As soon as you pick the iron up and start again it heats up again to the correct temperature.

The extra long cord (about 2.5 meters) is good as a lot of the plug sockets in my house are behind furniture, when I'm plugged in there is still plenty of cord loose so that I can move the iron freely.

The size of the plate is good for most ironing such as t-shirts and jeans but for fiddly bits on shirts and some of my daughter's fancier tops I find the iron a bit bulky and am just as likely to put unwanted creases in while going around buttons and patterns.

After a year of being used 3-4 hours a week the iron has developed a leak somewhere, I have not located it yet and the iron sits in a damp patch on the ironing board while being used. I am sure this is not good for the iron and potentially for me.

The self cleaning function is easy to use; you just fill it and then let it come up to the top temperature, unplug and hold horizontally over the sink and then push the steam control all the way around to self clean, the iron then chugs away spitting steam and bits of lime scale in to the sink. I must admit I've only ever cleaned the iron once; this may be why I've developed a leak.

Overall I'm quite pleased with the iron, it does what it's meant to but it's nothing special, the blue colour is nice and it's not to heavy, it's not as wonderful as the box makes it sound but maybe I just really hate ironing.

Thank you for reading x

Summary: I hate ironing and i don't think anything will make me enjoy it.