Tefal 2810 Pressing Compact > Reviews (1)

After spending 20 minutes in our local Comet store discussing some irritating little gadget with 'the bloke' I find myself wandering off and edging towards some rather nifty looking irons, sad I know.

I was particularly drawn to a rather snazzy purple and pink one and spent a few minutes scrutinising it before I am informed by 'the bloke' who has appeared behind me that it is no good as it has a stainless steel sole plate.... this astounds both me and a fellow female customer and the way he is pointing out the pros of a ceramic sole plate against the stainless steel one you would think he is the king of ironing... oh I wish, I made the conscious decision years ago to avoid much pain and anguish and excessive electric bills (and many a crease) that I would take responsibility for the wonderful chore that is ironing the deal being that in return I have no responsibility for any car maintenance full stop. So after testing out the weightiness (an iron needs to be heavy to bash out creases) I select the rather boring white and turquoise coloured Tefal 2810 Pressing Compact as does the fellow female customer (I think she is in shock) complete with 'Ultra Glide Diffusion' sole plate at the price of £74.99.... actually it's not ceramic so there!!

On leaving the shop with a big bulky box and considerably less cash in my pocket I cannot believe I have spent that much money on an iron and it was on half price offer at that, however having given up smoking in January I am now like a woman possessed by the housework devil.... anything to take my mind of cigarettes, so in some way I can justify such a ridiculous purchase, but will the iron live up to it's price?...

So how does it work?....

The iron sits on a 'steam generator', which is basically a bulky 1 Litre tank which generates a steam pressure bar of 2.5 which by all accounts is quite feisty. Fill it up, plug it in and away you go... well nearly, the iron takes a whole 8 minutes to heat up so if you're in a rush forget it - make sure you have a spare iron hidden under the sink for those last minute emergencies.

The steam generator and iron are ready to use when the iron's thermostat light and 'steam ready' light's go out. Baring in mind the length of time it takes to heat up it is best to go the whole hog and do a mammoth session of ironing in one go. (In recent ironing championships held in our household I currently hold the record for 19 shirts, 6 trousers, 2 sets of bedding and all the scraggly bits from the bottom of the ironing basket (which have resided there for ever because I simply could not be bothered with the pain) in 67 minutes without refilling the tank, yes I timed it and the cord is long enough to iron at ease without dancing around the ironing board to reach the bits at the edge. The steam generator button located under the handle delivers a blast of steam continuously until the button is released, you can also iron without steam just keep your finger away from the button.

The Tests...

Silk

and the wedding day...

Back in May we attended the wedding of two of our closest friends and wanting to look my very best I ensured my outfit - a gorgeous pink silk dress was dry cleaned well before the big occasion, with no worries I left it hanging in it's plastic cover in the spare room. The big day arrives and I have an early appointment at the hairdressers on returning home all I need to do is take said dress out of wrapper and slip into it.. at least that's what I thought...

I return home in a bit of a flap as the appointment had run over and I now have less time than I thought.. I carefully slap on some make-up, take said dress out of wrapper, put it on and look in the mirror. This can't be right this is NOT the gorgeous dress I tried on in the shop, it's twisted into a weird shape and looks like I have been cleaning the windows using it as a Windowlene rag. Being the Best Man the bloke has already left and rather than rant at the cat I race round to my favourite neighbours wearing the mangled dress.. she doesn't have to say a word, her horrified face says it all.. the only thing for it is to try and rectify the problem with my new iron.

8 minutes later and it's ready to go. Now previously I have only used the iron on turbo setting i.e. Cotton/Linen so am unsure about the worthiness of the 'Silk' setting. Popping on a freebie shower cap... this iron generates steam like a Chinese laundry and I do not want to look like a bedraggled cat for the wedding do I? I set to the task in hand.... oh if the neighbours could see me now... oops she can and stifling a giggle at my expense she pops the kettle on whilst I perform the task and before the tea has had time to mash the dress looks like a dream. I raise a toast to my domestic goddess....10/10

Linen

The stuff that hides at the bottom of the ironing basic for so long you have to wash it again....Charles Tyrwhitt and I have had many an argument at the ironing board... 'the bloke' has a bad habit of buying difficult to iron shirts so much so that a couple of years ago I managed to put a hole through one said shirt (only a little one) and a large dent in the ironing board by throwing a bit of a hissy fit, yep linen can bring me to the brink of tears. So how will the Tefal 2810 live up to linen?.

It's put to the test prior to our Cuba trip... I adore linen, it's cool in the heat and looks nice on but in the past it has always proved to be a swine to iron. However I wizz through 2 weeks worth of holiday clothes like a breeze and only have to refill the tank once, a word of warning here though, once the tank has run out of steam switch off the iron and give it a good twenty minutes to cool prior to filling up again unless you want burnt fingers and a blast of steam in the face. 9/10

Synthetics

Hands up who is guilty of owning shiny black work trousers?.. it's Friday and you've been so disorganised that you have to iron something to wear for work ten minutes before you have to leave the house and before you know it the iron is too hot and you've created nice shiny stripes where there shouldn't be any?

or worse burnt a hole?. I'm glad to say that since this investment I have ironed the nastiest of synthetics with the steam on full pelt with spectacular results... straight neat and tidy creases down trouser legs are so easy to achieve.. and no more tell tall shiny bits 9/10

Anything Else?...

It's worth mentioning that it's easier to sort your ironing into fabric types at this stage... i.e. synthetics first, linen last so you can use the iron at the most suitable level increasing the steam as you go along. The tank needs rinsing out after every ten uses to prevent any nasties building up, just fill it up jig it about a bit and chuck the water and any residue down the sink, the instructions also recommend you do not add any additives to the water.

If you are going to invest in this iron you will also need a vented ironing board to allow any excess steam to escape (and there is a lot) if you have a solid one the result will be wet clothes and if you have a chipboard one forget it.... it will look like the leaning tower of Pisa in no time.

The iron does allow you to carry out vertical steam ironing with a vertical shot of steam... but why you'd want to do this I’ll never know and needless to say never ever attempt it whilst wearing the item.

It's quite a bulky contraption so you'll need to sort out some extra cupboard space to accommodate it. There's no automatic shut off so make sure you switch it off at the mains after each use.... do not get half way to work in heaving rush hour traffic and think 'now...did I turn that beast of an iron off?'.

All in all yes life is too short for ironing but if you want to cut your ironing time by (nearly) a half I’d thoroughly recommend this.... it truly is a domestic goddess… and on a grander scale ‘the bloke’ now has no excuse whatsoever NOT to iron… this makes it so easy!

Please note I draw the line at ironing pants and socks....