Handheld garment steamer: reviews
How to choose a steamer that will become your irreplaceable household helper?
How to choose the best steamer? Video Tips
Ironing a silk dress with a bunch of frills and decorative details, tidying up the crumpled fur on a fur coat, ridding the upholstery of the sofa and carpet from household ticks – if you think that this will require a bunch of units and the help of dry cleaning, then you are deeply mistaken. All these problems can be easily dealt with by an indispensable assistant in the household, a garment steamer. Your only concern is to choose the right one. Because there are a huge number of types and forms of steamers, and not all are suitable for your needs.
Let’s start with the main thing – power. In terms of power, it is most logical to divide clothes steamers into two groups: up to 1800 watts and over 1800 watts.
The first group includes all hand-held steam generators and partially floor-standing ones. They are good for their compactness, but heavy fleecy fabrics, jeans, winter clothes will be problematic for you to iron with their help.
Devices with a power of more than 1800 watts are able to cope with 95% of fabrics. With their help, you can easily iron heavy curtains, smooth folds on a sheepskin coat and steam disinfect fluffy furniture upholstery.
All steam generators are divided into floor-standing and hand-held garment steamers.
The handheld steamer is simply made for dynamic people. A very convenient thing for those who often travel on business trips and travels. Unlike a bulky iron, it is compact, lightweight and takes up little space in your luggage. However, its diminutiveness also has negative sides. Its power is not enough – for example, you will have to tinker with dense denim. The water tank is small and will last about 15 minutes of continuous operation. Despite this, manual garment steamers have the most positive reviews from users, because it is still an order of magnitude more convenient than carrying an iron with you.
To perform larger operations, floor-standing garment steamers have simply been created. This is an irreplaceable thing for the home! How can such a wonderful machine be useful in the household? First, it is, of course, the usual ironing of clothes. And unusual ironing of unusual clothes too: thin synthetic fabrics or delicate wool is almost impossible to burn with steam, unlike an iron. Clothes with many decorative elements: sequins, beads, metal and plastic parts – iron without effort or damage. Ruffles, pleats and draperies no longer need to be ironed with pinpoint precision – hot steam treatment straightens them perfectly. The steamer is ideal for ironing large surfaces. Curtains, curtains can be ironed right on the cornice – you must agree, this is a very convenient option! The steamer copes well with fluffy fabrics. Since there is no direct contact with the surface, the pile is not crushed and retains its shape. A problem like a wrinkled leather jacket is no longer a problem. Steam will straighten creases without damaging your skin. In addition, hot steam will not only flatten the fabric, but also remove odors from it. And all this – with a single garment steamer.
For household purposes, the steam generator is good as a fighter for cleanliness. A powerful blow of steam radically cleans fabric surfaces from house dust mites and other fine debris. Actually, there are no similar substitutes for this steamer function.
How to choose a garment steamer?
Prefer the manual or floor variation for you – it depends on where and in what volumes you will use the steam generator. However, regardless of the type, they all have a wide range of different technical characteristics. The wider the functionality, the higher the cost of the steamer. But the most interesting thing is that you will probably never use most of these functions.
For example, one mode of operation is enough for complete happiness, the most powerful one: it is suitable for almost everything. Well, for extremely delicate fabrics, sometimes you will use a low-power mode. The rest are actively used only by professionals with large volumes of work. That is, by purchasing a more expensive multi-mode steamer, you will use it as a single-mode steamer.
Be sure to pay attention to what type of water is used in the steam generator. As a rule, expensive models work quietly on tap water. But cheaper steamers require a flood of distilled water. This is inconvenient both from a financial and household point of view. Perhaps this is just the case when it is more profitable to overpay once – it will pay off in the operation of the device.
Some models come with a variety of attachments included in the load. I must say that the only additional attachment that you will use often is the fluffy brush for cleaning furniture. The rest is cute pranks that you can play with and forget. Is it worth overpaying for them?
But the trouser clips will certainly come in handy, because thanks to them you can keep the sharp arrows on the trousers and the pleats on the skirts in their original form.
As for the brand and country of origin, there is little choice here. Almost all steamers are made in China. But this does not mean at all that they are all of poor quality! Most of the world’s equipment manufacturers locate part of their production in China and carefully control the production process. The main thing here is to choose a reliable brand.