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Even a good iron will sooner or later develop brown or black spots on the soleplate. At first they do not interfere with ironing. In any case, we do not notice that they interfere. But over time, ironing becomes more and more difficult – the sole does not slip due to soot. It would seem that there is such a thing? We take and clean the cinder. But not everything is so simple. If the ceramic or Teflon surface is scratched, the iron can be thrown away. So before you clean the iron, choose the appropriate method or tool.
We clean the iron from burn on the sole
If the heating mode of the iron is incorrectly selected, a yellowish coating forms on the soleplate. It makes the sole rougher, because of which it slides worse over the fabric and it becomes more difficult to iron. If this soot is not removed in time, it will turn brown, then black. The darker the color, the more difficult it is to get rid of plaque. If your iron is expensive, it is better to remove plaque after ironing. Ideally, immediately after he appeared. Even if you do a gentle cleaning once a week, this will be enough.
home cleaning technique
First, how to clean the soleplate of the iron. We take a clean, dry rag made from natural fabrics. It is very good if it has a rough weave, but not necessarily. The rag needs to be folded several times, put on an ironing board. We apply a liquid or paste composition on it, distributing it over most of the surface. Warmed up to medium temperature or a cold iron, we begin to “iron” a rag with a cleaning agent. It takes several minutes to do this. During cleaning, it is advisable to remove the plug from the socket. Usually alkaline or acidic components are used, so it’s better not to take risks, otherwise you will also have to repair the iron.
In some cases, if the cloth is soaked with caustic ingredients, you can simply leave the iron on the cloth for a while. When the soot softens, it will be possible to iron a dry or damp rag, but already clean. If not all soot has been removed, repeat the treatment. If it doesn’t help at all, try another method or composition.
When using certain cleaning products (baking soda, salt, toothpaste), the steam release pores on the soleplate of the iron may become clogged. A cloth soaked in vinegar can help. We also iron it with a heated iron. Another way is to pour water with vinegar and “release” all the liquid in the form of steam. Keep the sole pointing down. By the way, this will also clean the scale that forms in steam irons.
Compositions for cleaning
To say unequivocally – it works, but it does not – it will not work. First, the type of burn is different. Secondly, ironing soles are also different. Not only the form is different, but also the materials. What works on ceramic may not work on metal. And vice versa. Often you have to try several options. Interestingly, the one that worked this time may not necessarily help the next. So you have to experiment all the time.
Ingredients for application to a clean cloth:
- Mix soda and detergent, add water to a thick slurry.
- Whitening toothpaste.
- In 9% or 6% vinegar, add a couple of tablespoons of ammonia, moisten the cloth.
- You can try just vinegar. They can wet a rag and rub the sole with it. But it is safer to “iron” a rag soaked in vinegar, and especially stubborn stains can be rubbed off.
There are also more aggressive methods. For example, for 200 ml of water, take 20-25 grams of citric acid. Pour the solution into a frying pan or baking sheet with high sides. Put an iron in it. The liquid must cover the sole, but must not be above the joint with the body. Withstand 20-25 minutes. Even the hardest soot is rubbed off. If you put the iron in a frying pan or baking sheet on a slow fire and boil, also clean the limescale well, which clogs the steam nozzles. The liquid should not boil, but only be hot.
A tougher option is an acid or alkali bath cleaner. Again, different compositions work for different cases. A piece of dense polyethylene is placed on a soft rag, crushed a little in the middle so that the edges are higher than the middle. The agent is poured and an iron is placed in the puddle formed. The burnt spot on the sole should be immersed in acid. We wait 10-15 minutes, wash with a wet cloth. Even stubborn dirt is removed so well. If the sole of the iron is made of stainless steel, you can safely use this method. All others are at your own risk.
Dry Cleaning
There is another way to mechanically clean the iron from carbon deposits, but it can be used with cheap or old items. With those where the surface is ceramic, has a Teflon coating, these methods will not work. Rather, they will remove the cinder, but the sole will get a lot of scratches, so it will be almost impossible to use. So before cleaning the iron from carbon deposits mechanically, we look at the sole. If there are already scratches and this does not bother you, feel free to proceed. If the surface is smooth, it’s best to play it safe and try liquid products.
The essence of the method is to pour a dry fine abrasive and run an iron over it until the burnt fragments remain on the abrasive. We act like this. On a hard surface we spread a sheet of paper (you can use a newspaper, a magazine spread), pour soda or fine table salt. We heat up the iron a little (do not heat it up), pressing it to a dry substance, we try to peel off the burnt residues. The cleaning time depends on how much the soot has “boiled”. Sometimes the process is fast, sometimes slow, but it always clears. Not to a mirror shine, but removes blackness.
The disadvantage of this method is that if there is carbon deposits inside the notches of the soleplate of the iron, it is very difficult to remove it. You will have to take a cotton swab, dip it in water, soda / salt and clean each hole in this way. The boiling method works faster.
There is another way of mechanical cleaning – with the help of sulfur on an ordinary matchbox. A strip of sulfur is a fine and soft abrasive. It should not scratch even the ceramic surface. Cleaning carbon deposits from the iron is simple: scrape carbon deposits with the corner of the box.
Using an iron cleaning pen
On sale there are special pencils for cleaning the soleplate of the iron. They may have a different composition, but the cleaning process itself is the same. First you need to protect the plastic part of the case, which is located below the sole. Masking tape is perfect. It adheres easily, adheres well and leaves no residue after peeling off. We seal the plastic carefully.
You will also need a clean rag or paper towels to clean the surface of residues and drips. We put on thick working cotton gloves on our hands – steam will form actively and the gloves will protect against burns. It is better to cover the table with paper or old rags – dirty liquid will flow. Next, clean the soleplate of the iron as follows:
- Preheat the iron to medium temperature or higher. The higher the temperature, the faster the cleaning will be. But the evaporation is very active, so ventilation should work well or you can clean it by an open window.
- Tilt the iron so that the soleplate is pointing slightly down. We choose the angle arbitrarily, but the composition from the melting pencil should not flow inward through the steam holes.
- With a pencil, we actively drive along the sole of the iron. It melts, immediately evaporates, some drips down.
- Periodically clean the surface with rags or paper towels. When all the stains are gone, wipe the sole clean, remove the adhesive tape.
This method is one of the most efficient. The price of the issue is a couple of tens of rubles, and you can use it for Teflon irons, and for steam, and for ceramic ones. Fast, convenient, inexpensive.
Almost all irons now come with steam – they are more convenient and efficient. During operation, scale is formed inside – these are those insoluble substances that water contains. They are, if undistilled water is poured into the iron. If the iron has a self-cleaning function, periodically turn it on. If not, you will have to proceed differently.
Cleaning from the inside
To remove scale in the iron, acidified water must be poured inside. Scale is salt, the acidic environment corrodes them, they loosen and come out with steam. It is better to take the most purified water. Better – distilled. If it is not available – settled boiled or after a good cleaning. Add citric acid to water. For 200 ml – about 25 grams, per liter – 5-6 tablespoons. You can also pour alcohol vinegar (one glass per liter of 9%), but it has a more unpleasant odor.
Pour acidified water into the iron tank. By quantity – to the maximum. Turn on the iron to the highest temperature. Heat until the light goes out twice or thrice. We turn off the iron, go to the sink. Well we coward him, let off steam. If it has cooled down, and there is still water inside, heat it up again, turn it off and continue cleaning.
The final stage is to pour clean water and “evaporate” all of it. You can do this over an old rag for impressions. Usually, after observing what has accumulated inside, they rarely forget to clean the iron.
Boiling
The same composition (water with vinegar or citric acid) is poured into a baking sheet with high sides. We put two sticks at the bottom (you can use it for sushi, you can just use chips). The purpose of the chopsticks is to provide a gap between the baking sheet and the soleplate of the iron.
We put a cold iron in a container on pieces of wood. The liquid level should be such that it covers the sole, but does not reach the plastic parts. We put all this on the burner, bring to a boil, leave to cool. Heat up again, cool down. So 2-4 times. Next, you need to drain the water that got inside the iron through the steam holes. You can drain it through the filler hole. The water will not be clean, usually yellow with scale residues.
Pour clean water into the iron, rinse and pour out. Then you need to leave it alone until it dries. After a couple of hours, you can turn it on and try ironing.