How to Clean Your Iron – Tips for Higher Performance and Longer Service Life

All irons benefit from a regular clean. If you want to extend the life of your iron, a consistent cleaning schedule will guarantee your iron works to its best, no matter how long you have owned it for.

The process of cleaning your iron needs not to be long-winded, and there are several options available to get the job done in next to no time. So let’s proceed with the tips on how to clean iron and how to know it needs cleaning in the first place.

The Tell-Tale Signs That Your Iron Needs Cleaning

You may not have given any consideration to cleaning your iron just yet, but perhaps you have started to notice one or two of the following signs when ironing your clothes:

• Instead of gliding naturally, your iron drags on your clothes.
• You’ve begun to see unsightly stains and marks left on your clothes after
• There’s a residue which is stuck to your iron’s soleplate.
• The iron leaves noticeable limescale or chalky white particles on your clothes.

If you are experiencing any of these problems when using your iron, now may be the best time to stop using it and give it a well-earned clean, both in and out. Before taking a travel iron with you on a vacation or a business trip, check if its clean enough so you won’t have to spend extra time on maintenance.

Tips for Cleaning the Outer Part of Your Iron

The soleplate of your iron is very straightforward to clean, and you can choose several ways of doing this successfully:

1. Use a simple damp cloth and wipe it over the surface of the slightly heated
2. For more ground in and built up dirt, try a dab of toothpaste on the cloth. You can also use some baking soda paste with a cotton wool bud to remove these stubborn areas.

Never be tempted to use any abrasive cleaners, either materials or chemicals, as they will inevitably damage the coating of the soleplate of your iron. Also, check the cord before every ironing on the subject of damaged parts, of course, if you own a cordless iron, you would need to check and clean the base.

Tips for Cleaning the Inside of Your Iron

If you have a steam iron, you will also need to clean the inside of this. This will also involve cleaning out the steam vents of such an iron, as this is where clogging can occur.

Again, there are a couple of ways to clean the inside of iron including:

1. Self-cleaning. If your iron can self-clean, follow the manufacturer’s instructions for an instant automatic cleaning process.
2. Cleaning the reservoir manually, with a mixture of a quarter of a cup of white vinegar and a three-quarter cup full of distilled water. The idea here is to use the iron on full steam over an old towel or rag until the mixture empties from the reservoir. Then, to adequately ensure that any mineral deposits and the vinegar solution have entirely disappeared, repeat the process once again, but this time flush it through with just a full cup of distilled water.
3. Cleaning the steam vents of your iron requires merely a quick dab with a cotton wool bud. Dipped in a little of the water and vinegar solution mentioned above, this should be immediately effective at unclogging these essential ducts.

Guaranteeing the Best Ironing Results Every Time

Research shows that irons should ideally be thoroughly cleaned around every month. However, it is better to use your judgment here with regards to what type of iron user you are.

If you use your iron regularly, say daily or a few times a week, it is a good idea to clean your iron every month to every six weeks.

However, if you only use your iron sporadically, then it is perhaps more practical to clean it around the three-month mark instead.

[wpsm_box type=”green” float=”none” text_align=”left”]Regardless of the amount of time you use your iron, if you have a steam iron and fill the iron with water at every use, you will need to ensure you keep the insides of the iron cleaned regularly, just to prevent a buildup of dirty and scummy deposits left by the water residue.[/wpsm_box]

For this reason, it is highly recommended to use distilled water each time you fill up the water reservoir, rather than that of water straight from the tap. A water distiller will work in preserving the life of your iron, whether you are using an advanced more expensive model like Rowenta iron, or simpler Shark irons.

Cleaning your iron doesn’t need to be a time-consuming chore, neither does it need a tremendous number of accessories to do so. However, by allocating a few minutes regularly to this task, you ensure better ironing results, alongside making your iron as good as new every time!