I'd be "hard pressed" to find a more swell steam iron!
Written: Jul 19 '03
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Light, easy to use and full of great features
Cons: None, really!
The Bottom Line: It's full of very usable, convenient features, cleans itself and turns itself off if you should forget.
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| martymar65's Full Review: Panasonic NI-R15NR Iron with Auto Shut-off |
Well, here I am again, doing household chores; they never seem to end. It's tough to get excited about ironing. I rank Ironing up there with putting $250 of groceries away after going to the market in the rain with no garage if you know what I mean. BUT, this iron is so cool, I felt the need to write about it.
I had a Black and Decker iron that was about 15 years old that one of my cats "accidentally" knocked off the end of the ironing board one cold winter morning. The fall of the iron broke the water reservoir, so after going to work with some wrinkled Dockers and a shirt that looked like I slept in the back seat of a Dodge in it, I visited a discount department store on my way home in search of a new iron.
I know this may sound silly to some, but when I find an appliance that works and that I have success with, I find it hard to replace that appliance when it's life has ended. (I know; change is good, right?) During my search, I saw many irons from many different companies, including the Panasonic Steam Iron with Automatic Retractable Cord Reel NI-R15NR. (A retractable cord no less!) I was surprised and glad to see that Panasonic made irons. I decided to give this one a try, knowing that Panasonic is a good name, has a good reputation and has been around for quite some time. I own many Panasonic products and have been happy with all of them, and now I can say that I'm happy with this great new iron. I've had the iron now for about 6 months and I'd buy another one if this one were to "accidentally" fall off the ironing board.
The iron weighs about 2 pounds (if that) and is nice to look at as well. It's white with a clear blue see-through reservoir in the middle of the iron which allows the user to see how much or how little water is left in the reservoir. The controls for the iron are located under the handle, which work well but if I had designed it, I would have placed them on the side. When I use the iron, sometimes my fingers move the round control, but that "problem" is easy enough to remedy; I just move the dial back to the setting I originally had it on.
The cord on this appliance stores in the base of the iron and the plug clicks into a nice little "gripper thingy" on the side. After fully reading the owner's manual, and upon initially pulling the cord out to plug it in when I used it the first time, I noticed the length of the cord is more than ample for use. So, after I plugged the iron in, I filled the water reservoir for the steam feature. There is a small, easy to use "door" at the top of the handle that opens to allow for the water filling. The "door" has a rubber seal on it, so after you fill the iron with water, it doesn't leak. (YAY!) As I mentioned, the water reservoir is clear, and clearly marked on the outside top left of the reservoir is the "MAX" line for the water. (My old iron was a pain when filling as the water indicator window was so small, by the time the water registered in the window, it was already too full. This iron's see-through window alleviates over-filling.)
So, back to ironing....after filling the reservoir, I turned the easy to read control on to the initial setting of 4 to see how hot the iron got and to determine if I'd have to crank it up to the highest setting of 6 in order to get it hot enough. (The control goes from 1 to 6, with 6 being the hottest setting.) There is an orange indicator light under the control knob that comes on while the iron is warming up, turns off when the iron is hot enough, and turns back on while the iron is being used whenever the temperature has lowered and the iron needs to re-heat.
While the iron was warming up, I checked out the three push-button control levers situated in an upside-down "T" located on the top of the handle, just below the reservoir fill door.
The upper-most button is for the amount of steam you'd like to have the iron produce. When pushed all the way in, the iron will not make any steam, so even though you've filled the iron with water for steam, if you choose not to have any steam, you don't need to have it. The second "click" setting is for low steam, and the third is for high steam. This feature actually works, but I prefer to use the highest steam setting. More is good.
The other two buttons are located under the upper-most button next to each other. The button on the left allows you to use the "squirt" feature on the front of the iron, which when used, administers a nice mist onto the article that's being ironed, helping to moisten the fabric to get the tougher wrinkles out. The button on the right is the "surge" button. When this button is used, the iron makes a great "surge" of steam making me feel that I'm using an upscale product and that I have the upper hand on not spending money on dry cleaning my dress shirts for work!
I haven't used the iron on any other setting lower than 4, so I'm not sure what the results would be working on a lower heat setting, but I suppose for those people that iron silk or other delicate materials, those settings would be better for delicate fabrics.
For those of you that seem to forget your iron is on and plugged in when leaving the house, and if you are one of those people that get half-way to work and think "did I turn the iron off?", this iron has a 3-way auto shut off feature too. If you leave the iron on and resting on it's base, it shuts off after a certain amount of time when it hasn't been moved. It also will shut off if you leave it flat down on the ironing board or on fabric, alleviating any scorching or the possibility of causing a fire. (I'm not sure what the third shut off feature is because I unplug the iron and turn it off when I'm done using it.)
The base of the iron is coated with a non-stick and quite slippery silver surface, allowing for easy gliding over everything I've ironed. This iron also has a self-cleaning feature that I haven't used yet, but I'm sure since the other features on this iron work so well, that will work great also.
And the most swell thing about this iron is the retractable cord feature. When you're done ironing, unplug it and press the button located at the base of the handle and in the time it takes my cats to run up the basement stairs, the cord has retracted into the base of the iron! (They're not fond of "scary" sounds.)
So, the bottom line about this nice little steam iron is I'm very satisfied with it and would recommend it to anyone who's looking to replace their old iron with a new one. It's full of very usable, convenient features, cleans itself and turns itself off if you should forget.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
martymar65
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Location: Beacon Falls, CT USA
Reviews written: 6
Trusted by: 1 member
About Me:
I value a good sound product for the price paid.
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