Pros: Effortless ironing, Reliability, Cuts down on ironing time, LOTS of steam for a long time
Cons: Expensive, Can't take water tank cap off while it is hot, No water level indicator
The Bottom Line: I highly recommend this iron because of its professional results, and its ability to cut down on ironing time. Lots of steam for a long period of time.
The DG5030 is the newest model in the line of Rowenta steam generators. It replaces the older model numbers DG580/980.
I have never owned a steam generator before, but I always wanted one. They seemed to be a bit too much money to spend on an iron. Not to mention the stigma of owning an iron such as this when you are a mid-twenties male. However, I was able to obtain a coupon and received a significant discount from a crafts store, so I said hell to the stigma I need to have one of these. Buying this iron was one of the best decisions that I have made and my girlfriend and I have nicknamed it Beastie (yes I know its weird to nickname an iron, but we are not normal). :)
This 1750W iron has a 33 oz water tank which allows you to generate steam for up to 1.5 hours. In my personal usage, however, the steam did not seem to last 1.5 hours. Although I didn't time it exactly I think I was only able to get about an hour out of a full tank. This could be because I use it at the maximum steam setting. I'm not complaining because one hour is still more than enough for my purposes and I'm sure it is for many others as well.
The base on the unit is sturdy and the overall fit and finish of the product feels very solid. The base has the water tank with a cap, and a stand in order to store the iron on during use and during cool down. It has rubber like offsets on the place where you store the iron that look like they might burn, but they don't. The electrical cable comes out of the base and is 12 ft long. The iron itself has a steam trigger and a stainless steel soleplate. The trigger has a nice solid feel to it and it doesn't feel mushy. The soleplate glides extremely well over clothes and stays clean, if it does get dirty it is easily cleaned with a Rowenta soleplate cleaner. It has a 6 ft long hose coming out of the iron that connects to the base which feels like its made out of soft fabric and it gets warm to the touch during use, but not enough to cause burns or discomfort. I don't think this iron will go anywhere for a long time. The older models had excellent reliability and I'm sure this model follows in their footsteps.
The actual ironing process is effortless. After you have filled the water tank with water by unscrewing a cap and using the provided funnel, you just select the amount of steam that you desire with the dial and turn the switch on. The available settings on the water tank go from minimum steam to maximum steam. A red light turns on to indicate that the water is heating, once the light turns off it is ready to be used. It takes about 3-5 minutes to heat the water up depending on what level the dial is set at. On the iron you set the dial depending on which fabric you are ironing. The iron also has a rectangular light on it that turns off once it is heated. It heats a lot quicker than the water in the water tank; it takes about a minute when set to the highest setting. On the iron itself the minimum setting does not allow steam. However, the higher settings that allow steam are graduated by one dot, two dots, and three dots, which correspond to silk synthetics, cotton and wool, and linen respectively.
On cheaper irons, I used to have to use the maximum setting on pretty much all fabrics and it still used to do a mediocre job. On this iron the setting actually works with the fabric indicated on the dial and it does an excellent job. The iron has a trigger on it which has a nice solid feel to it and you press it when you desire steam. You can also dry-iron without steam if you wish. The dry-iron works just as well as you would expect a high end rowenta to work, however I bought this unit for its steam capabilities. I measured roughly how far the steam shot out of the bottom by lifting it vertically and it was about 1 ft. Rowenta recommends that in order to remove wrinkles from cotton and linen that the soleplate come in contact with the fabric. In order to remove wrinkles from synthetic fabrics they recommend the iron be held 4 inches from the fabric and steamed and on delicate fabrics the fabric should be tested before ironing.
I mostly use this iron to iron my cotton clothes and it makes it effortless. With a cheaper iron I would have to make multiple passes in order to remove wrinkles and even then they weren't all gone. With this iron you literally only have to make one or two passes on a cotton shirt with the steam trigger pressed and all of the wrinkles come out. It cut down my ironing time considerably.
Rowenta recommends that you clean out the water tank after you have refilled it 10 times. This is to prevent mineral deposits from building up in the tank which can cause heating problems, and cause white streaks to appear on clothes while ironing as well as other problems. In order to do this you just take the cap off of the water tank, fill it 3/4 full with clean water, gently shake the water inside, and then dump it out and repeat a few times. I personally use filtered water to fill my tank, because I don't trust tap water in my expensive iron. However, Rowenta says that this iron is designed for regular tap water up to 12 grains of hardness. If your water is harder than this then you have to clean out the water tank more frequently and use half tap water and half distilled water in the tank or use bottled spring water. If your water is softened, Rowenta recommends that you try out the water and if it spits and leaks then you have to use bottled spring water or untreated water if available. Also, after use everything should be set to off and the iron takes about an hour to cool down.
Just as a warning to those who own this iron or are planning to buy it. Don't open the cap on the water tank if the iron is still hot. This was one of the mistakes I made when I first bought this iron. I accidentally took the cap off in order to refill it while it was still hot. It made a screeching noise and when I got the cap off I noticed that the pressure had damaged the red rubber seal. I was able to obtain a new rubber seal without incident however. Just remember not to take the cap off of the water tank while it is still hot. It states this in the instruction manual, but I was in a hurry that day and didn't realize what I was doing. This brings me to one of the negatives I have found in this iron, you have to wait for it to cool down before refilling water. This can be a pain if you run out of water in the middle of ironing because it can add time to your ironing session. The other negative is that there is no low water level indicator or window in order to see how much water is left in the tank. You have to wait until the iron cannot spit out anymore steam to know that you need to add water. It can get a little frustrating when you run out of water and have to wait for it to cool down, which could have been avoided if there was an indicator. On an iron of this price and caliber, this should have definitely been a feature. Its not a deal breaker however, because the steam does last for a LONG time so you don't have to deal with this problem very often at all.
In conclusion, I am very happy with this iron and I don't think I will ever be able to go back to a standard iron. I recommend this iron to anyone who likes to have nice crisp clothes and doesn't want to spend a long time trying to achieve professional quality results.
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