Advertisements

This iron has good quality, while being relatively inexpensive at $25. It's got an attractive design in shades of white, gray and blue heavy-duty plastic with a black non-stick sole plate. It's lightweight, so if you do a lot of ironing, your arm won't get tired. However, this also gives the iron an unstable feel. The sole plate makes it a bit top-heavy, and it seems as though it might topple over -- especially if the ironing board is covered with a thick, uneven pad.

There are four levels of steam available, including no steam. Even while the lever is turned to the dry setting, it is still possible to use the Shot of Steam button on the handle, as well as the Spray Mist button, but only if the setting is high, for cotton, wool or linen.

Even though Sunbeam touts the iron as being "Drip Free even at low temperatures", this iron WILL saturate your clothes if the reservoir is full and you're ironing at the lowest temperature. It's necessary to empty the reservoir to prevent water from seeping out when the steam is off.

There's a nifty vertical steaming feature that allows you to steam-press garments, curtains or drapes. It's simply a matter of holding the iron in the vertical position close to the fabric to be steam-pressed, and pushing the shot of steam button at three-second intervals.

A red light on the handle lets you know when the iron is on, and it blinks when the iron goes into automatic shut-off mode. The shut-off happens if the iron is left on its heel rest in a vertical position for 15 minutes. If the iron is left horizontally, it stops heating after only 30 seconds, preventing ruined clothes and fires. Resetting the iron is accomplished by simply moving the iron back and forth, but it may take a couple of minutes to reheat.

The translucent blue plastic on the reservoir allows you to see when the water needs to be replenished. The iron comes with a separate cup for ease of filling the reservoir. Any container with a lip, such as a standard measuring cup, will work as well, because the nondescript cup is easily misplaced.

A Storage Strip Indicator on the side of the iron turns from black when it's cool to red when it's too hot to store. After the iron is turned off, it takes about half an hour for the indicator to turn from red to black, letting you know that it's cool enough to be put away. This feature is more notable for its novelty than for its usefulness.

A button at the base of the handle, above the heel rest, is pushed to wind up the retractable power cord. This is a very useful feature, so that you don't have to wind the cord around the iron when you're storing it.