Steam Generator Irons

Pressure is measured in bars as well as PSI...

The instructions with mine say use tap water: strictly NO distilled water! Take a look at the instructions for yours and see what it says. maybe a tank full or two from the tap would help it out.

I've been looking on eBay and Allbrands at the> Reliable and Rowenta steam generator irons. I'm leaning toward> Reliable. It's not that I do mountains of ironing but I hate an iron> that I have to fill with water after every two blouses!>

I found this, if it helps at all.

Q: What are millibars?

A: Millibars are a direct measure of pressure, like pounds per square inch, but in the metric system. Since the measurement is in the metric system,

1,000 millibars equal one bar. A bar is a force of 100,000 Newtons acting on a square meter, which is too large a unit to be a convenient measure of Earth's air pressure. Inches of mercury, the number used for surface air pressure in the U.S., is not a direct measure of pressure. Instead, inches of mercury tell you how high the pressure pushes the mercury in a barometer. The use of direct pressure measurements goes back to the late 19th century when the great Norwegian meteorologist Vilhelm Bjerknes, the leader in making meteorology a mathematical science, urged weather services to use direct pressure measurements because they can be used in the formulas that describe the weather.

Now why do I have this image of 100,000 fig newtons sitting in a square meter? *sigh*

Thanks, Ron.

From the Rubber Bible, page 2923:

Bar. -- 0.98692 atmosphere; 14.504 pounds per square inch, 1.01971 X

10^4 kilograms per square meter, 1.000 X 10^6 dynes per square centimeter. (This value accords with the only internationally accepted use of this term; but "bar" has also been used to denote a pressure of one dyne per square centimeter.)

They didn't say who so uses it. Sounds very confusing -- worse than Calorie vs. calorie -- and much to be deprecated. The next entry says that a "barye" is a dyne/cm^2; perhaps that was a sop to those who wanted to use "bar" for microbar?

Joy Beeson

All steam appliances, including boilers/generators are rated in bar pressure to inform you of pressure produced. Higher pressure indicates a "hotter" and "dryer" steam.

Most domestic irons make a very low pressure "wet" steam which is probably fine for ironing one or two items. However the dryer steam used commercially allows a faster and more through resetting of a fabric's memory thus better and long lasting results. If items are ironed/pressed with too much moisture, said item must be dried before shifted, otherwise it will crease again. Commercial steam is designed to over come this problem.

Have had a steam generator iron and a boiler one as well, but actually prefer gravity feed irons by Namoto or Sussman. Steam generators irons usually have a short range otherwise the steam will begin to condense inside the hose before reaching the iron. Also one has to wait for the units to cool in order to refill. Mind you with large boilers, this is not a problem, but the small units sold for home use can be a pain. Probably not much of bother when pressing as one sews, however for doing lots of ironing it can be a bother.

If you can swing the space to leave a water bottle hanging, look into a good professional steam gravity iron. They can be found for good prices on eBay and are a treat to use. Lots of steam, Teflon shoe, and a filled water bottle should last days or months, depending upon how often you iron.

Candide

A BIG thanks to all that replied!

I've always used distilled water in the iron I have now as I thought that would prolong the life of it and not be clogged with minerals. I've had regular irons and they seemed clog in a few years with regular tap water. I will give the tap water a try to see if I can get this one steaming again.

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Now that I think about it the Weather Channel is always talking about millibars when it's hurricane weather. I didn't know what they were but remember hearing it. I have a better understanding thanks to y'all!

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I have a friend who has a steam cleaner he uses to clean the kitchen and bathroom of the rental property he owns. I had asked him once about was it messy with the steam cleaner and he said it was a very dry steam. Now I understand how it can be dry!

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I've seen those gravity irons on eBay and AllBrands but have no real idea how they work or know anyone who has one. Sounds awfully interesting, though. Pardon my ignorance, but is it just sort of like an i.v. bottle that hangs ups and feeds water to the iron? I know nothing about these devices.

regular

Domestic irons for years now have been recommending using plain tap water and not distilled water. Tap water supposedly "conditions" the water tank by leaving a coating of minerals.

It is a good idea to clean out a steam iron now and then with white vinegar. Just pour six ounces or so of vinegar into a cool iron, turn it on and when ready to steam sit it over a trivet and allow it to steam for several minutes. You might wish also to shake the iron back and forth while steaming (BECAREFUL HOT STEAM), then turn the iron off and dump out the vinegar. Next pour in plain tap water and repeat the process to clean out any remaining vinegar/gunk.

Instead of having an internal water tank, gravity steam irons use water feed from a container suspended above. Yes, sort of like an "IV" bottle. Normally the higher the bottle is suspended, the better steam is generated. Better gravity irons like Naomoto and Sussman have quite powerful built in "boilers" that produce lots of hot "dry" steam. Not as dry as a good steam boiler system, but still dryer than most domestic steam irons.

Thing I like about gravity irons/professional irons in general is that steam only comes when called for be pressing a switch. Meaning one does not have to switch the iron between "dry" and "steam" as with most domestic irons.

Gravity irons, unlike steam boiler irons can cover a rather wide range, long as the water hose, and cord can reach. Many drapery makers have HUGE long tables with a track system set up to hold the cord and hose. This way even the longest/widest drapes can be pressed quite quickly.

C.

This afternoon I ordered the Reliable J450A steam generator iron from Allbrands; free ground shipping to boot. It has the Continuous Steam System and removable water tank that doesn't have to wait for the iron to cool before re-filling.

I had looked at several of the gravity irons, but they were all for right-handed people with the way the cords were attached. If I could have found a left-handed model I would have considered it as well.

The older White-Westinghouse iron I have still would barely steam after following Kate's suggestion for using the white vinegar. I tried for hours to get it to steam as it should but it was a no go. The vinegar was added and I tried to get it to steam, would let it rest and have a go at it again and again. It heats up fine, just barely any steam and it's not a dry steam. One thing for sure, my house smelled like I had been canning pickles after the effort!

The new iron should arrive sometime in the middle of next week and I'm looking forward to receiving it and again THANKS to ALL!