Battle of the irons… which one wins out?

A few days ago I mentioned in my blog post that I was in the market for a new iron as my old one had just died! The post was called, “Do you iron in the nude?” and I got some wonderful comments… thanks!
Well, it’s been a few days and I have tried out the biggest of the Shark irons…the “Professional” steam iron that is supposedly rated the #1 steam iron. It was a bit too large I thought and the buttons for the steam and the water spray was a strain for my thumb, so I decided to try a different iron. This time I went for the Shark lightweight Professional steam iron.

It has all the same features… chrome soleplate, easy access water reservoir, auto shut off, nice burst of steam, plus it had a very pointed tip, which would be nice for tiny doll clothes.

It does however have the steam burst button on the right side and every other iron I’ve ever used has had it on the left. I think it would take some getting used to not spraying the clothes with water.

When I first took it out of the box, I noticed a bit of rust on the plastic bag and on the tip of the iron. I had read that each Shark iron is filled with water before packaging to make sure it holds water okay. I knew a little steel wool would get that off, so I proceeded to give it a try.

I found a piece of wrinkled aqua cotton that had a crease down it and tried to get the crease out. It got the wrinkles out but not the crease.

I tried with another piece of yellow cotton fabric and it didn’t fare very well either.

So I decided to give it a try on three of my hubby’s cotton shirts. It did an okay job on them and they looked nice, but it seemed to take longer than normal to iron them. I did notice it was spitting water on the shirts too… uh-oh…

I emptied the water out of this smaller Shark and decided to give the first Shark, the bigger one, another try on my hubby’s shirts. I ironed three of them with the bigger iron and there was no comparison. It did a wonderful job and because the surface of the soleplate was bigger, it went faster.

So the results are both irons are adequate, but the larger one is the one I’m going to keep. I think I can get used to the taller buttons and I’m looking forward to making something tiny and seeing how it does. I’m thinking if it does “big,” I’m sure it will do “little” fine! Here’s just a quick picture of a seam for a small dress… it did fine and steamed it open very well.

The battle of the Sharks is over…and the big Shark won!

See you tomorrow,
Blessings, Jeanne