Should i buy a steamer

You can understand more and change your cookies preferences here. In this article. If you want to cut down on ironing time, using a garment or clothes steamer sounds like a tempting option. Garment or clothes steamers are vertical steamers designed for quickly neatening clothes on the hanger, without the need to set up an ironing board. In this expert guide, we look at what garment steamers do and how much you can expect to spend. Head straight to clothes steamers compared to get our verdict and see our video of the best and worst models in action.

Garment steamers — sometimes called travel or clothes steamers — are designed for last-minute touch-ups. If you need to do some emergency de-creasing before heading out, you should be able to grab your garment steamer and whizz it over your clothes.

You might be considering a garment steamer if:. Philips, Rowenta and Tefal are the main brands selling garment steamers at the moment. It heats up in 15 seconds and is effective in removing wrinkles from most fabrics, despite its size. The option of working with a dual voltage is an added bonus for frequent travelers. It comes with a heat-resistant travel bag and a steam control option.

I highly recommend this company because they provide excellent customer service. Buy the Jiffy steamer and save yourself hundreds of dollars on your annual dry cleaning bill. This steamer looks like a mop bucket with wheels but is the best deal for home use. This well-constructed and sturdy unit takes two minutes to heat up to steam. The steam not only removes wrinkles, it freshens the fabrics — making them look cleaner.

You can use this steamer on clothing, bedding and table linens. It can also help remove wallpaper! Still can't decide which is a better option or you? I don't blame you. I use both a steamer and an iron. If you are expected to look crisp and clean every day at work they are both essential tools.

The bursts of steam from the Sunbeam smoothed out a silk dress in seconds and a rumpled cotton pillowcase in under a minute. It took more wrinkles out of crumpled button-down shirts than any other handheld steamer I tested although the most stubborn wrinkles, on the sleeves and the bottom hems, still needed an iron.

Also, many steamers I tested spit droplets of water along with the steam, leaving wet marks on test fabrics. Handheld aka midsize steamers can be uncomfortable to use after a few minutes—of the three steamer types we tested, they were the heaviest to hold, and they tended to be awkwardly top-heavy.

The Sunbeam is the most comfortable handheld, for both vertical and horizontal use. Its dumbbell shape felt well-balanced, with the weight of the water on the bottom feeling equal to the steam head up top. The best part of the water tank is its wide, flat shape, one of several details that set the Sunbeam apart. A simple twist-and-click movement locks the tank back into the steamer. It was the only steamer I tested that had this feature.

The Sunbeam also gave me more control over the amount of steam than any other handheld or portable steamer I tested. Its high-low switch controls the stream, and a trigger button toggles between a steady flow or short bursts. The Sunbeam is heavy—it was too heavy for one of our editors to use regularly in long-term testing. If you need to use a steamer only occasionally, for an outfit or for a trip, the small Conair is effective, affordable, and lightweight.

It did leave some water spots when used too close to fabrics. But the Conair was also one of only two small steamers the discontinued Deneve , our former also great pick, was the other I tried that can be used horizontally; it dribbled only a few droplets, which was a win compared with others that poured water everywhere. It was the heaviest of the portable steamers I tested, yet it has one of the smallest water tanks. The price and quality of portable steamers indicate to us that these are not meant to last forever.

A flexible hose makes this steamer the most comfortable of our picks to use. It does, however, cost about four times as much as the Sunbeam.

For big jobs, the handheld Sunbeam steamer will build up your biceps but test your patience; the Reliable Vivio, on the other hand, has a lightweight hose like all floor-standing steamers that was more flexible than others we tried and easier to glide across fabrics. All floor-standing steamers have an attached pole to hold the steamer head and a garment.

The Reliable Vivio comes with its own hanger, which keeps your clothes steadier while you steam than models like the Pure Steam and the Jiffy , neither of which included one.

It held more water a gallon than any other steamer we tested, but it still heated up in about two minutes. If the base tips backward, some water will dribble out of the tank. It comes with a three-year limited warranty. In testing, the Conair Turbo ExtremeSteam Garment Steamer performed just as well as the Sunbeam, and it was comfortable to use, but it costs a few dollars more, and the water tank is smaller, by 3 ounces.

Garment steamers are pretty quick to heat up but we've found that steamers can leave material damp, so keep this in mind if you're about to wear freshly-steamed clothes. We also found they aren't really effective on materials like organza or denim, but were ideal for dresses and suits. If you're after better results, try pulling slightly on cuffs or hems as you work, but be careful not to burn yourself with the steam. Generally, garment steamers won't completely replace a iron though.

Some fabrics, like organza, cotton or denim need a proper iron to get all the creases out, while other fabrics like poly-cotton and wool might simply need a hot iron to get them to their best.