UPDATED: September 2021NEWS

The Importance of Auto-Off for Steam Irons

This safety feature is becoming more and more common these days, but exactly what is auto shut off on a steam iron? Here we look at the benefits of such a feature - if you have young children or are often distracted while ironing, then it could be worth reading on...

Hot!

Irons get very hot - that's one of their main features really, but imagine if you were busy ironing and the phone rang or there was somebody at the door (no doubt delivering your latest online purchase!)

How is a Steam Iron Dangerous?

It would be so easy to just put the iron down but there are two potential dangers here - leaving the iron face down risks burning your freshly laundered garment and possibly starting a fire.

Even setting it heel-down, the iron is going to maintain it's set temperature while you are away. An enquiring young child might get more than they bargained for.

How Auto Off Works

Luckily, manufacturers have developed a solution - the automatic shut-off facility. In most cases, an iron with this feature will put itself into standby (and therefore start cooling down) after around 5 minutes when set on its heel, and just 30 seconds when left face down.

A New T-Shirt Design!

This won't necessarily protect your garment from being scorched as you can see from the wonderful yellow imprint we got on a nice white t-shirt!

This was after just 1 and half minutes, and 1 minute of that was during auto-off. It does however indicate just how dangerous an unattended iron can be.

We're happy to see more manufacturers including auto-off as standard on their new irons, and now it's starting to trickle down to the entry level models in the sub £30 price bracket.

Now, we're just wondering if we've started a new trend in designer t-shirt patterns ...

Which Irons Have Auto Off?

More and more these days we are glad to say, including some priced at under £30 so you don't need to spend a lot to get this great safety feature.

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