Keep your iron clean for longer use

Keep your iron clean, and it will reward you with crisp clothes for decades.

• If you haven't cleaned your steam iron for a while, you may find that the water or steam looks rusty.
• This is actually burned lint, which can stain your clothes. So it's important to clean your steam chamber and vents every couple of months.
• Here are the steps for steam-cleaning your iron. The steam will remove lint, dirt, dust and mineral deposits that have built up in the steam vents.

  1. Unplug the iron; then fill it with the recommended distilled or tap water.

  2. Plug in the iron, and depending on your model, either set the iron to its cleaning-mode function or to the steaming feature.

  3. Hold the steaming iron over the sink, with the soleplate facing down, until the steam stops. (Or place the iron facedown on a heatproof cooking rack while it steams.)

  4. Unplug the iron, and leave it in the sink (or on the rack) for another half-hour to fully dry.

  5. Finish by wiping the iron with a dry cloth.

• If the steam-cleaning technique described above doesn't remove the mineral deposits from the steam chamber, try using vinegar if your manufacturer's instructions allow it.
• Pour white vinegar into the steam chamber, and steam it through the vents. Rinse out the vinegar, and refill the chamber with water.
• Let the water steam through the iron to remove all the vinegar.
• Repeat if necessary. If you're not careful about removing the vinegar, it may stain your clothes the next time you use the iron.
• The acidic nature of vinegar may also etch and damage the interior of your iron if left inside the steam chamber.
• Besides, you don't want to walk around in clothes that smell like a salad.

• Some iron soleplates are coated with Teflon or a metallic non-stick coating to make it easier to clean off melted fibres.
• Usually, a wooden spatula is all you need to scrape the fibres off.
• The trade-off is that these surfaces are more easily scratched — even a baking soda paste can etch them.
• If a spatula doesn't do the trick, you can rub a nylon scouring pad on the soleplate.
• Make sure the soleplate is cool when you do — or the scouring pad may melt, making a worse mess than the one you started with.

• Many manufacturers recommend using distilled water in steam irons to prevent minerals from clogging the iron.
• But be sure to check your owner's manual because most newer models are designed to use tap water — the minerals actually help the steaming process.