Rowenta Iron Steamer for Clothes, Focus Stainless Steel Soleplate, 400 Microsteam Holes, Powerful Steam Iron, Lightweight, Leakproof, 1725 Watts

great iron, easy controls

Hands down, Rowenta makes the best irons. I purchased this as my second of the same brand after the wire in the cord on my old one finally broke...after 15 years! Given the tremendous satisfaction I had with the old Rowenta (made in Germany), there was no other choice for me except to buy another one. The price was fantastic (<$60), and despite what the Country of Origin shows on Amazon, this iron is made in France. It has rugged and solid as its older brother and I expect to get at least 15 years out of this one. Super-pleased with this purchase!A couple of points:1. Always use distilled water in your iron. I do not care how good your water quality is, it will always have impurities and those impurities will eventually gum up the jets. I'm a 27-year military veteran who has ironed a gazillion uniforms...trust me, distilled water will make all the difference!2. Do not wrap cord when finished. Instead, loosely coil it and pass through handle. Repeated wrapping and unwrapping will stress the wire in the cord and shorten the life of the unit.3. I also recommend storing iron as soon as possible when done using it. Irons by their very nature are heavy and not well-centered. To avoid having it fall off the board, put it away.

A great iron for ironing clothes and such, but not for a quilter. The 8 minute auto shut off means that it has to warm up every time I want to use it. Not as heavy as my old one, but still does the job. Ironing you move back and forth over the clothes, in quilting you press up and down so as not to distort the fabric and seams. You iron clothes but in quilting you press fabric. The handle is a little too fat at the bottom end and my small hand tends to press the spray button when I don't want to spray.

This review is for the 1725 watt iron, without the cordreel, in the blue and white color, and it was purchased in November 2022. Overall, it's fine, but be aware of the following things: the different steam settings, having some common sense, the poorly-described self-clean "function", and the sole plate.The iron is simple to use: fill it with water, plug it in, set the temperature, and wait for it to heat. Once it's ready (i.e., the pilot light goes off), set the desired steam level, and start ironing. You've got three options for steam: off, "Eco", and max, and the switch has four positions.If you've got it set to steam, but nothing comes out, press the steam button. That'll clear out whatever might be clogging the holes in the plate. Then try ironing.Now for the steam switch: the first two are positions are basically off, and no steam will come out. The 'Eco' setting only kicks in at the third 'click' of the switch, and takes a second for steam to come out once the iron is horizontal and moving. The fourth position (all the way to the right) is max steam, which is exactly what it sounds like: a lot of steam for as long as the iron can sustain, before it needs to heat up again.Once the pilot light turns back on, don't press your luck, or else you might get water dribbling out toward the end of the cycle; set the iron upright and wait. Also, don't expect a lot of steam (or any at all) to come out at lower temperatures: expecting that just doesn't make sense. If you want to iron at low temperatures, and need moisture, use the built-in spray function before pressing your clothes.A lot of the "water leaks out!!" reviews probably don't realize that yes, if you've got the steam switch wide open, there's a valve that will let water through, and yes, that water (in liquid form) will dribble out of the sole plate because they've got a low temperature selected.About the self-clean "function": it's not a function, or a dial setting, or anything like that at all. It's a sequence of things you do, and the procedure is described toward the end of the manual.Lastly, the sole plate isn't smooth-shiny like my old Rowenta. I assume the new one is stainless steel just like the old one, but the new one has a matte and slightly textured surface that drags ever so slightly. It's not a big deal, but if you're expecting a mirror finish on the sole plate, this iron isn't it.The actual ironing performance: it works fine and gets the wrinkles out. For heavy and deep creases, no iron alone will solve that problem.Summary: The iron works well if you have some common sense about when to expect steam at high versus low temperatures, and exercise awareness with the steam switch; the self-cleaning function isn't really a function at all, but just a series of steps; and the sole plate has a slight texture. I iron at least once a week, so if this iron doesn't last, I'll update the review.May 2022 update: It's still working fine. If it doesn't start steaming right away after the iron is back in the horizontal position (and the steam switch is in the third or fourth position), I'll hit the "steam burst" button. Also, if you haven't ironed in a while, hit the button anyway but do it over a rag or towel so you don't spew mineral crud over what you actually want to iron.October 2023 update: Still going strong after weekly use. With semi-regular maintenance (the cleaning feature) and using the steam burst function to blow out any mineral build-up, this thing is working great. Looks like it's currently $80 which is a huge amount cheaper than what I bought it. Like Leonard from Community, I rate this a "buy".

Bought this Rowenta Focus Steam 5280 on Prime Day to replace one of the two Rowenta Effective Comfort DW2070s purchased 6 years ago. Was able to clean out one of the old ones but discovered when disassembling that the other's seal had deteriorated so much causing it to leak badly and could not be fixed.The two prior DW2070s are 1500 watt, 300 holes and marked "Made in China" while this new 5280 model is 1725 watt, 400 holes and marked "Made in Germany." There is a remarkable difference in this new Focus compared to the Effective Comfort model.I can't say if the German one is made better than the China one but it is a few cm longer and taller and just a tad heavier. It does produce much more steam probably because it has higher wattage and a hundred more holes in the sole-plate. One small annoyance that I can live with is a drop of water will seep out of the front spray nozzle only if I have used the mister and drip onto what I'm ironing. One drop is not the same as full-on streaks from leaking. I find I don't need the mister hardly at all because of the better heat & steam.It does a much faster and better ironing job than the 6-year-olds so I'm delighted. When the other old Rowenta DW2070 ever dies I'll certainly upgrade to these newer ones. Time will tell if it lasts as long, the new build seems just as good if not better.