The title says it all. Cleaning a dirty iron is straight forward. How does an iron get dirty? A few ways that come to mind, using too hot an iron on a fabric that melts and using an iron to fuse interfacing but accidentally touching the iron to the part that sticks. To clean your iron, you just need the right tools and the right frame of mind. Don’t clean your iron if you haven’t had enough to eat and your hands are shaky. Or under any other circumstances where you feel shaky. Your fingers get really close to the stinking hot soleplate, you’ve been warned. If your hands shake naturally, like mine do on occasion, get some other sucker to do it. 😮
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Gather your materials:
Dirty iron
Iron cleaner
Ironing board or Travel ironing board
Old, 100% cotton towel that you plan on ditching anyway
A Tale of Two Irons
Tacky alert, I’m getting silly over here, couldn’t help myself with the title of this paragraph.
Here is a pair of irons. One is happy and clean, the other is sad and dirty. That didn’t come out right but I don’t know how else to say it.
Here is the iron cleaner that is going to turn that iron’s frown upside down! I warned you this could get a little tacky! Onto real information and help:
I like this iron cleaner by Faultless. I recommend the larger size, but if you get the little ones, get more than two per iron, it goes quickly and you can’t reseal the tiny ones! It’s easy to use but a little stinky.
Preheat your iron to the hottest setting or whatever temperature the iron cleaner suggests.
CAREFULLY squeeze cleaner onto the hot iron. It needs the iron hot so it can melt away the gunk.
See how it sizzles and drips? So hot! Try not to get the cleaner into the holes, it doesn’t need to go in there. This is just for a dirty soleplate. Keep the iron over your towel so it doesn’t ruin other surfaces.
Grab your old cotton towel, lay it down flat on a heat resistant surface and firmly press down while moving the iron. Press hard but make sure you don’t collapse the surface you’re ironing on. That would be a sure disaster!
Make sure you only get the iron cleaner on the towel, it’s kind of gross and I don’t know that it will come off of other fabrics. If you aren’t getting the gunk off readily, I find that if you fold over the towel so that the iron can be rubbed over that ‘hardish’ edge of the towel, it works better. Acts like a scraper. Definitely do not use ANYTHING other than the towel to clean the soleplate. Anything else will either melt or scratch the surface. Plus you’ll burn yourself.
Getting better. I still see some little bits of gunk. Keep working it until it is all clean. There may be some discolorations that are not dirt or removable. You’ll be able to tell over time if you have spots like that.
Bleccccchhhhh. Gross. And the reason why I just chuck the towel when I’m done. Do make sure that every little bit of cleaner is off the iron before using it again. You can use scrap cotton fabric to test it out. A light color helps show the residue better.
Ahhhh, way better and ready to use!
Voila! A clean iron and hopefully no one has gotten hurt.
What will you iron first?
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