Rowenta DW9080 Steamium 1800-Watt Steam Iron Non-Stick Platinum Soleplate, 400-Hole, Brown

I bought this iron to replace one that started to leak and overall was not working well. I have never had any experience with the Rowenta brand but after doing some research I found out that they are one of the top brands when it comes to irons.A key thing to note about this model is that it is made in Germany instead of China and I would also suggest reading the instructions in its entirety. This will save you some headaches as well as make the unit last longer.The first thing I noticed when unboxing it is that it is a lot heavier than my current iron. It isn't big enough to make me not want to use it but it is important to note that if you need a light iron, you may want to look elsewhere.The unit has a large reservoir which is nice because you do not have to keep refilling it while ironing. The first thing I had to iron was a shirt and suit. I was amazed at how well it ironed the shirt. It is quite a bit larger so it doesn't take as many passes to finish the process. Turning on the unit was a piece of cake with the digital display. You just turn the nob until the digital display lights up to what you are ironing. As the instructions state, you want to start out with the material that takes the lease amount of temperature since it is faster to heat up the iron versus cooling it down.I moved on to my suit and used the steaming feature to take any wrinkles out of my jacket. This works with curtains or anything else that you need to just take the wrinkles out of but you can't iron. With a press of the button it shoots out a good amount of steam in the vertical position and did a fantastic job of taking out the wrinkles.If you do not mind the iron being a little heavier, I would strongly recommend this iron.

I like this iron for the simple reason that it does a fantastic job at getting the wrinkles out. I can't imagine an iron working any better than this one.Nonetheless, this iron isn't perfect. For starters, I don't like that it requires a PhD in water chemistry to figure out the precise type of water this thing wants. Not too hard, not too soft, not filtered, use tap but not if it's treated, can't be distilled. I mean come on, it is a bit absurd to be so picky on the type of water. My untreated water is likely too hard. I have a water softener but according to the instructions I can't use that water either. I'd feel stupid buying bottled water because who knows if that's exactly what it wants. Crazy. I will just use my softened water and hope for the best. So far, it works fine. Rowenta's don't last that long anyway, so I'll just plan on buying another in a couple years.My other gripe with this particular model is that it is too easy too accidentally rotate the fabric type dial. At least there's a very visible indicator on top to see what you have it set at, but I wish the dial had more resistance so it wouldn't be so prone to accidental changes.Other than that, the ironing performance is legendary. All those steam holes must make a difference and the easily accessible button to "inject" the steam makes ironing with this thing a joy.

First, I rarely use this iron; it is my wife's favorite, she really loves it. She thinks it is the best she has ever had (previously another Rowenta, and a Black & Decker) but after two years of use it quit. All of a sudden it stopped heating. The display started changing the setting indications randomly and then simply went dead.I checked it out and found out that the cord had developed a discontinuity. Right where the cord enters the iron there is a plastic clamp that mounts the cord to the body of the iron. This clamp holds the cord by pinching it. But the way it is pinching it, is that one side of the clamp is like a channel groove and the other is like a knife that matches the channel by going right inside the groove and it is pretty sharp. So as we were using the iron moving it forth and back, the cord was wiggling, and over time the wire threads inside the cord got cut right at the point where it was clamped inside the iron. The cord looked fine and by inspection I was not able to see anything wrong with it but when I tested it for continuity it was dead and when by wiggling it I could get some intermittent connection. I took out the two screws that hold the clamp closed and disconnected the wire and then I made an incision along the wire. Sure enough, right at the point where it was clamped, the threads were cut and it was black from arching when wiggled. So in my case it was pretty simple and I suppose that fixing it means eventually just shortening the cord about 3 inches to remove the old pinching point because otherwise the control board and everything else are fine.Now, don't go fooling around with the insides of an iron if you are not qualified because you can hurt yourself or put your house on fire. You should take it to a qualified technician and *if* your problem is because of this same reason, then he should be able to fix it fairly easily by shortening the cord by about 3 inches and using two new crimp connectors (if the old crimp connectors can be carefully removed so that the blue and red wires don't get too short). However, some technicians depending on warranty policies may just have to change the whole handle assembly.So, the wife says it is wonderful and works like a dream, satisfying steam production, easy gliding, best ironing ever (while it worked of course), but the above problem is bad design and it is quite likely to present itself given the mechanics of its operation. The plastic sleeve that guides the cord into the iron is a joke. It is not mounted in a stationary way on the iron; it floats freely in its seat and so most of the cord's motion is transferred to the stationary clamp that is inside the iron at the base of the sleeve's seat. Well, how much can you wiggle a wire which you are holding sharply pinched before it gives up? My opinion is that the design of that part is really bad and such an expensive iron should not have such a ridiculous flaw.I personally like the old B&D - which the wife snobs since she discovered the Rowentas. But I never had to repair any of the B&Ds (two, which still work fine) but I did have to repair *both* the Rowentas.