Personal garment steamer

[thunderw21]

I see target has some of these for sale. Does anyone have a review to share? How well do they work and would one be a good long-term investment?

If I bought one it would be to clean vintage clothing. Do they replace the need for dry cleaners or merely supplement it?

Link for anyone who's interested:
http://www.target.com/Steamers-Presses-Clothing-Care-Home/b?ie=UTF8&node=13427841

 

[resortes805]

Thunder,

I have the conair compact steamer. Although I recommend a more high-end steamer, my little conair pumps out enough steam to get out the wrinkles out. I rarely iron my vintage items since buying a fabric steamer.

 

[Vanessa]

Yep - I have the Conair Gs7 compact steamer and I love it. It's very small and easy to pack for trips (so far - only by car) but it does a great job and it's beyond easy to clean up.

 

[Inky]

We have the Shark Garment steamer in a permanent home in the bathroom. We've used it nearly daily for over 3 years now and love it. As a matter of fact, we didn't own an iron or ironing board until I decided to start sewing again this past summer!

The steamers work much better/faster on knits and woolens than they do on cottons (dress shirts and the like). Nothing gives you a nice shirt like an iron (or sending it out!). But for refreshing my clothes and keeping them looking nice, especially when they come out of my crowded closet, we love our Shark. I do find I send things much less often to the cleaners now than I used to.

Also, my parents and my sister-in-law have both had theirs for 5+ years with constant use.

 

[GWD]

I bought a Jiffy Steamer J-4000 last year, it's the best thing since sliced bread! I rarely iron anymore and combined with the Dryel Home Dry Cleaning System I've saved hundreds of dollars.

 

[Inky]

I bought a Jiffy Steamer J-4000 last year, it's the best thing since sliced bread! I rarely iron anymore and combined with the Dryel Home Dry Cleaning System I've saved hundreds of dollars.

Does that Dryel system work well with woolens? I have a jacket that needs more freshening up than my steamer is giving it and I would rather not send it to the cleaners - maybe the Dryel is a good option?

 

[GWD]

Does that Dryel system work well with woolens? I have a jacket that needs more freshening up than my steamer is giving it and I would rather not send it to the cleaners - maybe the Dryel is a good option?

Yeah it should work fine. I really don't know how well it actually "cleans" but everything I've used it with comes out nice and fresh.

 

[thunderw21]

I got one of the Shark ones today.

I have mixed first impressions. First of all, I expected a stain-killing, wrinkle-flattening supersonic jet of steam to shoot out (backed up by misleading photos on the box) but got little more than a semi-continual poof of steam. It's enough steam to do the job, just not the world smashing power I had envisioned.

I steamed a light-weight wool jacket that had a badly wrinkled arm and some sweat stains on the liner. The wrinkles came out no problem after about 15 minutes.
The stains did nada. My hopes of no more sweat stains were a bit high seeing how they are so aggressive. My overly optimistic hope of an uber jet of steam didn't help either.

Also, I noticed that steaming the jacket brought out an old smokey cigarette smell that had never been there before. Hopefully it will disappear once it cools.

But, that was only one garment. I think it will prove to be a productive investment, especially when I have more time to figure out how to more effectively use the thing.