What kind of soleplate you need for your iron??

Today’s irons no longer emanate from the heat of a dangerous, heavy projectile. Modern irons are distinguished by the highest quality, ergonomic design and perfect comfort. Of particular interest are the new soles, which quickly and easily slide over all kinds of fabrics. For best results the design of the soleplate, the material it is made of, as well as the location of the steam holes are important.

Iron with selenium soleplate!

The iron that was originally used for iron soleplates is a rough metal that can’t be polished very well. But nowadays iron soleplates have reached perfection in smoothness – and you can look into them like a mirror.

The most affordable irons are those with aluminum soles. These are good irons because aluminum conducts heat very well. An iron with a Teflon soleplate heats up very quickly and cools down just as quickly.

To get maximum smoothness, the aluminum is polished, this coating is called aluterm. It’s shiny and smooth, like glass. But aluminium is a delicate metal. “Riding over a metal zipper, button, festoon, hook or rivet on jeans, the iron soleplate becomes microscopic scratches.

That would be ok, but the scratches gradually catch the lint of fabrics, fabrics impregnation, starch. These particles become charred and dark with time under the influence of high temperature. A shiny surface becomes dirty, unkempt, sticky and harder to slide.

Besides it is a well known fact, that aluminum soleplate leaves on fabrics, especially woolen fabrics, an undesirable shine. The fabric looks flaky, so there is no way to do without ironing through a cotton cloth, and this is very uncomfortable.

Teflon glides great, but it wears away over time

To make ironing easier on synthetic fabrics and to avoid the shine of ironing, some companies like Kenwood have their irons with a Teflon coating on the aluminum soleplate. Teflon really never sticks, but it is as scratch-resistant as aluminium and can shed some of its deposits over time.

The most successful coating for the aluminum soleplate is the glass-ceramic Supergliss Actif, developed by Tefal. Ribbed soleplate helps you achieve better results with less effort. Increased pressure in the convex bars area makes it easy to smooth even stubborn, parched garments. Braun also recently developed an aluminum-based Ceramic-jet soleplate. Philips, Rowenta and others use aluminum for the soleplates.

And stainless steel glides well, but weighs more

The more durable material for the iron soleplate, but also more expensive, is high quality stainless steel. Irons with stainless steel soleplate are offered by Bosch, Siemens, Motorola, Rowenta. This material is durable and not afraid of scratches. Stainless steel soleplate slides fairly easily over fabrics and is easy to clean.

However, these irons can be a little heavy and take longer to heat up and cool down than an iron with an aluminum soleplate. After all, steel conducts heat worse than aluminum. Besides, stainless steel is a more expensive material than aluminum.

Rowenta’s new professional grade P2 iron has a scratch resistant stainless steel airglide soleplate which could not be scratched if you wanted to.

The stainless steel inox soleplate is produced by Rowenta, Siemens, Bosch, Philips, Braun. Braun in particular produces a new generation of irons with an extra-hard, easy-to-slip Saphir soleplate. Sapphire is one of the hardest minerals along with corundum and ruby. Of course, the soleplate is not made of this precious mineral. It’s only involved in the technology.

Philips launches Azur Exel irons with silver-plated surfaces as well as the innovative Exel Anodium iron soleplate, which ensures great glideability on all kinds of fabrics, is scratch resistant and easy to clean.

Titanium removes all problems. For your money

Rowenta coats the soles of some iron models with titanium. It is a very hard metal, which is not scratched by other metals. But it has low thermal conductivity, and even the thinnest titanium film reduces the temperature of the soleplate.

Titanium irons are prestigious, but quite expensive. But titanium tips have one wonderful feature: if, for example, the mistress was distracted, left the iron on a blouse, and particles of “melted” synthetic fabric stuck to the tips, it is not necessary to scrape away anything, trying to clean the iron immediately, you just need to unplug the iron, let it cool down and easily remove the sticking rag.

The soleplate is like a decent sandwich board

Then the developers of new iron soleplates found many other solutions, using combinations of different materials and not neglecting aluminum with its high thermal conductivity.

For example, the inox soleplates are based on aluminum, coated with stainless steel on the outside. Such soleplate combines good heat conductivity and lightness of aluminum with durability, scratch resistance of stainless steel. The inox soleplate is lightweight, it does not rust and is easy to clean Siemens, Bosch .

Granit glisse is a durable, scratch-resistant stainless steel soleplate with a super-hard enamel coating that glides superbly over fabric. This unique enamel has a rough, granite-like appearance, is really hard, like granite, and very scratch and chip resistant.

All the more so because the aluminum edge protects the enamel coating from side impacts. This combination of materials ensures perfect gliding even on tough synthetics Siemens, Bosch . Stains on the soleplate can be removed with a stiff metal brush don’t be surprised, the super tough coating is not scratch-resistant . And you can easily remove small particles of dirt from the heated iron with a cotton cloth.

Ceraslide-Color is another worthy combination: the aluminum soleplate is covered with extra strong fired ceramic, ennobling the light aluminum base Siemens, Bosch . This beautiful blue soleplate is scratch-resistant, it stays smooth for a long time, easy to clean with a cotton cloth.

The soleplate glides easily over any material and is good for ironing synthetic fibers which are considered tricky and can get unwanted shine when exposed to less perfect ironing soleplates.

Ceramic coatings on iron soleplates are also used by Tefal, Philips. Tefal also uses a unique Durilium material Ultragliss Actif Series that provides unmatched glide ease, high scratch resistance, and easy cleaning of the soleplate.

Who gets six points for ironing glide?

So what’s the best coating for your iron soleplate?? An independent French laboratory called CTTN experimentally compared the gliding properties of different iron coatings depending on temperature.

CTTN French laboratory conducted a slip comparison test.

Milder temperatures cause the soles to slip slightly differently hence the skittish behavior of synthetics , but hotter temperatures result in better slip, and all soles perform about the same on similar textiles.

Teflon coated iron pads have the best glide properties at low temperatures, and are best for synthetics. But ceramic-coated outsoles glide much better at higher temperatures than others.

So choose: strength and durability, easy glide, reasonable price, after all… There is no such thing as a bad iron soleplate, each one is good in its own way.