What to pour into the iron?

So what to use? Tap water, hot, filtered or boiled? Or maybe buy distilled? Moreover, you can find special perfumed water for irons in many stores.

All these issues are important enough, because using the “wrong” water can even cause your iron to break down or shorten its lifespan.

How to properly care for your iron, we decided to ask the experts of the companies that produce this equipment. So we had a real virtual “round table”, where we discussed all the nuances of working with this equipment.

Yulia Logvinenkova, brand manager for Tefal: “You should fill the iron with normal tap water. If your area has very hard water, you can mix tap water and purchased demineralized water in a 50/50 ratio, t. k. Distilled water is more difficult to evaporate, and it can destroy the silicone coating in the evaporation chamber. Boiled water has a small amount of sediment, which can accelerate the deposition of plaque”.

Anna Paklina – brand manager for brand Philips: “Many Philips irons have self-cleaning function from scale, which allows you to fill even tap water. Distilled and flavoured water can contain organic or mineral substances, which when heated increases the concentration of the iron, you can ruin the iron and get stains on your clothes.

Catherine Tsukanova – brand manager for Bosch, Siemens: “We recommend using only clean tap water without any additives, this is due to the design features of the irons. For long-term trouble-free operation of the steam humidification function, you can mix tap water with distilled water in the ratio of 1:1. If the water in your region is very hard, mix tap water with distilled water in the ratio of 1:2”.

Braun says: “All modern irons have tanks which can only be filled with tap water. In rare cases, if the iron has no protection against limescale or you have hard water, you can use a mixture of 1/2 tap water and 1/2 distilled water.

It is categorically not recommended to use completely distilled water, flavored or softened water or water from the refrigerator and include additives such as starch in the water.”.

There is an opinion:

“Add a few drops of your perfume to the water in the iron, and the laundry will smell nice.”. Is that acceptable advice or not?”

Julia Logvinenkova, brand manager for Tefal: “We do not recommend putting any flavoring agents into the iron, because they can damage the appliance.k. They can ruin the chemistry of the built-in anti-lime cartridge. Flavorings and antistatic agents are best used during the wash.”.

Paklina Anna – brand manager for the Philips brand: “According to the user manual, you can’t put anything else in the iron except water.”

Catherine Tsukanova – Brand manager Bosch, Siemens: “This advice is unacceptable, as adding any liquids, especially fragrances, can lead to appliance damage. Besides, the oils in perfumes burn and cause a pungent, unpleasant odor.