Monday is Fun Day - Travel Iron

I'm going to a quilting retreat on Saturday and bought a new iron for the occasion.  My "home" iron is one I really like and I don't want to drop/break it.  It's just a regular old Norelco that I've had for over fifteen years, but it's nice and heavy and solid.  It's so old that it's the kind that takes distilled water.  I never have to run it through the cleaning cycle that the new iron requires.

This is the new one.  It's not a travel iron per se; it's full size.  But since it's the one that gets to leave the house, I call it a travel iron.  It literally weighs half what my other iron weighs, so that's nice for carrying.

I had one goal - to spend $10.  Last year I saw irons that cheap at Menards, and I liked the sound of it.  It leaves more money to buy fabric, don't you know.  But yesterday I was closer to Shopko, so I stopped in there instead.

They had none for $10, but three that were on sale for under $20.  The cheapest iron was weird and flimsy.  This one was perfect for me, and not just because it was pretty. 

When comparing irons, you have to take them out of their box and turn their dials and flip their lids, etc. before you make your decision.  

This iron had my four must-haves:

1. A sturdy plastic cover for the watering hole.  This one easily flips up and down and is securely attached to the iron.  I spent a lot of money once on a Rowenta travel iron and it had a flexible cover attached by a little band that broke after a year or so, and the cheapest iron had the same thing.  By the way, that entire Rowenta iron broke shortly after its band broke - what a waste of money.
2. A mechanism to turn steam on or off (the grey lever in the photograph).  I didn't even know it was possible to NOT have such a thing until I looked at the cheapest iron.
3. A smoothly turning dial with fabric temperatures clearly labeled.  The cheapest iron had numbers on its dial, then a chart printed elsewhere on the iron that cross-referenced the numbers to fabric types.  Plus the dial was on the handle and I could hardly turn it.  This dial turns smoothly and makes little snicking noises.  I like that sound effect and sometimes I turn the dial back and forth just for the fun of it.
4. Clear indication when the iron is off.  This has the word "off" and a red button.  Plus it automatically shuts off after 30 minutes. 

 

I bought this cute little water bottle to go with it.  It should work really good for transporting water and then filling the iron without spilling water all over the place.  On the whole, I got a pretty good deal for all this, less than $22.50 including tax.

Now I need to make an iron caddy.  I found a free pattern on the Internet that is a caddy when folded, but an ironing surface when open.  That's going to be my next project.