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Text, photos and video by Tom Hintz
Posted – 6-29-2018
When I bought my Rowenta Steamforce iron to bring my ironing capabilities into the modern world I should have known something would happen to challenge my trick, new iron. As is usually the case, I figure prominently in that challenge so am also responsible for fixing it.
During the first day of making things wrinkle-free with my new Rowenta Steamforce iron I was lulled into focusing on wrinkles disappearing more than what I was ironing. Soon I felt the drag of a contaminated soleplate, turned my Rowenta Steamforce iron over and confirmed my suspicions that I had just melted a foreign substance onto the stainless-steel soleplate. I also proved that stainless or not, melting stuff lets it stick to that metal with a death-grip that might drive a lesser man to break out a motorized wire brush and do the Rowenta Steamforce iron irreversible damage.
The Rowenta Soleplate Cleaning Kit (#ZD100) is a purpose designed outfit for bailing inattentive users like myself out when we manage to burn a foreign substance onto the high-end soleplate of an iron. I went to the Rowenta web site initially to look for advice on cleaning the iron when I discovered they made a kit for just that purpose. That made me feel better as it confirmed that I was not the only one messing up their irons.
The Rowenta Soleplate Cleaning Kit contains a tube of special cleaner and two cloths. One cloth has a slightly rougher texture and is meant for doing the scrubbing part of the cleaning process. The other cloth is soft with a smoother surface and is used to remove any remaining cleaner from the soleplate, so we don’t rub that into the next project.
Rowenta also includes printed instructions that provide all the info (and cautions) we need to get the irons soleplate back to its clean, slick condition. One of the first admonitions is to empty the water from the irons tank. I almost passed this over but then recalled how hot the steam is coming out of the soleplate which made getting rid of the water before I try scrubbing that soleplate a matter of self-preservation.
With the Rowenta Steamforce iron water-free and up to the “cotton” temperature setting I squeezed a 2”-long bead of the Rowenta Steamforce iron cleaner compound onto the rougher-looking cloth. Per the instructions I scrubbed the iron in a circular motion in the cleaner and could feel it drag, then drag less. I turned the iron over and sure enough, some of the contamination was gone. The instructions say that more than one application might be necessary if the contamination is extensive. This is me remember so I knew going in that I would be repeating the cleaning process more than normal.
After two more 2”-long beads of the Rowenta cleaner and the scrubbing routine, my soleplate was once again shiny and contamination free. There was a little of the cleaning compound in the steam holes, so I rubbed it out with the cleaning cloth supplied and got most of it out. The instructions call for blasting the rest of the compound out (if it remains at all) using the steam function so I cooled the iron down and filled the water tank.
After getting the Rowenta Steamforce iron up to temperature I rubbed it on an old, soft rug and hit the steam button that shoots a bunch of steam out through the soleplate. I did that several times, two to clean the compound from the holes and the rest because I like the “swoosh” and cloud of steam the iron makes when I do that. The cleaning compound was long gone, as was the contamination of my soleplate.
The Rowenta Soleplate Cleaning Kit (non-toxic by the way) has a street price of $12.99 (6-28-2018) which makes not using it dumb on several levels. Now that I have proven to myself that it works as advertised using it to protect my fancy iron is a no-brainer.
For some reason too many of us do not see the benefit of routine maintenance on tools we use. The Rowenta Steamforce iron is a tool with specific uses, all of which are better done with a clean soleplate. The Rowenta Soleplate Cleaning Kit makes that maintenance easy and safe for us and the Rowenta Steamforce iron.
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