How to choose a steamer?

Every day in our lives there are more and more devices that make it a bit easier and more comfortable. One of them, designed to save hours of standing behind the ironing board - a steamer. About what to choose a steamer for the house and, as it is correctly done, and will be discussed in our article.

The steamer is the subtleties of choice

In order for our choice to be maximally conscious, let's briefly outline the principle of this device. What is a steamer? As the name suggests, the steamer smoothes things out with steam. This is the case: water is poured into the flask of the device and is transferred to the vapor state by means of a heating element. Then, after passing through the outlet, the steam jet is directed to the object that needs to be smoothed. Of course, the usual iron steamer does not replace. But here for things from delicate fabrics, jackets, furniture, curtains and other objects that are difficult to iron, the steamer becomes a real panacea.

Depending on the volume of the flask, the steamers can be divided into two groups: small (manual) and large (stationary). How to determine the size of the steamer you need? Everything is very simple - for household use with a volume of steaming 2-3 things per day, it is quite possible to do with a hand steamer. If you use it is planned much more often, it makes sense to think about buying a more productive stationary steamer.

Now we will talk in more detail about how to choose a hand steamer, because this type is more in demand in the usual household. What are the important points to pay attention to? First, it is the productivity of the device, namely, the amount of steam that it can release per unit time. Do not confuse this indicator with the power of the device itself, because the power only affects how quickly the water boils.

So, on performance steamers can be divided into three groups:

1. Steamers that use 20 to 25 ml of water per minute. The power of such devices is, as a rule, up to 1.5 kW. This is the most inexpensive type of steamers and their characteristics can be compared to a simple iron. For example, to clean up an ordinary men's shirt when using such a steamer will have to spend 3 to 6 minutes.
2. Steamers that use 30 to 50 ml of water per minute. The power of this group of steamers ranges from 1.5 kW to 2.5 kW. To strip off the shirt with the device from the second group will be possible somewhat faster - from 1.5 to 3 minutes.
3. The third group is the new generation steamers, the steam in which is pumped by means of a pump. Such steamers use approximately 55 ml of water per minute and can cope with the ironing of the shirt in record time - up to 1.5 minutes.

Depending on the price category, the steamers can boast a variety of modes for a variety of types of fabrics, and a huge number of additional devices, such as gloves that reliably protect hands from the steam flow, telescopic rack, clothes clamps and a special nozzle for smoothing the arrows on the trousers. All these "bloat" as a result significantly affect the cost of the device, but, as experience shows, it is not always necessary. In addition, if desired, any additional accessory can be purchased separately.

Steamer-steam cleaner

A separate class can be distinguished by hand steamers- steam cleaners . The main purpose of these devices is to clean any surface using steam, from the old fat on the stove to the furniture. Which steamer-steamer to choose depends primarily on your needs: there are steam cleaners designed for professional use, compact and manual models. In any case, when choosing it is worth giving preference to models of well-known firms, even from the most budgetary rulers.

If you can not decide which is better steamer or steam generator , it will not be superfluous to buy both.