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launderess

launderess

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If you have the instruction manual and can follow the clear steps, even shirts are not a problem. They are ironed in such a way that areas that you have ironed are not wrinkled by the ironing of the next area. I kept a spray bottle of water not only to dampen areas that were drying out, but also to use as an eraser for unwanted cats' faces and creases I accidentally ironed into things. I never would have made a living ironing laundry, but was able to use the machine. After sleeping, the thing I do best is sitting on my butt, so the ironing position was natural.

 

With the way items are fed into the Ironrite, under the roll, the heat/steam rises behind the roll instead of in the user's face so it is not necessarily as hot as manual ironing can sometimes be. It's better if you have someone who can take the larger finished items away and hang or finish folding them.
 
If didn't already have four ironers (two Pfaff, one Ironrite and the old (ok ancient) Simplex), would send U-Ship to get that free Ironrite.

Back when Consumer Union and later Consumer Reports tested ironers, Ironrite units were always top rated. Next came Bendix....

Those two were the only ironers offered for sale in USA that used the shoe under roll design, and CR/CU found them streets ahead of others.

Once you get the knack of things you really can iron almost anything with an Ironrite.

The shoe is designed so the back of a man's shirt fits almost perfectly. So you can iron the entire width from shoulder to shoulder in one go.
 
<span style="font-size: 14pt; color: #008000;">I'm sure like with most things, people can become pros with these, breezing  through piles of ironing with professional results.</span>

 

<span style="font-size: 14pt; color: #008000;">"I got hampers of ironing to do...and my diet-pill is wearing off"</span>

twintubdexter-2019032116144308345_1.jpg
 
Ironrite Model 70 Free to Good Home

I have an Ironrite Model 70 with the Health Chair that I will also give away free to a good home if anyone on here wants it. The cord is crumbling, so I have never tried it. I bought it with the intention of restoring it, but never had time to do so. I'm going to be moving in a few months and need it gone. It came out of a bed and breakfast in Smiths Grove, KY, which is where I live. The B&B was sold and they liquidated the assets.
 
Home Ironers

The first one we had was an Ironrite that my Brother Jeff serviced and put a new pad and cover on, he was working for a company in the 70s that still sold and serviced Ironers, they were an IR dealer and still sold new ones.

 

I got used to using the IR and ironed my sheets, jeans and shirts on and off for a few years.

 

Years later I found a Kenmore ironer built by WP and took it up to the second house. One rainy weekend I decided to try it out and what a difference, it was far easier to use.

 

On the IR you are working on top of a hot metal sole plate that has a roller that moves down to press the clothing, On the KM you position the clothing on a cool roll and the heated shoe at the rear moves into contact and irons the clothing [ no burned fingers ]

 

It was immediately easy to see why all other brands of ironers were built like the WP-KM, when my Brother Jeff got his own house and said he wanted an ironer I said take the IR.

 

To be certain both types work quite well and are far easier than standing at an ironing board, but I would love to hear from anyone that has both types in good repair and has used both a good deal to hear what their impressions are.

 

John
 
Have one Ironrite, and two Pfaff ironers that are built on same design.

Had a Frigidaire ironer (gears stripped so it got the push to the tip), a Beatty ironer (sold to a healthcare facility in Hawaii), and now the old Simplex; all have the shoe in back of roll design.

Can get good to great results from any ironer, but for things like flatwork, shirts and some other things prefer the two open ends of Ironrite design.

If one wished to sheets or tablecloths without a center crease, or just one; that is far easier accomplished on an Ironrite type of ironer.

Cannot argue with basic thermo physics; shoe under roll heating is superior to back of roller. Commercial ironers use this principle; as does Miele for their larger machines.



The two end points of the Ironrite ironer make doing things like shirts, blouses, ruffles and other items a treat. Also as have noted the shoe of Ironrite is sized juuust right for doing back of men's dress shirt. What is more once you get the hang of things including holding material taught you can do the darts/pleats on back quite easily.

Operative word here is "knowing" what one is doing. Hahaha!

Only kidding Jon, you know I love you more than my luggage. *LOL*



Here is another Ironrite clone called "Ironette". You can see, well you can see everything Ironrite sales/marketing said back in the day about their design still holds true. Likely the reason many are copying that design/patents.



Some ironers with roll at back have been designed to allow for ironing to fall at rear in such a way doing flatwork without a center crease in theory is possible.



Because am not feeding laundry up into the roller, but rather downwards with the Ironrite design find it easier to prevent "cat whiskers" and other unwanted creases. It also easier to stop and shift material so any fullness gathering before the shoe is worked downwards. This again helps prevent ironed in creases.
 
Old fashioned 1950's or maybe even 1940's

Standard "dry" iron. So yes it was "non-steaming". You dampened your laundry, let it sit about for a bit, then got to ironing it "dry".

There are scores if not hundreds of those irons by Westinghouse, GE, Sunbeam, McGraw Edison, Presto, Hotpoint, and countless others all over eBay, CL, thrift shops, estate sales, etc.... That and sitting about spare in many people's homes.

Have a few but rarely use them nowadays; do most of my ironing with older (and heavy) commercial irons.

Thing about those older "dry" irons is they often got much hotter than today's offerings. All those gags about housewives or whoever doing the ironing burning/scorching a hole in a shirt or whatever were not fiction.

Cannot recall exactly when, but think sometime in the 1960's due to complaints about burns and or burning United Underwriters Labs put out a new safety standard for clothes irons that resulted in lower temperatures.

By that time anyway many housewives had moved onto steam irons. This and thanks to tumble dryers they either didn't iron at all, or things were jussst right in terms of moisture they didn't need all that heat. Also fabrics/fashions changed. Out went all those heavy cotton and linen fabrics, replaced by more synthetics, blends or lighter natural fabrics.
 
Oh wow...

Thank you for your reply Laundress. That was very interesting to read, especially the part about the burn marks on shirts!

I remember seeing that on TV alot, when I was little. But I always thought the burns happened because the person ironing had forgotten about the iron because something was coooking/burning on the stove, and/or a baby was crying, or someone was knocking at the front door. And the person ironing had walked away from the iron, in the middle of ironing. Sort of like a "blonde-moment" happening. That's what I always thought, was being implied?
LOL...

But what you say makes more sense to me now.
LOL...

Thank you Laundress for clearing that up for me!
Hmhmhm...
:oD
 
YW

In theory any iron left long enough will burn/scorch, especially when set to highest temps. But older irons ran much hotter.

Old irons have temps for "Cotton", "Linen" and maybe even "High" or something for really heavy (and damp) material. Many of today's irons simply have one setting for "Cotton/Linen".

Linen can take slightly more heat than cotton, and if one wants to get ironing done faster (with damp laundry) you turn up the heat a notch or two.

Have some older irons that when set to highest temp one pass is all it takes to scorch cotton or even linen; now that is hot.

Here are the UL standards for electric clothes irons. These may be old and have since been updated.

Drop test -- drops iron three feet onto an oak floor, once on each side, once on the point, once on the heel and once flat, while heated and unheated. Iron must continue to operate normally afterwards. No opening can be created that is big enough to allow a finger -- simulated by a plastic probe -- to enter the iron and touch a live part.

•Endurance test -- operates the iron for 500 hours.

•Flex test -- flexes the cord 50,000 times, 20 cycles per minute, to check cord integrity.

•Temperature test -- determines that no surface of the iron ever gets hotter than 662 degrees F, a condition that could cause a fire.

•Mold-stress test -- bakes it in an oven for seven hours at 18 degrees F higher than maximum operating temperature to check for structural integrity.

•Moisture test -- conditions the iron in a humidity chamber for 24 hours at 85 percent humidity.

•Overfill test -- overfills steam iron and lets water drip over the unit to check for shock hazard.

•Strain relief test -- pulls on the cord for one minute by suspending a 20 pound weight from it to simulate the effect of yanking on the cord.

•Stability test -- angles the iron on an inclined plane at 10 degrees to see if it will tip over.

•Flame resistance test -- applies direct flame for 30 seconds to determine that it will not support combustion.

•Leakage test -- checks for the presence of excessive current on the outside of the appliance.

•Power-input test -- determines that the iron draws no more than 105 percent of rated wattage.
 

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