Here's A New Angle To Sell Ironers

[launderess]

Press versus Ironer (Mangle)

Choice depends upon many factors.

Pressing and ironing are two different things.

Have an Elnapress along with a vintage Hurley (quasi commercial) press. Prefer the latter because it has higher wattage of heating power, a cast iron/aluminum shoe that not only gets hot, but retains heat. The darned Elnapress constantly has to keep heating because contact with cool washing lowers shoe temperature.

Also the Hurley press has a larger buck, so can do larger flatwork items and even shirts with less moving things about (lays) than the Elna.

All this being said it comes down really to what one is "pressing" or "ironing".

Knits, t-shirts, woolens, velvets, and some other things ought to be pressed and not ironed. Anything where movement of ironing would cause fabric to distort, create a shine and so forth. Things with pleats such as a skirt are often best done on a press.

Better presses exert great amounts of force easily penetrating several layers of cloth. Thus instead of having to run a wide/long thing like table cloth or sheet through four passes; one can fold the thing into quarters and press. Of course commercial presses are large enough to accommodate such things folded only once, but no domestic press ever has had a buck that large.

Some prefer presses over an ironer because material cannot get away from you creating cat whiskers and other unwanted creases.

This old video shows a shirt being done at a commercial laundry using a press. Some of the equipment is basically the same. Doing a shirt on a press IMHO is easier than an ironer. But then again in a commercial setting then and now various parts of a shirt have their own special press; cuffs, collars, sleeves, front/back and yoke.

Can whizz through ten to 12 t-shirts in < 20 minutes on either of my presses.

https://movingimage.nls.uk/film/0434

My Hurley press has a buck about size of the Blanca press shown in video. Thus doing things like flatwork and shirts is pretty much the same.

 

[brisnat81]

My aunt and uncle ran a motel for 10 years. The Sheets and duvet covers were processed by a commercial laundry, but the coloured pillowcases were laundered onsite.

As a kid, they'd pay me 1c per Pillow case to press them. With the Elnapress you basically could do the entire pillow case in 4 movements with two folds.

I cant imagine using one for regular ironing, unless you were ironing a lot of collarless T Shirts.

 

[launderess]

For anything but the smallest flatwork

Napkins, towels, tea cloths, pillow slips, etc... You are either must resign to folding and pressing in creases, or spending ages maneuvering things around to avoid.

Truth to tell those using both domestic ironers and presses have that same issue. Neither are sold today in widths anywhere near large enough to accommodate even twin sheets folded just the once. So you have to either get used to ironed in creases or sit yourself down for prolonged periods of ironing. Trick then becomes keeping freshly ironed/pressed sections from becoming mussed while moving onto other parts.

 

[iej]

I don't iron any of those.
I iron pillow cases but I do bed linen like this:

Take out of dryer .. straight onto bed. Iron bed with steam generator.

 

[launderess]

Well yes, you could do things that way.

Tumble drying largely replaced ironing upon their wide introduction and spread into homes or commercial laundries. Most housewives/homes sent men's shirts out and everything else went into dryer.

All of my household linens are just that; made from linen or hemp, and none of it goes into dryer. Things are either cold mangled or ironed (by hand or machine).

 

[iej]

I don't really wear extremely form shirts, but I generally just do them like this:

1. Wash on shirts cycle in the Miele which ends with a steam care cycle.
2. Hang on plastic hangers on a rack and let air dry naturally.
3. Iron

I don't generally dry any of my t-shirts in the dryer either. Just spin fast, and hang up. They're typically dry in a few hours.