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January 12, 2004 02:38 AM

Broken: Clothes iron

 Daniel Brown writes:

This was an iron in my hotel room in Paris. I have seen it elsewhere since but learned a valuable lesson from this first encounter with it.

It wasn't until I was actually USING the iron, having settled on a modest heat setting, that I realized where the heat-to-material chart was... on the BOTTOM of the iron! Hence, you wouldn't be likely to find the information you needed to use the iron until you were actually using it.

An even stranger side note... If one were to turn the iron over to more clearly read what the chart contains, the water that was now heated in the iron would drain out the top and onto your feet.

Posted in Product Design

Comments:

I don't find this too weird.

As far as I remember every iron we used to have until cca. 2 years ago in Slovakia had this info written on exactly the same place.

Based on what I used to see all my past life - the bootom of the Iron is the part which is hot. Not the one the iron is designed to stay on now.

However - designer should think about that for sure.

Posted by: Stefan Dobrovolny at January 12, 2004 07:56 PM

The problem with your theory is that I do not set the temperature of the iron while the hot side is sitting on the ironing board or, heaven forbid, the article of clothing. This is a bit like placing a temperature knob for an oven INSIDE the oven. The "resting" position of the iron inherently hides the instructions necessary to use it. I'm sure it's something you could get used to, but I think changing the iron is a much better idea.

Posted by: Daniel Brown at January 18, 2004 04:31 PM

Indeed, my mom's old iron got it right - the instructions are placed on the flat surface of the iron underneath the handle (the part where the giant dial is). In fact, the instructions are integrated with the controls.

My mom's iron had a switch that could be set to four settings, Off, Synthetics, Silk/Wool, and Linen/Cotton. Now isn't that easier than attempting to discern what ".", ".." and "..." mean?

Posted by: quanta at January 18, 2004 10:43 PM

The dots are for how many steam holes are on the bottom of the iron. Slightly confusing, not to mention slightly lazy.

Posted by: never mind that at January 21, 2004 04:25 PM

So I guess some people CAN pour water out of a boot with instructions on the heel, although unintentionaly.

Posted by: Scott at April 1, 2004 04:34 PM

Think yourself lucky - my iron doesnt have these instructions on it anywhere.

Posted by: Skels at January 12, 2005 04:25 PM

your all stupid

Posted by: simon at January 18, 2005 01:55 PM

Simon, you're even more stupid if you can't correctly use the word your/you're.

Posted by: Brian at February 24, 2005 03:02 PM

"never mind that" is a complete idiot. The dots represent relative temperatures. More dots == hotter.

Or perhaps he has an iron on which steam holes magically appear and disappear based on the temperature setting?..

Posted by: Brian at March 17, 2005 03:39 PM

iron???

haven't you heard of Dry Cleaners? would leave a LOT more time to be productive on your computer - like right now.

to the beach......

Posted by: imnotright at May 3, 2005 06:42 PM

I am trying to fix a Proctor Silex iron and it has a solid wire just hanging loose inside (after removing plastic plate to reveal wiring from wall plug to inside of iron) that I can't figure out where to put. This is not a mono-filament wire. The model is: 1-2703

Posted by: alice stuart at May 14, 2005 04:58 PM

My iron has the dial and the fabric doodad in the same place.

Posted by: Sido at September 6, 2005 08:34 PM

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