Laurastar S5a

My girlfriend really like that. Didn't know what to expect, but she said with the options this ironing steam generator can do it is so amazing. Iron itself is very good, easy to use. There is CD with instruction included, wich is very useful before start.

Wow! All I can say is my wife used to hate ironing but not any more! This really is a state of the art ironing system. We have a Breville Technique 2000 iron which is still a very good iron but this does take ironing to another level.When you first open the box it’s quite daunting as to what goes where and how to proceed but once you watch the dvd, and we watched it twice (once before and once during the setting up) it’s really very self-explanatory. It is quite a heavy item but thankfully there are castors placed on the bottom so it’s very easy to move into position. We do live in a hard water area and was worried in case we needed to use special water for it but it runs on tap water and there is a water testing kit which you can test your water with and then use the pack of granules to add to the water so that the equipment is protected from the effects of hard water.We tried ironing some curtains which had just been through the washing machine and were fairly creased, it worked wonders on them and we were very happy with the results. We set the iron to auto and as you move forward using the iron the steam is automatically deployed. It does have a manual setting which you can use to set the steam yourself as you iron and these buttons are conveniently placed on either side of the handle for ease of use if you are either left handed or right handed.Whilst it is a brilliant system for ironing it is also an expensive purchase but if you do have lots of ironing to do, I can imaging this would really come into it’s own and be very well used. We usually do ironing about once a month and let the items build up a bit but now with this brilliant piece of kit I can imagine my wife being more keen to do it more often using this system. It feels very well designed and solidly built. The only downside is that it is quite a bit larger than a normal ironing board so we have had to make further room in a cupboard for storing it whilst not in use.

Before receiving the Laurastar S5a I had been using the a Philips GC8651/10 PerfectCare Aqua Pressurised Steam Generator (see my earlier review). If I thought the Philips was expensive this ironing system is in an different league when it comes to cost. Unless you are going to need to iron a lot, say 4 to 5 times a week and large amounts each time, you probably won't recoup the value of the initial outlay. That said I'm very impressed with this ironing system.In the box you'll fine the ironing board, and an instruction pack containing a leaflet and a DVD. I highly recommend watching this before starting to unpack and trying to put the ironing system together. After watching the DVD, initial set-up is simple and quick. The system uses regular tap water and includes a water hardness test kit. You should use this to test you water to see if the supplied water filter granules are needed.Once set-up and filled with water the system take about 3 minutes to heat up, which initially seemed slower than my previous system but after a few uses I realised I didn't notice the start-up time any more.The boiler is attached to the ironing board legs with the steam hose held out of your way by a wire holder that can me mounted for either left or right hand use. Initially this seemed in the way but once I got used to the hose being elevated it really helped and I like this feature. The board itself has an integrated 2 speed bi-directional fan that it used to keep delicate fabrics cool and aids in reducing creases while ironing. You really need to watch the included DVD to see how this feature works as it confused me at first, but once you get the hang of this it really helps speed up the ironing process.This is heavy and bulky compared to a standard ironing board but then it has the entire ironing system built into a single unit, which I like and feel is overall more of a benefit than a hindrance. The attached castors make it easy to move, although they are fixed in line, so it can be tricky making turns. The unit feels stable and well made and is easy to store and set-up when you need to do ironing.If money is no object for your ironing, or you need to iron every day then I'd highly recommend this system, but for light use it very expensive. Overall if an ironing system can be awesome then this one is awesome.