How to Clean the Inside and Outside of a Steam Iron

Keep your iron clean for best results.

Having to iron clothing is bad enough. Damaging your clothing with a dirty iron adds insult to injury. Keeping your steam iron clean inside as well as on its heated surface can prevent it from spitting up gunk onto your newly laundered clothing, as well as transferring brown marks from surface dirt.

Things You'll Need

• White vinegar
• Distilled water
• Newspaper
• Old towel
• Sturdy cleaning gloves
• Paper towels
• Steel wool pad
• Wax paper
• Bucket

Instructions

1. Spread newspapers over your work surface and put on gloves.

2. Scrub the bottom of the cold iron with steel wool, which can be damp if you prefer, either way works fine. Dampen paper towels to clean off the bottom of the iron after scrubbing it to make sure any brown marks from scorched residue is gone. Scrub it until it looks nice and clean again, then rinse it off.

3. Lay an old towel over your ironing board. Plug in the iron and fill it up with equal parts of white vinegar and distilled water. Turn the setting on high and let it steam for six or seven minutes. Turn it down low and carefully pour out the vinegar from its top into a bucket of cold water. Run the iron over the towel a few times to get any sediment out of the holes and let the iron sit there on low heat for several minutes.

4. Place a large piece of waxed paper on top of the towel. Turn the iron to a no-steam, low setting, if it is not already. Move it back and forth over the wax paper until it glides smoothly and the bottom plate is nice and smooth.

5. Turn the iron off and allow it to fully cool before putting it away.

Tips & Warnings

• The bottoms of Teflon-coated irons should be cleaned with a block of paraffin wax and an old towel. The insides can be cleaned with vinegar using the same method as other irons.

• There is an iron cleaner that comes in tubes that is known to work well, too.

• Never leave a hot iron unattended or low enough for children to touch or pull down.

References

• Cornell Cooperative Extension: Cleaning Tea Kettles, Coffee Makers, Humidifiers, Irons
• Texas A&M University Extension: Measure Your Sew-How