Using your clothes steamer is a great way to remove wrinkles and odors from clothes and linens, but in order to get the best possible result, it’s important to clean and maintain it on a regular basis.
With the right care, your steamer will provide you with years of reliable service.
Cleaning And Maintaining Your Clothes Steamer
Many people neglect to clean and maintain their clothes steamer properly, which can lead to a premature breakdown. Keep in mind that descaling your machine is the most important step in getting the most life out of the unit.
Now, if you are interested to find out how to descale and other tips about cleaning and maintaining your clothes steamer, keep reading.
Do you know the basics about these appliances? You can check my detailed guide on how to use them.
How Do I Clean My Clothes Steamer?
Cleaning the clothes steamer refers to descaling, which should be done every 45-60 days (or 40-50 hours of use) to prevent minerals from the water to deposit in the heating coils, which can build-up reducing the efficiency of the machine.
When my clothes steamer starts to emit steam more slowly than usual or stops completely, I run the process of descaling
How Do I Descale My Clothes Steamer?
Descaling is the process of removing hard water deposits from your steamer. It is important to descale, or you may find white spots on your clothes when they are steamed.
There are many ways to descale a clothes steamer, but the following procedure is the simplest and most effective. All you need is white vinegar and distilled water.
- Unplug the appliance. If you recently used it, wait until it cooled off.
- Take out the water tank and empty it completely.
- Fill the tank to max level with 1 part white vinegar and 2 parts distilled water.
- Put the water tank back to the clothes steamer.
- Turn the clothes steamer on. Make sure it’s on max level of steam output.
- Now, steam should come out with a strong vinegar smell. Let it run until the water tank is almost empty.
Safety Tip: While running, don’t ever leave the steamer unattended. At least, get someone else to watch it.
- By now, the steam flow should be constant without impurities. In case it isn’t, run the steps 3 to 6 one more time.
- Unplug the machine, remove the water tank and dump the vinegar solution. Then, rinse it with tap water.
Your garment steamer is now clean and ready to be used again.
Advanced Tip: Sometimes water gets trapped when the hose is twisted. If you catch the twist before cleaning, you are safe. Otherwise, put half a cup of vinegar and a cup of distilled water back in the water tank and run it through. It shouldn’t take more than 5 minutes.
How Do I Maintain My Clothes Steamer?
There isn’t a lot of maintaining required, just do the following tasks, and you will increase the lifespan of your appliance, but mostly, ensure that you won’t get white spots on your clothes from impurities, while steam ironing.
- Before and after every use, the nozzle should be wiped down with a damp cloth, then dried. This will remove any deposit that could potentially clog the holes.
- Empty the water container and leave it untapped, so it will dry and avoid mold growth. In case you own a standing clothes steamer, make sure you remove the excess water by using the corresponding valve, or a cloth or just carefully flipping it upside down.
Some brands advertise that their models can use tap water, but, in my experience, I still recommend using distilled or purified water to iron and clean the machine.
From My Experience
If I have to summarize this article, I would stress the importance of descaling your clothes steamer at least every 40 uses and follow the two maintenance steps to keep it at optimal performance.
One response to “Boost The Lifespan Of Your Clothes Steamer (How-To)”
[…] If you plan on only using tap water, bottled water or filtered water, make sure to thoroughly clean the inside of your steamer as well as the outside part of the nozzle. Read our guide to Cleaning And Maintaining Your Clothes Steamer. […]