Tefal Pro Style Care IT8470

I wear a lot of shirts for both work and private use, so I can tell you a thing or two about how time-consuming ironing shirts is. The clothes steamer promised me some relief.
The device consists of a water tank with an attached steam nozzle. The water tank has room for 1.3 liters of water, which is heated within 45 seconds and allows you to steam clothes for 30 minutes without having to refill the reservoir. The device has 4 different setting options to regulate the steam pressure and depends on the type of fabric the garment to be steamed is made of.

I now have 5 shirts wrinkle-free in just under 15 minutes and the tank is still a little more than half full, but in a program one level higher. To make the clothes wrinkle-free, simply hang them on the clothes hanger or leave the garment in the clothes hanger and hang it on the hook, the hanger can be rotated to put the clothes in the desired position.

To prevent burns from the hot steam, a heat-resistant glove is included. The hot steam combined with gravity smoothes the fabric of my shirts in no time, no more wrinkles.
You can also use the clothes steamer to remove strong odors, for example cigarettes or other odors can be neutralized very easily. The steam also disinfects the clothes.

I had been curious about a clothes steamer for a long time. I iron quite a lot with my steam generator iron and it took me quite some time to freshen up a shirt and get it wrinkle-free again. Shouldn't that be faster and easier? A clothes steamer should be the ideal solution for this. I thought.

So I immediately ordered the most extensive one. Of course from Tefal.
But actually the experience was not that good from the moment I received the box. The box was delivered damaged. Can happen, as long as the device is in tip top condition. But even though everything was neatly packed, I found black smudges and spots on the device. As if it had already been used extensively. The experience was quite… Secondhand.

Anyway, I won't let myself be known. The result will surely be perfect.
First of all, I took the time to put everything together neatly. Everything feels solid and fairly dummy-proof. I fill the water reservoir and feel like getting started.
The device heats up, but when does it reach the right temperature? The box and description read that this takes a maximum of 45 seconds. But you will not receive confirmation via a beep or something similar. The head of the steam engine started releasing steam, so I guess it's ready? So me too!
Ah there's the beep! Wait a minute... That's quite a loud beep. And he suddenly shouts WARNING. Wait… My clothes steamer doesn't say that at all. That's my fire alarm. WARNING SMOKE DEVELOPMENT says my smart smoke detector. The clothes steamer gives off so much steam that my smoke detector is alarmed. I have never experienced this with a steam iron.

After turning everything off, I was ready for attempt two. I can probably start steaming sooner than I thought. Here we go.
I tested three types of clothing:
1. A shirt I had worn for a day. Can I make it neat again to wear again without having to wash and iron it again?
2. A sweater I had worn for a day. Can I refresh this?
3. A polo that has been in the wash and is badly wrinkled. Can I get this tight (knowing that a clothes steamer is not a steam iron).

The result in all 3 cases was actually quite ok. The shirt looked good enough to wear again. The sweater was not machine washable, but at least without any unpleasant odors. And the polo was not wrinkle-free (I didn't expect it either), but acceptably neat.

But... This has now saved me time. Was it easier? More handy?
Um… No!

In general, it is quite easy to steam the "body" of a garment. The clothes hanger of the device has a kind of woven backing. The body of your garment hangs over it and this provides support when you go to this part. steaming. However, the sleeves dangle a bit into insignificance and you cannot get steamed unless you grab the sleeve with your other hand and pull it tight. Result: Drops of hot water can fall on your hand/arm during steaming. Very unpleasant .
It becomes even more inconvenient to steam the back of my shirt. There is no support on this side. I'm now really struggling to get my shirt into shape.
My tip is to place a towel on the floor near the clothes steamer, if your floor is less resistant to water. In my opinion, the device loses quite a bit of moisture.

Well, you've "ironed" one piece of clothing and so I'm ready for the next one. But be careful: Place the head of the clothes steamer on top of the clothes hanger. You hang your garment on the same clothes hanger. It is practically impossible to change an item of clothing if it does not have buttons or a zipper on the front. Hanging a sweater or a polo on the hanger, while anxiously hoping not to touch or drop the head of the clothes steamer, was my only way out. I don't let myself be known and just keep going. But this design is anything but user friendly.
And it's not really sturdy either. A number of times I was barely able to keep the scaffolding from falling over. I don't want to say that I was steaming over-enthusiastically. On the contrary, I tried to do it carefully. But don't accidentally push against the setup. It all looks a bit unstable.

And how much time did I actually spend on this? Of course, the first use of a new device takes some getting used to. But in my opinion this cannot possibly save time. Refreshing clothing items "quickly" might only work if you actually only want to freshen up 1 item of clothing. Other than that, I don't really see the point of this. Wouldn't you be much better off with a hand-held clothes steamer?

Unfortunately it did not bring me what I had hoped. And luckily for my smoke detectors (and child who still sleeps during the day), I use my steam generator iron again.