All About Garment Steamers

Straightening up's made easy with garment steamers

When fabric's too delicate for heavy ironing—or when you're on the go and don't have room to set up the ironing board—garment steamers offer an easy, portable solution for all your clothes' wrinkly woes.

As opposed to irons, garment steamers offer you the option to both clean and "press" your clothing. To explain, let's first take a look at the process of a basic vapor steamer.

Vapor steamers: how they work

Most steamers contain a stainless steel boiler inside an insulated outer base and a hose attachment, which features the actual steaming head. When the boiler is filled with water and the steamer is plugged in, the water heats up (usually to a temperature between 240 and 260 degrees Fahrenheit). Of course, boiling water produces steam, and when steamer's steam is forced through the very small holes in the head at the end of the hose, the heat and pressure of the released vapor can clean and de-wrinkle clothing. Here's why: Steamers produce such a hot vapor that, when applied to fabrics—or any number of surfaces—the vapor liquefies and evaporates dirt and germs while smoothing out wrinkles.

Dry steamers: an alternative

Also available on the market are dry steamers. While the steam produced from a vapor steamer is generally only 6 percent water, steam produced from a "dry" steamer contains a percent or so less. Dry steamers' low-moisture vapor, then, is technically "drier" than that of vapor steamers. Vapor steamers sometimes leave a trace of condensation; dry steamers generally don't.

The bennies

Clothes steamers, whether they're vapor or dry, come with plenty of benefits aside from their more obvious cleaning and de-wrinkling functions.

Clothes steamers eliminate allergens. The heat in vapor steam kills dust mites and germs embedded in your clothing and linens.

Clothes steamers use natural cleansers. Steamers work with water—and just water. No soaps or chemically treated cleaning products are needed.

Clothes steamers come in all sizes. While industrial-sized steamers are left for professional dry cleaners, hospitals, and clothing boutiques, plenty of steamers are perfect for the home or your suitcase.

Clothes steamers are easy to use. Simply fill the boiler with water, plug the steamer in, and, when you can see steam escaping from the head, hold the head an inch or so away from fabric. When on the go—say, in a hotel room—clothes can be steamed while still on the hanger.
Be sure, though, to check your clothing's care labels before steaming; while steaming is ideal for fragile fabrics that would not withstand ironing, other delicates, such as silk, are very heat-sensitive and might be damaged by a steamer's vapor.

More information on steamers