Question about clothing iron

[acidcookie]

My iron has developed these two spots that look like burn marks. At first I thought something had burned on to the iron and scratched some of it off, but when I ironed again, they returned. Of course, with my luck, the night before teaching the next morning the iron dirtied up my white button down shirt.

What are these? Can I get rid of them? Do I just have to buy a new iron? How do I prevent them? Argh.

[claimsgirl66]

I had this happen to me, I use spray starch on my clothing and it built up and burned on the iron.

Turn the iron onto low heat,and then either scrub the burnt stuff with wad of aluminum foil, or a SOS pad. I think I read somewhere too that you can put a bunch of salt onto a flattened paperbag, then rub a warm iron the salt and it also will act as a scrubber to get the stuff off. Good luck!

[acidcookie]

Hm, thanks! Though I don't spray anything on my clothes so I'm not sure where this came from...

[dianne9106]

You can get an iron cleaning stick. It cost a couple bucks in the starch/ironing section of WalMart or wherever you shop. You turn on the iron and rub it on, then wipe off. I reccomend this, as it won't scratch the surface of your iron. This stuff is just burned on material, ink or perhaps polyester/rayon, synthetic stuff. I know what you mean - I iron everything and I have to check my iron periodically and clean it as well. Good luck!
Dianne

[acidcookie]

Ooh, thanks for the tips. I'm glad I don't have to buy a new iron!

[AprilP]

Hey, while we're on the subject of irons, I'm having a bit of a problem too. My iron keeps developing these white "crumbs" that fall out the steam holes while I'm ironing.

I know these can happen if you use regular tap water, but I only use distilled? I've had trouble with white residue sticking on the iron when I've used tap, but never these crumb like things. I thought the white stuff was from minerals in the water, which distilled water shouldn't have, right?

Any ideas?