Ironing rollers: features, types, tips on choosing and using

Women and men involved in the household often face the need to perform monotonous and physically hard work. It is to such activities applies ironing. It would seem that there is nothing difficult in moving the iron along the fabric, and the apparatus itself weighs very little. However, ironing such large items as bedding or bath towels requires a lot of time and considerable strength, especially if the number of family members is much more than 1-2 people.

Most often, large and complex ironing machines are used in large industrial enterprises and in various laundries or dry cleaners. Such complex devices are called calenders and are, in fact, the precursors of a small home roller. The technology of straightening the fabric and the large factory, and in a small city apartment remains the same. A cloth is stretched onto a spinning drum and is passed under a hot iron roller or along a special groove, which smooths the folds on it.

Externally, this machine looks like a tall narrow table.On which the supply drum and the ironing mechanism are located, and instead of the sides, there are heating elements that supply heat. Management can occur both in automatic and in manual mode. In order to start the heating mechanism, you just need to turn on the roller into the network and press the power button, and to move the supply drum, you need to press a special pedal. For convenience, it is placed at the bottom, and the operator presses her foot.

Roller ironing machine is much more expensive than iron and takes quite a lot of space in the apartment. In addition, it is impossible to iron a shirt or trousers on it, since it is only suitable for working with direct underwear, such as pillowcases or curtains.

She has a definite list of advantages that outweigh these disadvantages.

• After leaving the ironing rink, the surface of the fabric is not just smoothed out of the folds, it becomes perfectly smooth and pleasant to the touch, which is almost impossible to achieve with a regular iron without a steamer.
• A person in the process of working with an ironer rink assumes a comfortable position while sitting on a pouf, a chair or even in an easy chair. This is especially important for older people and those who have problems with the lumbar spine, since regular ironing is held in a slight incline, and the load on this area can lead to complications.
• Unfolded ironing rink occupies a fairly large area, but there are folding models that easily fit in the bottom drawer of the dresser or cabinet. In addition, such a unit is convenient to move around the room and unfolded due to the small wheels on which it is installed.

• The processing speed of even the highest mountain of clean linen is very high, and the efforts that the operator will spend are negligible. During the time that the regular ironing of one pillowcase takes, the roller skips 3-4 sheets or towels. At the same time, unlike the manual operation, the density and composition of the fabric practically do not affect the speed of work.
• Unlike conventional iron, which is easy to burn the skin of the body and especially the hands, the hot parts of the ironer are located inside the mechanism.The feed drum also has protection that reduces the risk of injury to almost zero.
• Such a large number of advantages over a conventional ironing board and iron, or a more modern, but not so fast steamer, leads to the fact that an increasing number of owners of even small city apartments prefer to make this expensive purchase.

All ironing rollers can be classified depending on the complexity of the mechanism, and they are divided into two large groups.

• First group Includes equipment with a heating plate located at the very top of the unit. Below to the hot plate is pressed roller, sheathed with heat-resistant material, which scrolls the sheet or towel on a hot surface.

• Second group - This is the so-called drying and ironing devices. In this case, the unit is equipped with a metal shaft that heats up and smoothes the laundry with a high temperature or steam. Since in this case the pillowcase or duvet cover is not pulled over the surface, but rolled at a soft angle of 300 degrees, the fabric wears less and remains softer.

On the same grounds, ironing rollers can be divided into:

• gutter;
• calender.

The design of the former includes one heating element and a groove or shaft through which the fabric is fed. Electric heating does not allow to dry clothes when ironing and requires a fabric, the humidity of which does not exceed 5-10%.

The second devices include two or more drums with electric and steam heating, which must be connected to exhaust ventilation to remove hot steam. In such skating rinks, you can simultaneously iron and dry laundry after washing machines. However, most often such devices are bulky and immobile, therefore they are installed in large laundries, and not in private houses and apartments.

Today, an increasing number of manufacturers of household appliances offer a range of products ironing rollers.

To choose a quality product that will last for many years and will be convenient to use, it is necessary to decide on several key parameters.

• Determine for what purpose the device is purchased. In the presence of a large number of common objects of the same type such a purchase will indeed be justified. If the number of complex products exceeds bed linen, towels and curtains in volume, then it is best to purchase a quality steamer or a good iron.
• Select the performance of the unit. The performance of the ironing rink is the number of things that it can process in 1 hour. Larger laundries and dry cleaners require higher-performance machines, and even the smallest ones are suitable for home use.

• Select the size of the rink. Before buying it is necessary to determine the installation location of the ironing unit and calculate the maximum allowable dimensions of the device. Most likely, its dimensions will be such that the sheet or duvet cover will have to be ironed, folded in half, otherwise the roller will occupy almost the entire wall.
• Additional functions. In the case when a dryer is installed in the house or apartment together with the washing machine, it is enough to buy the simplest rink without the drying function.
• Shaft diameter The larger diameter the shaft has, which heats up and smoothes the laundry, the better the result will be. In addition, the performance of the machine will increase significantly, since re-ironing is definitely not required.

• The clamp of the roller to a hot surface can be both manual, and automatic. In the first case, the operator himself regulates the force of pressing the linen, and in the second - it is adjusted automatically.Of course, the second option is more expensive, but the quality of ironing will be higher.
• The speed of the roller can be adjustable and constant. The first devices are much more expensive, but also much more convenient to use. Depending on the thickness, quality and moisture of the fabric, the speed of rotation of the feed shaft can be reduced or increased, thereby improving the smoothness of the product emerging from the roller.

Different types of products require different handling, but there are certain rules that fit any ironing machine.

Even on high-quality devices with additional drying of linen it is impossible to lay the fabric with which water flows down in streams. The percentage of moisture towels or curtains should not exceed 50.

During idle time of the car it is impossible to use it as a hanger or a support under other objects.

It is undesirable to run the roller idly, as this wears the surface of the rollers and contributes to the breakdown of the device.

Before ironing, the laundry itself must be dried (if using an ordinary roller), shake it slightly with your hands and carefully place it on the feeding roller. The product must be fully unfolded or folded in half, deep folds and creases must be hand straightened. You should not pull the corners of the product in different directions, and even more so try to pull the edge, which has already gone inside the rink. To the side of the heating panel or roller does not overheat, it is necessary to alternate the flow of large and small products. Proper operation of the ironing unit will allow it to serve much longer than the warranty period, while maintaining the original quality of the linen for a longer period.

See the following video for an overview of the ironer.