Honey, Do! Clean My Jiffy Steamers

This weekend, John helped me with redoing three sponge bars on old machines, and also, with fixing up my two  Jiffy Steamers.

The Jiffy Steamer is the gadget of choice for blocking knits.  It's a standing garment steamer with a pole for holding a hanger.  Not only do I use it for knits, I use it for just about any fabric else that's wrinkled.  You throw a dress shirt on a hanger and hang it on the pole, steam it a bit, and all the wrinkles vanish. 

My iron and ironing board are usually lonesome and unneeded in the closet.  

My Jiffy Steamer has a plastic head on the end of the hose - I've heard that there is also a metal head available, but it gets extremely hot.

I managed to acquire a second steamer with the purchase of a machine a while back.  I'm going to sell one of them at the Austin seminar swap meet, if I can.  I don't need the duplicate.

John pointed out that there are cleaning and maintenance instructions at the Jiffy Steamer website.  My steamer would have been much steamier if I'd followed the simple instructions, to empty and change the water about every ten days.  I didn't do that, but John cleaned the steamer thoroughly.  With a little vinegar and patience, you will see a huge increase in the amount of steam it's putting out. 

Now that John has done his magic, the steamer is shooting out so much steam that I'll have to be careful not to oversteam my knits! 

I have also promised to behave and always use distilled water in the steamer.  And of course, never, never let it steam until it's dry.