So, first off this did not work. I followed all the set up instructions, and it would not steam. I followed the trouble shooting at the back of the book, it still would not steam. I unplugged it, set every thing back to off and asked someone else to try. It still would not steam. Other reviewers say this is a noisy iron. Mine made no noise at all, so basically my model was a dud!Besides the fact that my iron did not work, it is large and cumbersome. It takes 1.5l of water, instructions say it needs to be full before ironing, so the whole lot has to be traipsed into the kitchen to fill it. Then on finishing it must be emptied, so again the whole lot, including 2 sets of cables and an attached iron, need taking back to the kitchen to be tipped up and emptied. The iron I use at the moment is automatic, it has no temperature dial - it irons everything at the same setting, excellently. I found it annoying to have to start adjusting the ironing temperature and paying attention to fabric composition after a year of not needing to. The unit is very large, and with 1.5 litres of water, very heavy. So taking the cost into account, even if my model had not been faulty I doubt I would have given it more than 3 stars.

This is, on paper, a very powerful steam generator iron with a plethora of features to allow the user to get perfect results.However it's not a barrel of laughs to live with and does not perform in a way that pleased or impressed us. (Us being my wife and I)On the plus side, build quality appears very good. It's a very sturdy steam generator and looks and feels like it will last some time. A large 1.5l water resevoir is nice to see and it's easy enough to fill. In fact the build quality is bordering on industrial, this is really quite a substantial bit of kit, and will dominate your ironing board, likely being too large for many conventional iron rests. Personally, I think it's a bit too large for domestic use. And another issue with it is the noise. This is a power steam generator, and there's a pump which primes the pressure. So there are regular times when the pump needs to prime the pressure, a process we found annoyingly noisy.Already being the delighted owners of a Philips GC7619/20 PerfectCare, I am not convinced by the need for a more powerful steam generator for domestic use. The AEG may be well-made and generate a lot of steam, but there's a point beyond which additional steam just isn't needed. Throw in the regular "Thrum-thrum-thrum" of compressor noise, and you have a steam generator that is not a good fit for the average home.I've used an "industrial" steam generator when I volunteered in a charity shop and we needed to remove creases from hanging garments after they'd been scrunched up in donation bags, at that was a wide nozzle on a hose with a floor-based resevoir that you stroked down the hanging garments. That worked very well (if you were careful and didn't scald yourself) and introduced me to how effective steam is in removed creases.But despite the industrial look and feel of this AEG, it isn't really up to prolonged use, due to the need to wait for the Aeg to get up to temperature, something my wife is quite particular about.Ultimately, it's a well-made and quite fancy iron, but we didn't g

Based on appearance only, this product seems to fit the character of the well-respected German AEG brand of years past; but today, of course, AEG is only a name, bought years ago by Electrolux, the giant multinational, in the hope of cashing in on the goodwill that once went with it. This iron, like so many household appliances these days, is made in China rather than Germany. Is this why one has to carry out a variety of cleansing procedures prior to first use, one wonders ?It's 36 years since I bought the Rowenta steam iron I still use (with a few current models still looking very much like mine), but it should be pointed out that for the past 30 years, (a) I've lived in a soft water area, and (b) I've relegated weekly ironing to a thing of the past. Or even yearly ironing... This type of iron is therefore something entirely new to me; and the most significant thing which strikes me about it by far is its cost - and it's not the dearest of its type by any means.It's received a mixed reception from reviewers, and I particularly agree with the complaints about the awkward filling hole; I used a plastic funnel. I also notice that the maximum filling mark appears only on the left hand side of the container - unsympathetic to left-handers, therefore - and is in inconveniently small white letters on a light background. And whilst the advertising makes much of the "caressium" sole plate, appearance-wise, it looks like just another non-stick, teflon-style product. (I'm not sure this was the best choice of made-up name; I don't want my slacks caressed, I want them given a good old thumping for a knife-edge crease...) Aside from that, and those recommended cleansing procedures - which to me hint at inadequate quality control, inconsistent with the AEG of 50 years ago - I found it pleasant to use, and efficient in operation, with the convenient (for me) ability to use it at a considerably greater distance from the nearest wall socket than the conventional kind. What more does one want from an iron.BUT - it must sur

I found I was quite disappointed in this iron.For the cost I found it awkward, badly designed and just cumbersome from start to finish.On the plus side, Everything feels nice and sturdy and there's a fair bit of power behind the steam, although I did find the steam pressure tended to fluctuate quite a lot.First off when you get the iron you're supposed to flush out the tank, clean the ironing plate and then iron an old towel to get rid of any residue (and there was an awful lot of residue, to the point I was a bit nervous of ironing anything BUT an old towel). I found all this quite strange as the instructions also say that the unit will contain water left over from on-site testing. How they manage to test it and still leave it full of residue is a mystery to me.It's also worth mentioning that they recommend you use AEG AquaSense filtered water, or at the very least distilled water in the iron. I suspect both options would make ironing incredibly expensive.There is a built in cable tidy system, but I'm not sure what I was doing wrong as I still managed to have cables everywhere and every time i moved the device the cables would slip off and need an extra couple of arms to get under control before putting it back down.For me the final nail in the coffin was the cleaning. According to the instructions the unit will need to be de-scaled every 2 months. TO do this you have to mix a cleaning solution, turn the whole unit upside down, let the mixture soak for 1-2 hours, empty and then rinse several times before refilling with fresh water. Frankly that all sounds like far more work that is needed.I have used another steam generator iron before which didn't require several buttons to turn on and would tell you when it needed de-scaling which simply required filling with water, pushing a button and letting it clean itself, making this particular product feel like several steps backwards.