The Deneve portable garment steamer looks like the ideal utility item for a traveler.
It sells itself as both conveniently small and powerful. Added to which, its low price definitely grabs attention.
Who wouldn’t want a cheap hand-sized steamer with a lot of oomph behind it? Let’s see if this little engine really could.
Deneve Portable Garment Steamer
Initial Impressions
The Deneve portable garment steamer looks like a little electric kettle.
It has a transparent window so you can see the water tank fill level against the recommended water level.
It comes with a hook on a suction cup you use to hang up the garment that needs work.
The suction cup needs to be used on a very smooth surface such as a mirror if you don’t want it to fall off.
Overall Design
There’s an on/off switch for manually controlling the steam, which is nice.
The 9-foot power cord is sufficiently long for some maneuverability.
This garment steamer is made to be light and easy to hold up while steaming, but doesn’t feel or look cheap.
Functionality
Once you fill up the Deneve, you just need to wait a couple of minutes.
The 7-ounce water tank gives you about 10 minutes of steam time, which is pretty good. It also keeps the garment steamer pretty light as 7 ounces isn’t that much to lift.
Ideally, you’ll want to wear a heat-resistant glove on the hand holding the garment to be steamed.
Note that, contrary to the description, you should not use tap water. Distilled water will avoid mineral stains on fabric if some water should drip out.
More importantly, using distilled water avoids clogging from mineral buildup—which eventually shortens the lifespan of your garment steamer.
Pros
- The Deneve portable garment steamer is indeed powerful and produces a lot of steam. It effectively gets big and small wrinkles out of a wide variety of fabrics, from wool to silk to cotton. The heavier fabrics will take a longer time to do, though—up to half an hour each.
- It has an automatic shut-off function to keep the steamer from overheating or running dry.
- Quick preparation—lives up to the advertised 2 minutes.
- Small and lightweight. Great for taking on trips!
- Main components are easy to use. Fill up the water, flip on the switch. No need to fiddle with adjusting temperatures and whatnot.
Cons
- The Deneve portable garment steamer will bubble over and spit hot water for the first 30 seconds if you fill it up to the recommended water level (and of course, if you fill it up above the line). It behaves itself if you fill it up to about an inch below the line, or less if you’re not sure. (The description does say fill up to 1cm below the line, but not everyone reads that, based on the number of upset customers who complain about the hot water spitting.) The recommended water level line definitely needs to be tweaked at the factory.
- No instructions are included on how to use it. Pretty small nit to pick, since most of it is easy to figure out.
- You can’t tilt it more than 45 degrees forward (not without spillage, anyway). Keep this in mind if you’re buying it for fabric items that can’t be hung up on a hanger (such as a large crocheted project).
- If you run out of your 10 minutes of water and need to refill its water tank, you’ll need to wait for it to cool down completely and start over. Otherwise, water comes out instead of steam. This can be a lengthy process if you want to use the steamer on a lot of clothes. It’s really aimed at quick blasts – one shirt you’re going to wear to work that day. Not your whole wardrobe.
Final Verdict
The Deneve portable garment steamer makes a terrific traveling companion.
It’s small and light enough to tote along in your luggage, and powerful enough to get even the most frightening travel wrinkles out of your clothes (and you didn’t have to pay the hotel to iron them). Added to which, the price is right!
The cons aren’t a big issue, especially now that you’ve been forewarned about the recommended water level line.
Perhaps the only common remaining annoyance is the refilling and having to wait for it to cool down before heating up again, but this is helped somewhat by the quick 2-minute heating.
This pint-sized powerhouse is a great buy that does the job, and is worth every penny.