The Ivation 1500-Watt Powerful Valet Fabric & Garment Steamer touts 4 levels of steam and impressive power. And as we all know, with great power comes great responsibility.
Let’s see how it lives up to its ambitious name.
Ivation 1500-Watt
Initial Impressions
The Ivation comes with a bit of assembly required. The plastic feels rather cheap, and the water tank comes as two separate pieces.
The stand is made of telescoping tubes, and is rather alarmingly flimsy.
It comes with a fabric brush.
Overall Design
It’s basically a stand on wheels with a hose attached. The manufacturer was rather stingy when measuring out height and length for the stand, hose, and cord. More on this in the cons section.
Despite the ‘set in place and forget’ convenience advertised for the hanger hook, it actually isn’t that convenient.
Something you’ll feel the lack of is a stationary hanger to keep the clothes still (they do squirm around trying to escape the hot steam).
The problem with using a hook is that the hanger jiggles loosely on it, swinging the garment every which way while you’re steaming.
Functionality
The most interesting function is the 4 levels of steam power it offers.
Level 1: 300 watts, about 7 hours and 20 minutes of steaming time on a full water tank, meant for delicate garments with few wrinkles.
Level 2: 600 watts, about 3 hours of steaming time on a full water tank, meant for thinner garments with a few wrinkles.
Level 3: 900 watts, about 1 hour 45 minutes of steaming time on a full water tank, meant for medium fabric such as shirts.
Level 4: 1500 watts, about 1 hour 13 minutes of steaming time on a full water tank, meant for heavy fabric and larger garments such as business suits.
The fabric brush is rather disappointing compared to the ones included with pricier models, such as the Rowenta. This is to be expected, I suppose.
Pros
- As noted above, the Ivation garment steamer has 4 levels of steam intensity. This is 3 more than the its competitors on the market usually offer. It’s a nice degree of customizability for those stubborn wrinkles that just won’t budge. Now you can adjust your level of steam for the size of wrinkles and density of fabric!
- Fast heating—about half a minute waiting time for it to start steaming.
- Decent-sized water tank lets you steam several garments before it needs refilling. It’s also detachable and easy to refill.
- Powerful and effective at its job. The steam production is strong enough to get most wrinkles out with the first pass.
Cons
- There seems to be a lot of material shortage going on with the Ivation Powerful Valet fabric & garment steamer.
- 1The cord is short. You’ll need to use this with an extension cord, or stay close to an electrical outlet.
- 2The stand is short. At its tallest, the hanger hook will be at 4 feet 9 inches off the ground. If you’re 5 feet tall, you’ll be able to steam your garment on the stand with the greatest of comfort (or at least, without getting a backache from constant hunching over). Taller than that? You may need to keep stopping to rest your back.
- 3The hose is short. Also ensuring you can’t hang your garment up elsewhere on a higher spot to steam it more comfortably. Instead, you’ll have to continue in your hunched-over position until you’re done.
- The Ivation garment steamer’s produces steam inconsistently, sputtering like an old car on its last legs.
- Apart from sputtering steam, it also randomly spits hot water instead of steam. You’ll want to do your steaming in the bathroom for easy cleanup after.
- Assembly is a bit tricky, and instruction sheet is confusing. The steam hose doesn’t quite fit properly in its slot, causing some worry over leakage. (Fortunately, it doesn’t seem to leak through that slot.)
- The instruction sheet says you can order optional accessories such as a crease tool, but going on the manufacturer’s website doesn’t actually give you any source from which to purchase them.
Final Verdict
The Ivation 1500-Watt Powerful Valet Fabric & Garment Steamer does live up to its promise of power. It steams out the wrinkles on your garments, and has 4 levels of steam intensity to pick from.
There are various quality of life issues, however. Short cord, short stand, and short hose may prove constant little irritations to you, depending on your height and being able to find an appropriate location for your steaming.
The random spitting of hot water can also be unpleasant, though that’s fairly normal.
All in all, the Ivation garment steamer isn’t bad for the price. It delivers on its name, which not every product can do.
You’ll just have to make up your mind as to whether you can live with the annoyances that come with it.
Read also: Ivation 1500-Watt HandHeld Steamer Review