Iron Temperature vs Setting

I suspect that consumer irons differ widely in the temperatures that they produce at any give setting (cotton, wool, etc.). I measured my Proctor Silex iron (made in the USA ca. 1986) using a thermocouple probe on my digital multi-meter. The first thing that I noted is that my iron has numbers that go to 6, but the plastic dial only turned until 5 before it reached a mechanical limit. It couldn't be turned to 6, and that made 5 my hottest setting.

When making measurements, I kept the thermocouple in contact through an entire temperature cycle to see the range of temperatures produced. The thermocouple was partially inserted into a steam hole and held in solid contact against the aluminum metal. My digital multi-meter read in degrees Celsius, and I converted the readings into degrees Fahrenheit for my purposes.

These numbers are graphed below:

If you are having problems with your iron, you might want to measure its temperature and compare it to the numbers shown above.

Bill Schneider
June 23, 2010

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