How to clean your iron

This is my Rowenta iron. It's got a nasty build up of burnt fabric and strips of no sew adhesive on it. In this condition it is useless but I am not about to buy a new one. There was no scraping this stuff off so how do I clean it?

I found this Hot Iron Cleaner at Bed Bath and Beyond and thought I'd give it a whirl. 

Following the directions on the package I heated a dry iron to the cotton setting. Next I took an old towel and squeezed the contents of one tube onto the towel. 

I then took the iron and rubbed it in a circular motion on the Hot Iron cleaner and the burnt build up started to come off. The directions said I might need more than one application so I repeated with the other tube and more came off. Unfortunately there was still residue left on the iron and I was out of the cleaner. 

This is the iron after two attempts to clean it with the Hot Iron Cleaner.

Now what should I do. I had two choices.I could either go buy another package of iron cleaner or I could try Google to find a solution. I found a few websites that said I could clean the iron with baking soda and/or vinegar. This method was a little different as it required a cool iron. After letting the iron cool for about 45 minutes I put some baking soda on a damp towel and rub it on the iron.

Good news as even more came off, but still not all.

Then I tried the vinegar and baking soda solution and still more came off. In fact I was able to get off about 99% of the burnt residue. 

Awesome. So now I am ready to iron right? Wrong. I turned the iron on and then this happened. It's the baking soda that got pushed into the holes of the iron. Now I have another mess. 

To clean this new mess I added water to the iron because I needed steam to help push out the baking soda. My word, how much baking soda did I use? I continued to iron on a clean towel and eventually was able to remove most of the residue. I tried ironing with it and she is working like a dream again. The real test will be trying to iron my dark jeans. I'll have to get back to you on that one.

Almost as good as new. 

Here are a few things I learned.

1.  The hot iron cleaner works well but depending on the mount of burnt on gook it can take 3 or 4 applications to get it all off. It's a little expensive, but there's very little mess.

2.  The baking soda or baking soda/vinegar combo works very well and is much cheaper. Only problem is that it leaves a big mess on the iron and on the ironing board cover so beware.

3.  Take better care not to burn the fabric on the iron. Mistakes happens so if you have an accident clean it right away. You'll find it's both cheaper and less messy to clean a little than a lot.

Happy ironing.