Philips 9100 Series GC9140

The best iron I have ever had! Auto Calc Clean is fantastic! – Steaming capability excellent. Water capacity is very good and it glides very well. The best thing is Auto Calc Clean which is absolutely superb; no need to clean manually any more! I've had this iron for many years and I'm worried that one day it will need replacing. Even though it says it's been discontinued, I would like to know if there's any way I can still get one or whether Philips produce a nearly identical one with the same Auto Calc Clean function.

Irons well but water tank cracked – This iron did a good job for the first two years of its life. Just after the two year warranty expired the water tank developed some cracks and it started leaking terribly and damaged our floor. Not happy.

Overpriced poor quality product – As a steam iron it performs like any iron, it steams nicely to do a good ironing job though a good quality steam iron without the tank attached is only a quarter of this price. The self cleaning works nicely but Sydney has clean water so not a real issue. It has a 1.8mtr supply hose permanently attached, I frequently snag and fall short of length because it is rather stiff but on the upside of this it is very sturdy, little chance of pulling it apart. It only has a paltry 50 cm power cord, so an extension cord connection is always very close to water, safety issue here. This is important because it leaks. The self cleaning valve is constantly bubbling even though the cleaning cycle is not activated. It does this in the overflow tank but there is no overflow alert on this unit probably because it is not supposed to leak permanently, so it overflows if you are not constantly aware. It took us a year back and forth to Phillips to have the auto heat switch working. At one stage they lost the unit and refused to take responsibility. When after weeks it was found, the unit appeared to work finally. Then the leaking started. meanwhile out of warranty and Phillips doesn't want to know. Phillips used to be top notch...not anymore... Auto "power off" switch if you forget it Pricey, Poor quality, extremely poor customer service by Phillips Customer center in Sydney

Great Product! Very happy with the product – The iron is light to pick up, easy to setup and use, and effective. Crinkles and creases just disappeared. We had a good iron before this purchase, but with a $100 online cash-back being offered by Philips we couldn't refuse the upgrade. We made sure though that we timed it with reduced prices during the sales, as the regular price of $599 is a bit steep. With the reduction and cash-back it ended up costing us $299. Couldn't get any better deals online, surprisingly.

The iron and unit are appealing. There are some weird colours for the older models, but the 9100 series is a nice sleek white and grey. Looks and feels well made.

There is also an auto Calc-Clean function on it. All you need to do is empty the water in the compartment when it beeps at you. Haven't had it happen yet but looks really easy and fuss free.

Has an eco feature which appealed to me. I use it on this setting.

The tank is super easy to fill up from the tap, and clicks out of the unit, and back in, nicely.

Final thing is I did one lot of ironing and it only used half the tank... I was so surprised as I thought it would chew through water like a normal iron. This was also a nice surprise.

When shopping around you will notice that there are a lot of older models being heavily reduced. We only found the 9100 series in Bing Lee, who had it at a very competitive price. We did a lot of shopping around and were quite surprised at the lack of variety in some places. Iron takes normal tap water so fussing with demineralised water is now a wonderful thing of the past. Effective and efficient ironing. The iron itself is light and there is a mat you can pull out of the unit which sits on your ironing board to rest the hot iron on. Easy to use and very effective appliance. Expensive if you aren't thrifty and do not shop around. Probably wouldn't have paid the full $599.

May not be perfect, but definitely a worthwhile purchase – Usage: I don’t have to iron for a family, but still prefer to have nicely pressed clothes for the office. I generally iron my business shirts and pants, and if I’m in the mood some other casual wear. Time since purchase: approximately 6 months. Comments: - There is a boot up time, of a few minutes. This does make me feel less inclined to iron whatever I need in the morning for that day, and iron during the weekend for the week ahead.

- Definitely makes ironing much easier. Ironing business shirts, 1 pass over an area is usually sufficient, but 1-2 passes is more than enough.

- Ironing time is reduced, possibly by30% - though majority of the time is taken up by aligning and prepping the clothes for ironing, the actual ironing process is probably 50%. So when they say it cuts ironing time in half, it probably is true, but that’s excluding the time needed to prepare the clothes on the ironing board before actually ironing the piece.

- The automatic decalc system is there to remove the built up of limescale from elements in tap water. I’ve been using demineralised water (so there shouldn’t be any build up of limescale), but the decalc system still activates. I believe the system activates after a number of uses.

- The retractable power cord is nice, but sometimes gets stuck when attempting to retract the cord. Solution is just to simply extend, and reattempt to retract the cord.

- The steam cord to the iron gets twisted quite easily, due to its stiffness. Would’ve been nice if there were cord joins at either end, to allow free movement.

- I’m slightly concerned over the quality of plastics used in this unit. They appear slightly cheap, and feel like they may crack accidentally – this is in comparison to other steam stations. Softer and more flexible plastics would’ve been preferable, especially in the water reservoir.

- Both power and steam cord are of reasonable length.

- I prefer using the steam station on Max steam and silk temperature – temperature is just enough to prevent dampness, and the steam does all the work. I first attempted to use Eco mode, but found for some reason it wasn’t sufficient to my liking. Even using high, it seems to use a similar amount of water.

- I enjoy the station unit, and it provides a relatively safe area to rest my iron during ironing.

- Works fine with tap water too.

- No scratches or damage has appeared on the sole plate.

- Ironing does require a breathable ironing board. I’ve been using the tiny Ikea ironing board, and it’s been great.

- Has an auto power off and alarm system. And alarms when there is more water required.

- Has made ironing rather enjoyable at times.

- Rather expensive at the recommended retail price, but purchased it on sale for $399. During this time Philips were offering a $100 cashback.

- I have to praise Philips on their cashback turn around. It took only 6 days in total to get the cashback. Other companies I've had cashback schemes take months. Delivered everything it promised. Expensive (but worth the money).