Philips Azur Steam GC4855

I tried really hard to love this iron – I really have wanted to love this iron but cannot. I have really hated ironing using this and the pile just gets bigger I have put up with the dripping and the poor performance for 5 years. Time now to change brands and buy a better iron. Maybe now I will stop procrastinating on the ironing.  Show details

Taking it back – My Azure 4855 is only three hours old. Can't even iron a shirt before auto shut off activates. Half way through one sleeve and it shuts down. Seriously not happy. Back to Harvey Norman it goes. Ironing is not that complicated. Will buy another brand. Disappointed to say the least.  Show details

Biggest waste of money EVER!!! – Bought this Azur to replace my Azur 1000 (which I absolutely loved) and this was the biggest waste of $130!! Not only does it not iron work shirts properly, it has melted so many of my clothes even on a low setting. I contacted the company via their contact page on their website to let them know as I registered the iron when I bought it and I… Read more

didn't hear a thing from them. Such bad customer service and not impressed with the brand at all anymore.

Terrible - Nothing but problems - TWICE – First one returned after 4 weeks - stopped working, water catchment door wouldn't close properly, Confirmed FAULTY. Second one, stopped working AGAIN, after 8 weeks, light flashes when plugged in but won't heat. It also dips water from the base - VERY DISAPPOINTED. THIS ONE IS GOING BACK TOO. WONT BUY AGAIN!

Almost glad it is ready for the bin! – I don't know why I have put up with this iron as long as i have. Purchased about 18 months ago, it has been terrible from the start. I have ironed just about every item with the temperature dial set as high as it can go, and also with the steam permanently set on the highest setting. Despite the high settings, i have had to iron cotton t-… Read more

shirts, pillowcases, jeans and just about everything else, front and back twice, sometimes three times over and still the gine wrinkles remain - barely anything looks as if it has been ironed properly which is very disappointing considering the extensive time taken to iron each item. On top of that, it is unable to produce very much steam, and can't produce any once the water level gets to about a quarter, so many refills are required for an average basket of ironing. Finally, last week, a massive leak appeared - water running all over the ironing board, running down the power cord, and puddling at my feet - dangerous and frustrating. I was left with no choice but to dry iron, which produced an even worse result than with steam. I am off today to buy a replacement iron, and it will definitely not be a Philips. I will go back to Braun which I should have bought instead of this "paperweight".

Not a great iron – Unbelievable ! this iron shorts the fuse box like carazy............ Shorted it tonight and couldn't get my power back on for 25 min all because of this stupid iron. Worked ok according to my wife when we first bought it and then it started to leave marks on the clothes and I had to clean it for her several times with all typed of cleaning… Read more

cloths and solutions as not to damage the surface.

We have had 2 Tefal iron's which were garbage and 1 Phillips iron ,and this was in the space of 5 years (ridiculous as we really look after our appliances .

Can anyone tell me which iron to buy next as I just don't know anymore....

Great little iron ! – I've had this iron now for one year and four months- and it's still a perfect iron. Easy to use, easy to fill and does what it's supposed to do. I only ever use steam, and this performs 10 out of 10 in that department (does use a lot of water so I need to re fill + if doing a lot of ironing) When I first bought this, I though the cap to the… Read more ·  1

water fill was a tad flimsy and would possibly break within a few months, and it did not seem to "click" when closed, well, it's been fine and is obviously sturdier than it looks. Also, I experienced some "spitting" and thought the water fill cap was not closing properly, but that settled within a couple of weeks so it may have been me not selecting the correct combination of heat + level of steam.

Overall, a brilliant everyday iron that performs exceptionally well, and I would re purchase a Philips iron any time.

Not a good design – I used this for a few months and couldn't put up with the water leaking and dripping down the handle. As mentioned to water filling is poor design. The weight and soleplate were good but the temperature control was average. Ended up contacting Philips and arranged to take it back, got a Tefal and it is so much better.

Frustration over reheating – I have always used Sunbeam irons and decided to have a change with the Phillips Azur GC4855. I could not stand the heat up process which starts almost as soon as you use the iron, it takes some time then to come back to the set temperature.I put the iron in the cupboard and used the old one again, trying the Phillips again now and it will go back… Read more

in the cupboard! Frustrating. Filling it is a pain and I have overfilled it twice, can't see when it is full. All in all I found it very disappointing.

This iron works well. A happy workhorse – This iron works well. We are ironing clothes faster than our last iron. It was reasonably priced. That’s exactly what we wanted. If you want lots more detail, read more. There are so many to choose from, some info really helps. This is a GC4855. Get the right model! We had to replace our Sunbeam Verve middle of the range iron, which served us… Read more ·  4

well for many years. It started to overheat uncontrollably over a fortnight (and burnt some clothes) and then stopped working altogether. We only iron for a household of 5. I am a bloke and do not find a need to iron delicates. My wife does and has had no issues. Just business shirts, shorts and jeans/trousers for me. That’s our perspective. We were prepared to spend from $25 to $150 as long as we got an iron that worked and lasted longer than a week.

The Philips irons better and faster than the Sunbeam. It has slightly bigger surface area and a better steam method. The cord is shorter at only about 2.5 metres but still reaches OK for us. An extension cord isn’t a drama but it’s nice not to need one. The iron is about the same weight as the Sunbeam and both of us find it fine. Heavy enough to work and light enough to not tire out wrists (I’m not worried but the wife is a tad more petite than me).

It has all the features the Sunbeam had (auto cut off is a must) except the Sunbeam used to beep if it was ignored for a while and that was useful. Not a big issue overall for us.

The controls all fall easily to hand and generally do not cause or have problems, except for the heat dial. The “maximum” setting is on the left side of the dial, while the Sunbeam was on the right. Our right-handed grip means our index finger often bumps the control knob pushing the temp dial up. I like to iron at the 97% setting but my finger kept bumping it up to 100%. Did I really notice? No. If it really bugged me or I was always bumping up from a lower say, 80% setting, then I’d tape it. It’s only a problem above 75% or your finger won’t hit it, so I’ll mention it but it isn’t even close to a serious issue for us.

The water usage on steam setting has been mentioned and I wished I’d never read it. I never thought about it before and I still don’t care with this iron. You fill it up when it is empty. Simple. If it needed refilling every shirt, I’d notice and I would have a bigger water jug nearby. I get 4 shirts per fill on steam, but it irons so much faster than the old one (which probably used a little less water, I never bothered to care!) that I am fine with whatever water it uses. I only mention our experience in case it is a deal breaker for someone. The water hole is easy to fill with the superb provided filler cup. I’ve never cared about these before either, but this one has a duck beak spout which makes standard ones look brain dead. Also one cup measures one exact fill. I would normally fill straight from our laundry long neck tap and this iron handles that like any average iron. It’s easy to see how much water is in it.

The long pointy nose for poking around buttons etc is good, not spectacular. The steam pressure is much better than our Sunbeam but it doesn’t take the wrinkles out any faster, or slower for that matter.

Noise – yes, it was very noisy at first. But seems to have settled down. If you want whisper quiet ironing then this one on steam isn’t it. It will gurgle occasionally when standing it back up. Again if I hadn’t read about it I may not have cared but it is there, and if that is a deal breaker than be aware of it. It may be just loud enough, the odd times it does it, to wake a very lightly sleeping infant, if you iron near your baby (I mean really near). Our kids are grown up so I can’t test that! Does it bother us? Not at all. Zero. Just mentioning it.

Heat up time – wow. Flogs the Sunbeam. If you need to iron in a hurry every morning get a 2400w iron! Full heat in close to the time it takes to get your first shirt ready on the board. I never timed the old one but this one has made us blink. Most new 2400w irons would do the same I suppose. It has changed the way I iron. If I am walking away for any length of time I turn it off. It holds its heat well, and doesn’t chew much getting back to full temp. I don’t leave any electrical device on if it isn’t being used, and this iron let’s me do that, even though we iron off our solar panels anyway (the excess goes back to the grid for someone else to use instead). Why would I walk away half way through ironing? You don’t live in a household of 5 or more then!

Water spotting – yes it leaves water spots, I’d say averages 2-8 drops every 2nd shirt ironed. Again, care factor for me is zero. But it was mentioned in other iron reviews and I report it here. Does it stuff up my ironing? No. Is it a river? No. Just run the iron over any spot(s) again if you want. It is still faster by far than our old iron even if you did bother.

Overall – a good workhorse. Better than our previous good iron. We bought this for $81 at Harvey Norman in May 2014.

How long have we had this iron? Two days!! Isn’t it too soon to review? No. We had to catch up on 2 weeks of ironing over the weekend because our old iron died slowly and we did dribs and drabs till it failed totally. That would have been hours and hours of ironing with the Sunbeam. It was way less with this one, so I have no hesitation in posting a review. Hands down a winner. I’ll try to do a reliability/usability follow up in 3-6 months, because this website has been very helpful to us.

I hope this helps. Simple. Good weight, long enough cord, auto cutout, finishes ironing faster than our old iron. Quick heat up time.

Okay – I picked this model over the bulky steam-reserve irons and it's heavy next-gen brother, but I have to say I'm a little bit disappointed. Compared to our 10-year-old previous iron, there's not that much more bang for your buck. For the steam to have any real added benefit, it needs to be on 4/5, which depletes the reservoir quite quickly (3… Read more

shirts/refill). The creases also don't fall out as well as I would expect for the price point and recommendations. Price, weight, power steam No off button, wrinkle-removing ability

Had to take up weight lifting to use this iron – Thought I was purchasing a great iron, but after trying to iron with it for more than 15 minutes, my arm starts to ache. The grooved sides of the iron which are supposed to help you get small spaces, keeps catching on the garment and creases it again. Always seem to be having to refill it. Dislike it immensly NIce looking iron Too heavy, having to refill more than normal, and catches on the clothes you are trying to iron.

An iron that works! – Great iron, bought it before I read the other neg feedback below. It is nice and solid, has a really long cord and absolutely pumps out the steam. So much that you often need to refill it, however I don't mind as the payoff is that it works really well. I absolutely HATE light irons, they are next to useless to actually iron, and this one if… Read more ·  3

not light, so if you are really small or have weak arms you might want to think twice, but for me I love it. I was sick to death of buying irons that didnt work or you had to press really hard to iron properly.

Highly recommend this one. Works well, heaps of steam, long cord, nice and heavy, and irons very very well. Have not had any issues with non stick base (been about 3 months).

Also has a nice deep lip which allows you to iron perfectly around buttons. Irons really well, heaps of steam, long cord. Gurgles and steams on idle, and you need to refill water tank regularly, but who cares, it works!

Would be perfect if it didn't drip – Bought this iron based on all these great reviews because my old Sunbeam kept cutting out the power in the house. Yes the iron glides beautifully and makes lots of steam but it drips water on your clothes all the time while ironing and leaks water too. The lid for the water compartment doesn't close properly either. Returned it straight away and… Read more

bought the Tefal Express Easy Control which was on sale for $299 at Myer and haven't looked back. steam, easy glide drips and leaks water, noisy, poor quality water lid

Makes ironing an ease – Bought this iron based on reviews here and wasn't disappointed. Glides effortlessly across shirts which for me is the litmus test and is reasonably priced. Steam power is great as it gets into the shirt removing creases easily. It is quite loud at times and on occasion makes a crackling sound but this doesn't bother me. Steam power