Philips Azur Steam GC4865

So happy I got this iron – I have been awaiting an iron for over a year got given this at our wedding and its an amazing iron. It works really well on all types of fabrics. The settings are easy to use and the steam settings allow me to use the steam to my advantage. Also like how light the iron is for easy moving and ironing.  Show details ·  1

Excellent Iron – I bought this a month ago and it is brilliant, just the right size, not too heavy, very good steam, narrow toe, smooth gliding etc. etc. It matches my black gloss kitchen too which is good..its a really great looking style. The electrical cord could be longer, but it is adequate (Why don't the manufacturers make them longer to iron in the lounge… Read more ·  1

when the cord is usually plugged in at ground level?). This is the best iron I've used, other than the steam generating ones with the big water units - I simply do not have the space to store one of those. Haven't used the decalcifying part yet but that is an added benefit. This is well worth the money, recommended.

Such good value for money – This iron is the best I have purchased - certainly better value than some more expensive irons I have bought. It is so easy to use and the best thing about it is it does not stick to any fabric or mark fabrics. Not having to use filtered water is also really convenient.  Show details ·  1

Average steam, super hot but steam isn't the best – Use this on all my shirts before heading off to work. It's easy to just pull out fill up with water and then plug in the power and iron but the steam dose not seem to come out of this unit as much as others my friends or famaly have. It also seems to take more time to get creses out  Show details

very good product – I was totally impressed by the product. Its really worth the price. very good product , it gives just professional finish to the cloths. Just keep in mind that it has 16AMP socket/power requirement which makes it unusable during power outages as gensets and inverters will not be supporting this iron.  Show details ·  1

Great Iron! – This iron is the perfect weight and supplies the right amount of heat. All of my past roommates have commented on it and even offered to buy it off me because they love how great it is! I've had it for almost 3 years now and it works like new! I love how quickly it heats up. Doesn't stain my clothes. Gets wrinkles out fast and easy. Would highly recommend this product to any young professionals!  Show details

Good staff – I bought this product for more than 5 years, and I still use it. I was suggested by one of my friends. And I bought it from Myer, it is a good quality and easy to use. It’s a small one and easy to store. Always help the big family!  Show details ·  1

Good – It's a good iron. I have been using this iron for 3 years now and no major problems so far . It never took long to heat up and very useful, safe and reliable. The only thing I found out is temperature control is not very accurate it should be more hot on cotton and is very low on silk.  Show details ·  2

Does the job – I purchased this iron about 6 months ago. It does what it is supposed to do. Glides over materials smoothly. Uses a lot of water, more than previous irons I’ve had. But otherwise it seems to be reasonably well made. I can’t say it is a joy to use as I hate ironing. ☹️ But that’s not the iron’s fault. That’s the fault of some swine in the past that invented the idea. Lol.  Show details ·  2

Good iron – Purchased this iron in Jan from Myer to replace an old Philips iron that we dropped. It heats up quickly and irons easily. It is heavier than the old iron but still lightweight and easy to handle. We don't use the steam function though. It has been reliable so far.  Show details ·  1

This is perfect – My wife and I we were looking for a new iron for almost a year we found this iron few months ago as soon as my wife and I saw this iron we were in love with it it is perfect the way it irons our clothing is unbelievable super we have been shopping for a iron for a while before we found this before we found this we have been everywhere but we… Read more ·  1

couldn’t find a perfect iron and now that we bought it we are not going to be wrong bragging about our new iron .

Pleased I lashed out on this iron considering the iron we had was still functioning,but it was truel – The iron itself is easy to use and the steam function works like a charm which make ironing jeans and more difficult iteams a dream.As I am pretty particular about my appearance it makes light work of virtually any item like delicates, jeans and the like the steam function rips through,good temperature control as well.  Show details

Great at ironing. Hasn’t given up on me! – I’ve had this iron for 2 years now and use it every weekend for our clothes. The weight is substantial enough to get clothes done with a single pass, while yet being comfortable to move around. The steam function is really good and doesn’t leak like cheap irons. I had to upgrade to this when I realised the $12 supermarket iron was more work… Read more ·  1

than it needed to be. Got this on sale at Harvey Norman and given it hasn’t died on me yet I think it’s recouped it’s value well.

I use normal tap water as per the owners manual and always drain it out after every use and leave the cap open so that the tank dries out. As per previous reviews I guess the electrics die out because of the water and corrosion inside the iron. Thankfully that hasn’t happened to me yet. The soleplate gets fantastically hot for cotton and the steam is really good for my suits and coats. I calc clean every three months to keep the iron clean from scale buildup inside.

The iron is easy to clean with a damp cloth. And the one time I dropped it while hot onto the carpet, I used the philips soleplate cleaner that made the soleplate good as new!

In the last 2 years of me using philips products I feel they’re very well designed and great value for me so far.

It was okay – I loved my iron when we first purchasee about 5 years ago.. unfortunatly it wasnt performing as it once did only a few months after. I was dissapointed but just made do since its ny 2nd philips iron i didnt quiet like. I did however use an iron o'ver a few weeks at my sewing class which was also a philips. Brilliant iron, never wrote down the model number  Show details ·  1

Seems like we all have the same problem with Philips irons! – I loved this iron! I spend alot of money on it and it was so great!.... Till it broke after 3 years. I only used it once a week. Seems to be a common fault for this model and all the other now 'discontinued' models mentioned above. The irons light flashes a few times, then goes off and the iron does not heat up. I rang the Philips Service… Read more

Centre who after reviewing my case, offered for me to take the iron to a service centre, all at my expense. Then if the fault was determined to be a manufacturing one, they would cover the cost of the parts but NOT the labour. When I spoke to the service centre after this offer, they could not tell me even an estimate of how much labour may cost.

I have declined this offer and will no longer be buying Philips products. From the many many pages on this site on this iron alone, I can safely say this is not an isolated incident. So I find it very sad that in this day and age, Philips have a life span on their products and add to the waste of this world....

I did love this iron, but I won't be investing in Philips again.

Dial has come off – This was an expensive iron. The dial has suddenly stopped turning and has come off. Unfortunately I didn't keep receipt as the place I bought it from said they would keep my details on file, and didn't. What to do. I have been unable to get it back on and am unable to use it. Very annoying.  Show details

Reliable and Worth Every Penny; Don't let User ignorance deter you – Used this since 2013, 3 hours a week. Reliable and has met its purpose of use. These qualities justified its cost at ~$100. However, it seems negative reviews are common. Flaws yet minor are often overemphasised to the point of nitpicking or due to ignorance. Some flaws include: - Temperature dial easily rotates and difficult to see. This is… Read more ·  1

true, but in reality, the dial is often used sparingly, even for regular users. Often, the dial left at a "go to setting", for me was max heat. It may be hard to see settings, but often turning on the room lights fixes this issue. Hence these flaws are no issue.

- Lights flashing and turning off; resulting in no heat. First off, two lights are visible; either flashing "red" or "orange". "Orange" means it is currently heating up and "red" refers to auto-stop. Auto-stop occurs after a few minutes, sometimes while it is being used. I believe the flaw related to the "red" light. This is easily rectified by resetting the iron at the power point. It does become annoying but I prefer a safety feature over a slight annoyance in design.

- Build-up of Calc excreted from the soleplate. This is inherent in many "steam" irons and in some cases if not controlled may stain clothes. The build up of Calc depends on tap water quality and both the use and maintenance of the iron. This issue can be rectified in many ways; including using demineralised water, purging the vents using the "burst steam trigger" and wiping off excess prior to ironing or "decalcing" the iron regularly (once a month).

In my experience the only issue I have had relating to the device and not due to the user is due to decent gliding abilities and its size. It is not the heaviest, but its weight in combination with decent gliding means on certain clothes if the heat is set to high, it can cause burning (burnt material can adhere to the soleplate and difficult to clean) and ironing around edges can result in folds. Cheaper irons often don't have this issue as much because they are usualy smaller, but at the same time not as powerful. Nevertheless, I will take a larger iron due to faster ironing speeds over a smaller one anyday.

very disappointing – I have been using this iron for about 6 months now, purchased it after my old Phillip's iron of 7 years died so did not research before buying this morning it refuses to heat up the auto off seems to be stuck on and when I checked the reviews ( I know a bit late) it seems this iron does that a lot unfortunately I cant find the receipt. Cant find… Read more

an iron with decent reviews either is this what happens when companies decide to go with cheap inferior overseas production not sure but I wont buy Phillip's again so very disappointed.

Absolute Rubbish – As per hundreds of other frustrated buyers of this product on the various review sites on the internet (Including Philips own website!!) my Iron has stopped working after a few years the same symptoms most people are posting - plug it in and the red LED flashes twice then the amber LED comes on but the iron never heats up. I bought this iron as a… Read more

"premium" brand product but what a disappointment. I contacted Philips and am awaiting a reply - I'm expecting they will do nothing as most people that have persisted with this process have posted they got no help. I don't understand how Philips can continue to sell this product when there is CLEARLY A DESIGN FLAW WITH IT!!!! I smile at the positive posts (I was a believer until this week too) - lets see what happens in after a couple of years when the inevitable happens! I'm going back to my $20 Tiffany iron that lasted 8 years!

Absolute Rubbish – Has the well known fault of going into stand-by while being used. Needs to be switched off and back on every two minutes. Rang 1300 363 391 but they are closed until 3rd January. Went to Kmart and bought a $12 steam iron. Does everything the Philips iron does, except it doesn't have the auto shut off "feature". Chucked the Philips iron in the bin. Waste of $79 that was!!!!  Show details

Very good – This is easily the best iron I have used. It heats to temp very quickly, the handle is comfortable to hold, temperature dial is not easy to knock like a sunbeam iron I previously had. I bought this iron after looking online at all of the available products as this had the highest rating of steam without going to a steam station. The iron… Read more ·  2

never sticks and glides beautifully over clothes and is well weighted to press out creases without needing to press down hard.

If there wasn't a constant drip from the little valve on the water filler lid I would have given it five stars. The constant drip runs down the handle and wets your hand, the ironing board and any garments you are working on. Not a deal breaker but very annoying.

Bad Product, stains clothes – We previously had a steam glide iron from Philips for over 2-3 years and that was working fine until it suddenly stopped working after the warranty period. So we decided to purchase another Philips iron. We ended up buying another steam glide plus iron GC4865 from Myer. It has now been about 1.5 months from new and the iron is now staining all… Read more

our clothes a brown colour and am not happy with this product at all, what can Philips do for me in terms of a refund or send the product back. I ran the product through a clean cycle and it did nothing to help. It's a terrible product and i shouldn't need to be changing irons every 2 months.

The iron that doesn't iron – This iron was difficult from the beginning. I was recommended to buy a Philips but it didn't take the creases out and mostly spat out water. Now it won't heat up, the light blinks and no heat. It is not used every week and looks brand new, but useless. Reading other people's reviews shows me I am not alone. I wonder whether there has been a marked change in quality control.  Show details

The worst iron I have ever used and owned!!! – From first use, this iron was not effective even though the recommended settings were used. The sole plate was covered in black stuff since the first use which I have been unable to remove. Very noisy iron. Temperature dial is very loose and can be accidentially adjusted easily. Waste of money.

Sadly two disappointments! – After owning a Phillips iron for many years I gave it to a friend who was in need of an iron but could not afford to purchase one. I then went and purchased two Phillips Azur irons in January 2014, thinking that they would be the same quality but sadly I was mistaken. The first iron died within a couple of months. As I was too busy to take it… Read more

back to the store I decided that I would flick it, thinking that it was an anomaly that would not be repeated in the second iron. However, my second iron has just died in the same manner. The AutoOff light comes on as soon as I plug the iron into a power point and stays on. The iron will not heat up at all..... I can understand if this fault was just a one-off, but to happen in two irons purchased at the same time leads me to think that Phillips Quality Control is slightly lacking! No more Phillips irons!

Excellent – I am really happy with this iron. The only negatives, the cord is way too short, and it would be better if it was lighter in weigh. Also reasonable on price.  Show reply

Good until it's short life ended – This was a great iron. Good steam feature, heated up quickly. It did short out the fuse box a lot. I bought it on the 25th October 2013, and alas it died today. It has a 2 year warranty and it stopped working after 2 years and 4 months. I was hoping for at least three years out of it. Cheers Philips. Off to buy yet another iron.

Ok but has its faults – Great iron while it worked. Got it on visa point about 4 years ago after a year it stopped working and the sole plate was replaced under warrenty. Unfortunately I have had nothing but issues since and Phillips customer service were unhelpful. The iron started to leave black streaks on clothing despite me cleaning the iron regularly including… Read more

the sole plate. Eventually the sole plate appeared to wear and get black marks on Its surface that would only come off with the white king iron cleaner and would reappear after a few times of use. I have ruined the last item of clothing and have replaced the iron. Buyer beware!!

Excellent iron – This is the best iron I have ever used. Not too heavy, smooth and easy to maneuver. The only other iron to equal this or better is a Philips older model purchased by my sister approx. 13 years ago and still performing well. This is what encouraged me to buy a Philips iron.  Show reply

Power Tripper - Possible Safety Issue – Not happy at all with the iron. It worked just for a little over 2 years warranty period, though it is not a cheap iron. It got a serious power tripping issue and a possible safety issue. I cannot afford to buy a new iron every two years. I use a $12 iron now and works a lot better than this iron. I will never ever buy a Philips iron.

Disappointing – I am very disappointed with the Philips Azur Steam Iron. The temperature options are black and the dial and arrow are black making it very difficult to see if you have selected the right temperature option. The steam is very noisy when you sit the iron back on its heel. The steam control sticks when changing the steam options.

Loved it while it lasted – Loved this iron! Just brilliant. Best iron ever - great weight, doesn't drip, switches off when I'm not using it. Love the Phillips brand too. I bought it in June, 2013. It died less than a month after the 2 year warranty expired, last week! (July 2015). I've never had an iron die on me before, let alone after 2 years. Am totally unhappy as now I have to buy a new one after just 2 years of basic use. Not happy.

Good performer but ran out of puff earlier than reasonably expected! – A Philips iron fan for a number of years, I bought the Philips GC4865 at Target for a bargain $79 in February last year (2014). As the man of the house (with the girls' permission to say so) and 2 years national service behind me, I have always ironed for our family of 4, which includes 2 teenagers in high school. So business and school shirts are… Read more ·  5

a big component of the weekly ironing chore, usually dealt with whilst watching the footy on TV. Denim trousers and cargo pants and an assortment of T-shirts and polo shirts account for the bulk of the remainder of the workload.

The iron performed really well from the outset. However, filling could be made a lot easier if a funnel were positioned at the nose of the iron below the spray nozzle and the connected to the water tank. The iron could then stand vertically on its own, allowing it to be filled with one hand and to be able to watch the water level in the water tank simultaneously. he power cord could be another 500mm longer, which would avoid the need to use an extension. It heated up really quickly, being ready to use by the time I'd set up the ironing board and arranged the first garment to be ironed. All the necessary controls for heat level, steam volume, spray activation and calci. cleaning are easily accessible during operation and worked as required. A tip to those reviewers who have experienced rapid depletion of their water tank's contents: flick the Steam Volume switch to "0" as soon as you stop ironing to reposition the garment or once the creases start to disappear and complete the "pressing" process with the setting on "0", drying out the steam already dispensed into the material and using less water. It's easy enough to just flick the Steam Volume to the desired level again when you recommence ironing the next section of the garment using steam. My weekly ironing session requires 2 or 3 refills, which I consider reasonable. And the steam stops as soon as the Steam Volume is set to "0" and all is quiet once more - so none of the noise others complained about. I do agree with other reviewers who found the dial for setting the heat level tended to be easily inadvertently moved by my thumb (whilst ironing right handed) and I'd find the iron refusing to steam because the heat level was set at half the necessary level for steam. The weight of the iron was fine for me and easily sorted out any creases in the fabric. I gave any resistant creases (e.g. in cargo shorts' waists where the garment had been spin dried and left in the washing machine for a day or more - oops!) a blast from the spray nozzle to supplement the steam already applied and that would do the trick without having to apply any more downward pressure on the iron. Occasionally a particularly thin shirt button would get stuck in the gap between the metal base plate and the plastic moulding in the nose of the iron, usually when I was ironing too vigorously and/or lost concentration on the ironing when something dramatic was happening in the footy - which was annoying (the iron getting stuck, not the footy), but this was not frequent enough to be an issue. I have had no issues with leaks. I occasionally would overfill the tank and the overflowing water would run all over the iron, but nothing untoward ever happened, other than a lot of hissing and I'd disappear into a cloud of steam momentarily.

The auto-cutout is a great feature for the absent minded, such as me. On a number of occasions I've returned home from a day's work following an uncompleted ironing session the previous evening, to find the iron dutifully ready, powered on but ice cold, thanks to it being smart enough to switch itself off after a predetermined amount of time or whatever other algorithm it uses. I believe the calc-clean system works as I tend to give it a couple of blasts before and after each ironing session. Sometimes a get some grubby bits of grit blown out onto the cleaning cloth I place about20cm below the iron when performing the calci-clean, but I have never had any deposits or grit emitted from the steam holes whilst ironing and the steam holes are perfectly clean after 15 months of fairly heavy use. The soleplate is also still mostly clean, showing only a slight brown stain in the centre, starting from just behind the front steam holes for about half the length of the sole plate. I suspect however that the root cause may be ironing over some cheap T-shirt screenprint or lettering done in a kind of plastic material, rather than turning the T-shirt inside out before ironing - guilty as charged, boss! I never experienced any of the "water spotting" mentioned in other reviews.

So, in summary, I have an iron that

+ heats quickly

+ switches off automatically if not used

+ irons my fairly heavy ironing load really well

+ is the right weight for me

+ cleans itself

+ doesn't drop calcium deposits on my ironing

but

- occasionally the thermostat dial catches my thumb and I inadvertently set the iron too cold to steam

- the water tank filler design could be better to allow single handed filling

- could do with a slightly longer power cord.

So it's a great iron. EXCEPT...it packed up after 15 months! Yep, "it stopped short, never to go again..." after only 15 months. Which is a little sad for a product designed in Holland, where it is claimed that "If it ain't Dutch it ain't much!" So perhaps the issue lies with the Indonesian manufacturing or wherever the bit of sealed electronics is made (I suspect the thermostat has given up the ghost). But whatever it is, I did expect my elegantly designed Philips Azur iron to last for about 3 years, or 2 at least. So I'm a little disappointed at having to prematurely despatch my Philips to the great junkyard in the sky - or more realistically, make a premature contribution to the great landfill and fall short of my green aspirations.

So I ask our Philips product representatives' opinion: What is the expected working life of a premium product like the Philips GC4865 Azure iron and am I justified at being disappointed?

Kind regards,

Michael.