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Philips PerfectCare Elite Plus GC9681/80
- 14 reviews
- 5 likes
- PerfectCare Elite Plus GC9681/80
- Verified
Failed after just 2 yrs - took out our power to the house - dangerous!
We bought this black and gold perfectcare iron as an upgrade to our previous Perfect Care iron that was the base model $199 - it lasted about 5 yrs so I thought the TOP OF The RANGE Black and gold model would keep us going for at least 10 yrs...at least!
Wrong! After only 2 yrs of working, this week it shorted out. A $600 iron gone after only 2 yrs.
I will be contacting the Australia Consumer Law and the ACCC if Philips doesn't contact me.
After the appalling experience we had getting a simple CashBack offer when purchasing this iron, I can'...
Read moret begin to imagine the hassle Philips will put up having to deal with a refund or exchange. I can't in good faith recommend this iron to anyone as the company have been less than ideal to deal with up till now. I just want a product to work and if it doesn't then I want the company to deal with customers in a timely manner. Maybe it's a timing thing with Covid shutdowns and people working from home? Who knows? As a customer I just would like to have a pleasant easy experience with aftersales service. Please play nice Philips. Update - writing this review has apparently had the desired result.Purchased in October 2018 at Appliances Online for $546.
Hi Helsey,
thank you for leaving this update. We're once again sorry to hear that your experience with our consumer care was not as positive as it should've been. We value your feedback and will tak...
Read moree note of how this situation was handled. Nevertheless, we are glad that the issue was resolved and that your iron is working normally again. For further questions, please feel free to contact our Product Team on 1300 363 391 (Monday - Friday: 09:00 am - 05:00 pm EST). They’ll be more than happy to help.
- 5 reviews
- 7 likes
Worked well when working. Stopped working within a year. Dealing with Phillips and service repairer has been terrible. I have had similar delonghi irons before that lasted for years and years. Save your money as despite the price tag you do not get better quality or service.
Purchased in December 2019 at David Jones Retail Stores for $440.
Thank you for your feedback about our Steam generator iron, Yvonne. We're very sorry to hear this appliance is acting up and you didn't have a good experience with our Customer Care. This must be quit...
Read moree inconvenient for you. If you have not done so already and still have the appliance, we recommend descaling the device. Should you have any questions, please feel free to contact our colleagues again with these numbers: 0800 658 224 from Monday - Friday: 09:00 am - 05:00 pm EST (NZ) or 1300 363 391 from Monday - Friday: 09:00 am - 05:00 pm EST (AU). They are happy to look into this. Kind regards, The Philips Australia Team
The device was descaled by the repairer. The descale/decal. Light has not been on. Worked for half an hour after getting it back from the repairer. Phillips tell me they have emailed the repairer. Eve...
Read morery 2nd day I receive a whatsapp or text message from phillips customer care asking me to respond yes as they have an update. Respond yes get the generic message back stating thank you for contacting Phillips an agent will get back to you then nothing until I again get asked to respond yes. Totally ridiculous. Did not spend nearly$500 on an iron to be without one for over a month and for it not to even last 12 months.Thank you for getting back to us, Yvonne. We're sorry to hear the troubleshooting did not help and our Customer Care did not give you a proper update. Allow us to take a closer look. Do you have a ref...
Read moreerence number for us? This should start with 60 but any information you can give us is very helpful to look into your situation. Kind regards, The Philips Australia Team
- 6 reviews
- 3 likes
Hi, I have just ordered and will pick up today the GC9681/80 so should be able to offer an "unpaid real review" for those who worry about "paid reviews. Currently use a Laurastar system I've had for nearly 12 years and just need to replace the filler cap, happy to compare bothe systems will be using the Laura Star board which is designed for this type of application. Have used 4 stars but will balance out with final appraisal soon. Cheers, Oatley Park
Purchased in February 2020 at Bing Lee Physical store for $540.
- 5 reviews
- 24 likes
What a flop
The reviews on here must all be fake, this iron is a complete flop. The iron simply does not get anywhere near hot enough to work as an iron, this results in having to take 5 times as long to iron a dress shirt and does half the job. It seems nothing I do enables me to remove most wrinkles after multiple passes yet a $20 Target special removes them first pass. Who cares about being able to put an iron down without burning your cloths, you have the stand right next to you anyways and makes the feature pointless if the iron never get...
Read mores hot enough to do what it was made for which is "ironing out wrinkles". Also you have to spend a few extra minutes at the start to run the steam through the iron away from shirts to get any moisture out of the steam and get the steam generator actually running at full speed. Iron does not do the most important thing about ironing which is removing wrinkles.....waste of money and Phillips customer care can't even tell me what temp the iron plate should get too.....uselessPurchased in May 2019 for $599.
Hi there,
We're sad to see that the iron has been causing such a disappointment, that's of course not what we set out to achieve. You mentioned that you've been in contact with our colleagues earlier...
Read more, what did they say? If the unit is faulty, we should be able to offer you help to sort out any defect and make sure you have a working unit. We feel there might be something we're missing here, so we'd suggest reaching out to our colleagues again on 1300 363 391 (AU), or
Well your online colleagues were complete waste of time and just wanted to send me into the store to have them do a warranty return at the stores discretion but could not tell me what they would check...
Read more or how they would determine if it was faulty or just poor design nor could they tell me what temp the heat plate should get to. They also told me there was a temperature control and just need to turn it up, but of course this model does not have a temp control. The problem with this phillips model comes from the fact the heat plate does not get hot enough, its max temp is 140*C and when you add steam this temp drops to 100*C instantly and then drops to 90*C within a few seconds of use. This results in wrinkles not coming out after multiple passes, the steam also is very moist/wet as a result of the heat plate being so low in temp and results in drops of water coming out here and there and the cloths being left damp from the moist steam. The design is simply poor, without the ability to raise the temperature of the heat plate high enough to iron cotton (above 200*C) and to keep the steam dry the iron is never going to work well. There is simply no way the positive reviews up around the place for this iron are true, you cannot iron a business shirt that is part synthetic let alone a cotton T-shirt.Also product review needs to do something to clean up this section, the current rating is made up of paid reviews and clearly a number of "users" who are the same person, just look at their identical ...
Read morereview history (Vlahos, EVA, Kat, Dylan, Sally, Bernie) the rest are all "Ambassadors" which means paid review and should be deleted as they are clearly lying about this product to the point where the ACCC should be notified. SHAMEFUL behaviour Phillips!
Find out how Philips PerfectCare Elite Plus GC9681/80 compares to other Irons & Steam Generators
Know better, choose better.
- 37 reviews
- 8 likes
This product was provided for review but I will absolutely give my fair reviews as with other products.
Summary –
It is a pretty good investment if you have a bunch of clothing that cost more than $100-$200 each. You want to protect those.
Quite a foolproof iron that does what it says. No whites marks, no shines, no burns and a sheep load of steam.
Small but thoughtful designs here and there. Made the whole experience better.
Main cons are price and size.
Long meticulous details as follows.-
...
Hi there,
Thank you very much for writing your review. We appreciate it that you’ve taken the time to write down your pro’s and con’s . To us it’s very helpful to know what our customers like and d...
Read moreon’t like about the PerfectCare Elite Plus. Also, it’s very helpful to our (future) clients if they like to know more about the product. Thank you again and we hope that you’ll have a great day!Review collected in partnership with Philips Domestic Appliances
- 28 reviews
- 14 likes
This iron really is a pleasure to use, the ironing plate is sleek and lightweight and practically glides over fabrics when ironing. The fact that you don't have to worry about changing temps for different fabrics or even lifting it off them if you walk away from the board makes it extremely user friendly for those who just don't love ironing that much. I was actually a little wary of just leaving it sitting on clothes and walking away, but I tested this multiple times when managing my two toddlers at the same time as doing the ironing, and nope...
Read more, no burns at all! It was also nice to switch between light and heavy fabrics without having to stop and wait for the iron to heat up again, or cool down after. The only time I had an issue ironing something with this was when I used it for iron on labels and found that on certain fabrics it just wasn't getting hot enough to melt the label on properly, so they've started coming off in the wash. Not a huge issue and not something most people would have to worry about (other than mums of kids at daycare/school) but was a little annoying that I'll have to hold onto my old iron for these. I did also find when turning on the auto steam feature that there would be a little bit of water on the clothes when first turned on, but didn't have this issue when manually pressing the steam on, so not sure what's happening there. While the iron itself is just lovely and lightweight, the base is really big and clunky looking. Set up was fine as it fits on a larger ironing board with plenty of room, or the cord is long enough that you could even put the base on a table near the board, but I found storage a bit of a pain as I have a small house with limited cupboard space to pack it away in. It definitely takes up a lot more room than your standard iron. I also found packing away the cables a bit fiddly. There are little compartments on the side where you have to fold them up and kind of stuff them in. The power cable isn't so bad, but the water hose is one of those things that I think is going to end up going in the 'too hard' basket and getting left out when packing away in the future. I found myself wishing they had some kind of retractable system, like my vacuum cleaner cable. In summary - Pros: Irons like a dream, smooth, lightweight and fast!Review collected in partnership with Philips Domestic Appliances
- 28 reviews
- 12 likes
Quite frankly, I hate ironing! I can't remember the last time I ironed, but I couldn't wait for this to arrive so that I could give it a go. I've had this for a few weeks now. In the interest of transparency it was sent to me for the purpose of providing a review with no expectations around whether this review be positive or negative. Myself, my husband and my mother in law have all given this iron a good go and overall we think it is fantastic. More details below:
Negatives:
- My first negative about the product was how big it is. Once w...
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- 27 reviews
- 17 likes
Nice and light, Does a good job on tougher fabrics
The Elite plus consists of a larger base station which holds a couple of liters of water, and the smaller hand piece which is connected by a not so insignificant cord.
The water jug is removable which makes it easy to fill, and its also easy to see how much water you have left, none the less the machine beeps when its run out or getting low.
The base station takes a minute or so to heat up, and beeps when your ready to iron.
From there, you have the option via a couple of buttons on the hand piece to run the steam in automatic mode, o...
Read morer in manual mode. On automatic, the hand-piece delivers a good amount of steam as you move the hand piece about, via some sort of motion sensor, or some kind of black magic. There is no temperature setting at all, which seemed weird at first. but you soon realise that the iron relies on the steam, not the temp to do most of the heavy un-wrinkling.Hi there, thank you so much for your review. We really appreciate you taking the time to write down your experiences with the iron. You have helped others make their decision and you have helped us as...
Read more well. Of course, your feedback in regards to the glove is noticed. :) Kind regards, The Philips Australia TeamReview collected in partnership with Philips Domestic Appliances
Questions & Answers
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Get an answer from our members and Philips Domestic Appliances representatives
Details
| Category | Irons & Steam Generators |
|---|---|
| Price (RRP) | $486.00 |
| Features | Auto Shut Off, Detachable Tank and Vertical Steam |
| Cordless | No |
| Steam Generator | Yes |
| Water Tank Capacity | 1,800 ml |
| Cord Length | 2 m |
| Steam Output | 150 g/min |
| Power | 2,400 W |
| Weight | 5.1 kg |
| Manufacturer Warranty | 2 year(s) |
| Colour / Finish | White |
- GTIN13: 8710103853596
- MPN: GC9681/80
Other Irons & Steam Generators
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ation: Philips PerfectCare Elite Plus GC9681/80
Read moreFailed after just 2 yrs - took out our power to the house - dangerous! by HelsyG123 on 7 Aug 2021 We bought this black and gold perfectcare iron as an upgrade to our previous Perfect Care iron that was the base model $199 - it lasted about 5 yrs so I thought the TOP OF The RANGE Black and gold model would keep us going for at least 10 yrs...at least! Wrong! After only 2 yrs of working, this week it shorted out. A $600 iron gone after only 2 yrs. I will be contacting the Australia Consumer Law and the ACCC if Philips doesn't contact me. After the appalling experience we had getting a simple CashBack offer when purchasing this iron, I can't begin to imagine the hassle Philips will put up having to deal with a refund or exchange. I can't in good faith recommend this iron to anyone as the company have been less than ideal to deal with up till now. I just want a product to work and if it doesn't then I want the company to deal with customers in a timely manner. Maybe it's a timing thing with Covid shutdowns and people working from home? Who knows? As a customer I just would like to have a pleasant easy experience with aftersales service. Please play nice Philips. Philips Philips S. PHILIPS 1 month ago Hi there, Helsy. Thank you for taking the time to write to us. We're sorry to hear about your experience with our colleagues and would like to offer you proper assistance. In regards to your iron, we of course would like to see how we can assist you further and see what the options are. We'd like to refer you to our product team for more information. You can reach them directly on 1300 363 391 (Australia), or 0800 658 224 (New Zealand) from Mondays to Saturdays: 7:00 am - 7:00 pm EST. They'll be happy to help. Kind regards, The Philips Australia Team HelsyG123 HelsyG123 1 month ago I called Philips this afternoon after not hearing from them for a week, I spoke to Bryan from Philips and he was wonderful over the phone. Much better than any I have had interactions with in the past. He has spoken with his supervisor and has sent a postage paid package out to my address so that the iron can be looked at and assessed under warranty for me. I am hoping that the rest of the experience is seamless and stressfree from here on in. I'll keep you updated. HelsyG123 HelsyG123 1 month ago Hi Philips, It all looked like it was progressing but now I am waiting to hear back on where I need to send the Faulty Philips Iron for it to be assessed so that we can get a new one sent out. It isn't a very old appliance and I really need this sorted asap. A high end iron as this one is marketed as should have a working life of at least 6 years according to the Australian Consumer Law, 2 years just doesn't cut it Philips. Hoping I hear from a representative soon... HelsyG123 HelsyG123 1 month ago I called today and the issue is that Australia Post is having trouble with printing out the returns form? It was very difficult to hear the actual issue on the phone as the line was very poor (sounded offshore), but I have been asked to call back on Monday to see if the returns form will be ready. Still waiting, surely a new iron could just be sent out in the meantime... just sayin' HelsyG123 HelsyG123 4 weeks ago Iron has been sent to the repairer today. It is about a 2-3 week turnaround process, so if you have an iron fail you will be without it for at least a month or two depending on your individual processing of claim. Philips Philips S. PHILIPS 4 weeks ago Thank you for sharing your experience, Helsey. We hope that your iron will be repaired as soon as possible! Kind regards, The Philips Australia Team HelsyG123 HelsyG123 2 weeks ago Still waiting for an iron to be fixed or delivered. It's been sent to the repairer, but not sure what is happening yet. Apparently a part has been sourced? Still without an iron, not good form. Philips Philips S. PHILIPS 2 weeks ago Hi Helsy, we are sorry to hear that you are still waiting to get your iron repaired. It shouldn't take that long, we apologize for the incovenience. Have you reached out to the provided number again? They will be able to give you more information on the status of your repair and eventually offer you an alternative solution if you don't want to wait any longer. Let us know. HelsyG123 HelsyG123 3 minutes ago Final update. Iron is repaired and is back in my ironing room and working as it always has. Hopefully this review has helped another customer having trouble reaching a Philips representative. Product review 'mediation' was one way of getting someone to answer my emails and queries. Facebook Messenger was also helpful and seemed like I was speaking with an actual person. Action proceeded quickly after writing this review here... Maybe Philips should help more in the first place before people like me get frustrated and decide to write 'reviews' to get some type of action. The iron was able to be revived and hopefully it will live a full life before anything else goes wrong with it. (it is the top of the perfectcare iron product line) I did NOT receive a new device, the power outage issue wasn't the end of the working life - so it is now a known fault of this product.Philips
HelsyG123...