Travel Steamer

Travel steamers are a necessity when traveling unless you are going on a beach vacation where you spend 805 of your time in a  swimsuit. But when you are traveling for business, an event or even going out for a night on the town, you will want to have your clothing to be wrinkle-free.

I recently met up with a friend whom was visiting from Australia. He was going to be in San Francisco for a few days and one night we were planning on going out for a nice dinner and a night on the town. We had just spent the day shopping in Union Square and he found a quite lovely but very expensive shirt from Aldo’s. The shirt was $179.00. It was a nice long sleeved button up shirt. I ended up buying a strapless little black dress to wear out that evening as well.

We headed back to his hotel to get dressed for our evening out. We stopped at a department store to pick up a travel steamer in the small appliances department. He really wanted his new shirt and slacks to look fresh and crisp that night. He had picked out just a random hand-held steamer based on price alone. He had picked up the Jiffy Esteam steamer but put it back after seeing that the price tag was about twice as much as he had wanted to spend. He ended up purchasing the Smartek garment steamer.

The Smartek garment steamer produced very good results. He was the guinea pig and used the steamer on his new shirt.  I figured if the steamer is able to remove the wrinkles from his new $179.00 designer shirt, then certainly  I could entrust it to steam wrinkles from my $30.00 dress.  I was amazed at how effective this little travel clothes steamer was at removing wrinkles from my dress and leaving it look as I just pulled it off of the store rack rather than from being folded up in a shopping bag for over 3 hours. It was quick and easy to use too. Especially since this was both our first time to every use a clothes steamer.

Some other pretty neat features the Smartek travel steamer has is that it removes and deodorizes fabrics. It heats up quickly but it does not get too hot and it won’t scorch your garments. It is even delicate enough to use over beading and sequins.

This steamer also acts as a compact fabric steamer that can be used on your drapes, bedding and upholstery too.

The average customer review for this clothes steamer is outstanding with 4 1/2 stars on Amazon.

I will be writing about more travel steamers to come and I will be focusing on one particlar steamer, Jiffy Esteam travel steamer so stay tuned.

The Steam Buddy is a product that was introduced on TV infomercials by the late Billy Mays. It promises to be the fastest, easiest and safest way to remove wrinkles form your clothing. The TV infomercial says that the steam buddy can remove wrinkles from denim in just one pass.

It promises to heat up in seconds and removes wrinkles faster than lightening. Not only does the steam buddy remove wrinkles but it also promises to remove odors too.

At the need of the infomercial you are enticed by some added free bonuses of attachments that promise to give you razor sharp presses with your Steam buddy.

But does the Steam Buddy live up to its claims or is it a dud?

In our test the Steam Buddy couldn’t remove the wrinkles from a basic cotton button up shirt.
When Billy uses it in the TV ad, it looks as though the steamer is producing constant steam with a few energetic boosts of hot steam. Unfortunately, it does not heat up as quickly as it promises in the TV ad and there is no constant steam. The bursts of steam are extremely erratic and make the process of steaming your clothing quite time consuming. We also found that the “bursts” of steam will leak water and make a big mess.
It is not very compact in size to be considered a travel steamer.

Then there is the shipping and handling charge. Many people have complained that they were charged a sizable shipping and handling fee. We actually bought this from a local store and were able to return it without any hassle. If you really wish to buy and try this product, then buy it from your local drugstore although we feel that after one test you too will find this product to be a worthless appliance your home does not need. My suggestion is to just spend the money on a product that isn’t filled with hype but that actually works like the Jiffy Esteam travel steamer.