Honest review of the Hot Steam Gravity Feed Steam Electric Iron SGB-600/SGB-900

I bought this iron back in 2015; although, I didn't get around to hanging it until late last year.  When I did finally unbox it, it didn't work.  I called customer service and they walked me through some diagnostics and when that failed, they shipped a new iron.  How's that for great customer service??

The iron presses very well, much better than my Rowenta.  It gets very, very hot and has a tremendous amount of steam.  However, it is like any other iron in that when I use it for extended periods of time, it will cool down and start spitting.  I was pressing large amounts of linen fabric when it started spitting and left a brown stain on my white linen.  Then I noticed the light had come on indicating that it was not at the correct temperature.


This is my setup.  Excuse my really stained press top.  It gets a lot of use!

If you plan on buying any type of gravity feed iron, I have a few tips:

First, see how the water tube and the electric cord are bound together with clips?  Those clips are supposed to keep them from getting tangled up.

That doesn't always work.  Why?

The water tube is hanging from the water reservoir from the ceiling.

While the cord is plugged in below. It's the gold outlet at the bottom of the picture.  I had my electrician install it before I put in the hard wood.  Sure wish I had taken a little closer shot.  But you get the idea.

If I could do this over again, I would have put my outlet in the ceiling next to where the reservoir hangs so they'd both be in the same place, and the cord is plenty long enough to do that.  They would still tangle a bit but not nearly as much. It is also easier to determine placement.  I laid out my room with tape before I laid the hardwood and got all the furniture placed.  That's hard to do when there is nothing else in the room.  If it were in the ceiling, it would make moving around my work table much easier.

Second, be absolutely certain you place the iron completely on the rubber mat.  If you don't, it will scorch the surface beneath.  I've made that mistake twice.

Third, this iron does not have an automatic shutoff and the light goes off when it's hot, not the other way around.  I like the no shutoff feature, so I don't have to wait for it to heat up again in between pressings.  Get in the habit of turning it off as soon as you know you won't need it anymore.  You can also put a note on your light switch or your door reminding you to turn it off when you leave the room.  Better yet, have your outlet connected to the switch, so you only have to turn the switch off to turn everything off.

Fourth, I do not like having to climb up on top of my table to turn the knob on my water reservoir when I need steam.  The instructions say to always turn the valve off when not in use.  So I climb up to turn it on and again when I turn it off.  It has to be 3 feet above the table, so I can't lower it.  I need some sort of pulley that I can lower it more easily.

All in all, this is a fantastic iron if you pay attention to the heat while using it.  It eliminates the need to have a boiler sitting on your table and getting in the way of your pressing.

Hope this helps if you are looking to buy a gravity feed iron.

Happy Tuesday!

Angela