Steam generator iron depositing brown gunk

majicka

Hi there,

I have a Morphy Richards Power Steam Elite steam generator iron, which is almost two years old and has been depositing brown gunk onto my shirts for the past month, or so.

I've tried filling it with a combination of white vinegar and water and holding down the 'steam' button to clear it out, but still have not had any joy.

It has in the past descaled itself, but I don't think there is an option to make the iron perform the clean.

I fill my iron with de-iodised water, so am a little unsure why this is happening now. I don't want to throw away an iron which cost well over £100 and is not that old, but neither can I use one which is leaving brown marks on my clothes.

Any tips for fixing this problem would be really appreciated!

Thanks

shaun_from_Africa

majicka wrote: »

Hi there,

I have a Morphy Richards Power Steam Elite steam generator iron, which is almost two years old

Provided that you registered the iron when buying it, it should be covered by a 2 year warranty.
If it is, you should contact MR and explain the problem (pointing out that you have only ever used deionised water).
It sounds as if an internal part of the iron may have started rusting hence the brown colour.

majicka

shaun_from_Africa wrote: »

Provided that you registered the iron when buying it, it should be covered by a 2 year warranty.
If it is, you should contact MR and explain the problem (pointing out that you have only ever used deionised water).
It sounds as if an internal part of the iron may have started rusting hence the brown colour.

Thanks for your response. That might be a problem, as I'm not sure I did. I seem to recall the Morphy Richard's web address listed on the manual not working, and me trying to ring their helpline to register it and never getting through to anyone, which annoyed me at the time.

Oh well, if I have to buy a new iron I suppose I'll have to make sure it isn't Morphy Richards.

ComicGeek

If you look on the underside of the iron, does it have limescale residue around the nozzles? I have to clean ours regularly to remove this, normally with just a baby wipe.

Do you also undo the bottom of the generator with the key provided, and empty and rinse out inside? I have to do ours every month or so as part of the descale cycle - ours might be a cheaper model as I certainly didn't pay over £100 for i, but there must be a way of emptying it out completely.

I also thought that they don't recommend using 100% deionised water - my manual says to use 50% tap water.

majicka

@ComicGeek - thanks for your reply.

'If you look on the underside of the iron, does it have limescale residue around the nozzles? I have to clean ours regularly to remove this, normally with just a baby wipe'

No, there's no limescale residue, though there is some residue of the aforementioned brown gunk, which I have to clean off.

'Do you also undo the bottom of the generator with the key provided, and empty and rinse out inside? I have to do ours every month or so as part of the descale cycle - ours might be a cheaper model as I certainly didn't pay over £100 for i, but there must be a way of emptying it out completely'

I've had a look, and this particular iron doesn't seem to have that feature- no idea why. I saw a Youtube video by another manufacturer ( Tefal, I think) who did just that, and it looked useful. I don't think there is any way of doing that with this iron, which seems odd, as it wasn't a cheap one. There is no mention in the manual of how to do this.

'I also thought that they don't recommend using 100% deionised water - my manual says to use 50% tap water.'

Yeah, I only discovered this when googling the problem that I'm currently having. I just went off what my friend told me, and never checked the manual. I don't know if it did contribute to it, or not.

ComicGeek

Ours is a Morphy Richards model as well, but there is a nut on the underside of the steam generator unit that can be undone and the tank completely emptied manually - this is also where it can be rinsed out as part of the manual descaling cycle.

If yours is an auto descaling model then I guess you wouldn't have this. In my opinion this is an expensive feature which doesn't help at all. It's also possible that the use of the white vinegar has made this worse, particularly if you can't manually rinse out the steam generator unit as above - this isn't recommended for cleaning steam generator irons, and I've ruined one a couple of years ago by doing just this!

Its worth contacting Morphy Richards and seeing what they can do - just don't mention the 100% deionised water or white vinegar, it might be a common problem they have with the auto clean function.

majicka

ComicGeek wrote: »

Ours is a Morphy Richards model as well, but there is a nut on the underside of the steam generator unit that can be undone and the tank completely emptied manually - this is also where it can be rinsed out as part of the manual descaling cycle.

If yours is an auto descaling model then I guess you wouldn't have this. In my opinion this is an expensive feature which doesn't help at all. It's also possible that the use of the white vinegar has made this worse, particularly if you can't manually rinse out the steam generator unit as above - this isn't recommended for cleaning steam generator irons, and I've ruined one a couple of years ago by doing just this!

Its worth contacting Morphy Richards and seeing what they can do - just don't mention the 100% deionised water or white vinegar, it might be a common problem they have with the auto clean function.

Thanks once again. Yes, mine is an auto-descaling one, which would explain why it isn't accessible.

I'll contact Morphy Richards and see what they say.

VancleVector

Why not call the factory for help?