OMG!!! I have wanted a Mangel for years!! I am so happily jealous! Shirts? Doesn't the machine smash the arms, collars, lapels? I thought rotary irons are only for large or flat items..sheets, table clothes, cloth napkins.

Congratulations. I am very excited for you. I would be pulling sheets out of the linen closet left and right, just to use this awesome Miele contraption!!!

Congrats Livebetter! Enjoy your newest miele family member. I hate ironing, but one of those might make me change my mind.

Enjoy your new mangle! I always thought it would be fun to have one.

Larsi, I know me too!! I can't believe this one just fell in my lap and it really is practically brand new.

The lady who owned it did not have the Miele washer/dryer so said me having it would make the ironing so much better (since dryer has the rotary iron setting). Things press better when they are uniformly damp.

The first time I saw one was when the editor of Canadian House & Home magazine showed hers several years ago. I was in instant lust. She said she's used hers everyday for the last 10 years.

I'm obsessed with ironing. I love to have pressed sheets and tea towels but hate doing them with a hand iron. I own about 30 tea towels and I wash them all in one load so ironing them is a commitment. It will be so nice to sit and run them through while I watch HGTV (big smile).

As for shirts, apparently if you get the knack for it, it can be quite quick on the rotary iron (Miele says 3-4 minutes for a shirt and 2-4 minutes for a sheet).

Watch this video for Ironrite (it's funny). At around 8:10 she shows how to do a man's shirt. It looks like a few steps but I did two of my kids' shirts last night and they turned out pretty good. Considering I'd never done it before I think I could get the hang of it pretty quickly.

My husband irons his own dress shirts so would be thrilled if I started doing them on my new "toy" ... lol.

Miele also shows instructions in their operating manual and I found this quick guide on line:

http://mieleusa.com/manuals_pdf/Residential/Rotary_Irons/Quick_Guide_Rotary_Iron.pdf

I'm washing my son's sheets right now so hopefully I'll get a chance to take some photos of before and after pressing. I'll time how long it takes too.

Anyway, thanks for the well wishes. I knew my laundry "buddies" would appreciate it. My friends think I'm nuts. My one friend said if I start pressing underwear she's going to have me committed!!

Here is a link that might be useful: mangle - how to iron a dress shirt

Don't feel bad about your baseboards, because it's not your fault. It's just that Miele doesn't make a painting gizmo. Happy ironing. :)

Ha! @susanjn ... so true! Now I'll be too busy ironing to paint ... lol.

No, I REALLY need to get that done.

Here's a video showing the Pfaff steam roller press. She irons a dress shirt and other items.

Here is a link that might be useful: Pfaff Steam Roller Press

Just a few suggestions:

When I use my Ironrite I make sure I am sitting within easy arm's reach of several types of clean "parking spaces" for the freshly-pressed items

On smaller things like tea towels and table napkins, for speed, I use a small folding wooden drying rack to hang the just-ironed, but unfolded, items over. That way I can really rip right along.

For shirts, I have a lowered rolling hanging rack (like one of those portable coat racks, but altered so its top rail is reachable from a seated position.) I iron the shirt and slip a hanger in and hung it right up.

For large flat items like table cloths and sheets, I put down a clean drop cloth (made from old sheets) on floor underneath and beyond the mangle, so that the not-being-ironed portions cannot become soiled as the other sections are fed through the roller. (I also take off my shoes to keep large items clean.) FWIW, I never iron the items while folded as I think this rapidly breaks down the fibers along the folds. Each pass is over an unfolded section. It's an art developing your model of how to iron items wider than the bed of your roller without mucking up the previously ironed sections or gradually distorting the shape along the bias by successive passes of adjacent sections in the same direction. It's not as easy as I thought at first. You also need to be able to either stand up and fold after you're done with each large piece or have a really large flat resting place to collect them all until you're finished ironing. I do a sort of hybrid by loosely folding about half the folds right after ironing. After I'm done ironing altogether, and on a large flat folding table (with me standing,) I straighten the item and folds, smooth and square it up and complete the task to ready it for storage. For large linen tablecloths, I leave them completely unfolded as those are stored on large padded rolls. These days, my style of entertaining doesn't run to many parties with formal damask on the table. For that reason I prefer to keep linen tablecloths rolled in order to prevent the inevitable damage from long, folded storage and infrequent use. It also makes setting the table easier since I don't have to remove the fold creases just before use.

Have fun mangling things!(Pun intended, but you'll get the hang of it, I'm sure.)

L.

Forgot to add this tip:

For pillow cases: Iron the top 5-6 inches of the open hemmed area by sticking it over the end of the mangle as if it were a sleeve. Then shake out and square up the case before feeding it in leading with the opposite, closed end of the case. If you do it in the reverse (feed open end in first) it will get all twisted up at the far end. You can also skip ironing the hemmed end first and just feed the thing in from the closed end. It won't look as nice, but will still be OK.

I hang the just-ironed cases (without folding) over the same bar as the tea towels, napkins etc. In fact I do the cases first followed by ever smaller items so the stack stays unwrinkled until I'm done. A normal week here is about a dozen cases, 2-3 dozen naps, and about the same number of tea towels. I'm on a mission to eliminate all paper towels from my kitchen - and I hand wash everything w/o a DW.

If you've got your ironing and post-pressing area all set up right it takes just seconds to feed a nap or a tea towel through and go on to the next. The warm-up period seems to take longer, sometimes.

HTH,
L.

@liriodendron, kind of you to post your tips - thank you.

I realized today this thing isn't as press and go as one might think.

I did my youngest son's sheets today. Sorry no time to take pics and post but I can tell you they were the crispest sheets I ever put on a bed.

It's a set of sheets that is some extra work. The pillowcases have an envelope closure that is usually all funky after washing. The top sheet also has one of those creases along the top edge that make me crazy.

I ironed the pillowcase inside out first to smooth out the envelope closure part. Then turned them right side out and did pretty much what you had suggested above (before I read your comments so yay for me!). They turned out great.

I didn't iron the fitted sheet since I never do I wasn't going to start now. If you iron them, how do you do it?

I ironed the middle of the top sheet first and then folded the sheet in half, hung the folded side off the open end of the iron and ran the rest through twice (once on each side) - that way no creases.

The sheet wanted to twist and bunch up and do funky things so I had to watch it carefully and guide it more than I originally thought.

The end result was pure nirvana for me. I usually only press the top 12" or so of the top sheet so to have the whole thing pressed was ... delightful! Even all the edges that are usually bunched up were smooth and silky.

The sheets definitely feel nicer too. They feel very smooth and silky.

It didn't take very long to do and it didn't feel as difficult as trying to do it on a traditional ironing board.

I'm not sure I'll ever get handy enough to iron all kinds of things but for sheets, tea towels and dress shirts ... I think this will be great.

Last night I wasn't sure how to do the yoke part of the dress shirt but today I figured it out. I think I could already knock out a respectable dress shirt. I'm sure after doing another 20, I'll have it down pretty good.

My husbandâÂÂs dress shirts all have that pleat in the centre at the back (just under the yoke) - that's throwing me a little too. All the instructions I've seen are for shirts without that pleat. That's the only thing I'm hung up on for the shirts - wonder if anyone at Miele knows how to do it? Probably not ...

I read somewhere that someone thought the Miele iron was an energy hog ... I never thought about that ... I'll keep an eye on my electric bill and see if I notice a big jump.

I suppose it would make sense to do as much as possible once it's come to temp. Mine takes about 10 minutes to get hot - and it's pretty hot on the top setting.

I suspect the Miele mangle is an energy hog, but so is my Ironrite. Is yours one of the 220v ones or the newer 110v ones? The Ironrite I have is 110v.

However, hand steam irons, especially ones with enough moxie to take on line-dryed all-cotton and linen fabrics, aren't shy in the wattage department either. The trade-off I make is that for certain flat items like tea cloths, napkins, pillow cases, tablecloths, and to some degree, sheets (though truth be told I only iron sheets intended for guests as line-drying provides enough smoothness for me), etc., the Ironrite is so much faster that the I'm consuming fewer Kwh overall. This isn't true for fussy stuff, for instance, a ladies puff-sleeved blouse where you spend a lot of time just positioning the item and not so much time pressing. While all the time the elements are fired up and sucking down the watts.

For this reason I have stopped using a mangle on men's dress shirts. I find it's more time and cost effective to subdue newish, stiff ones with a flat bed steam press (like an Elna press), while older ones can be done in about 5 minutes using a very hot and heavy hand iron.

I only mangle about once every three weeks or so as I have oodles of linens. (They are my major weakness!) And it's a blast to blow through dozens of small items all at once.

L.

livebetter, I am sooooooooooo jealous!!!! I iron all my table cloths, tea towels, duvet covers, pillow cases, napkins, etc. so a mangle would be my dream come true ;-) I hope you really enjoy it!

Thanks izeve! I haven't done my tea towels yet - I'm looking forward to them since they take so long by hand.

It's also so nice to be sitting and not standing the whole time.

I've done 3 sets of sheets and they come out hotel crisp. I can't stop looking at and toucing the pillowcases - so smooth.

There really is a knack for using it so I'm still getting the hang of it. Each time I use it, I figure out a little something better to do. If you're not careful, you press a pretty sharp crease in.

I'll try and post some pics when I get a sec. It's quite impressive how smooth they come out the other end.

Keep your eye on CL. I've seen a few listed in the US for sale. I read that there is not much to go wrong on them (a heating plate and a motor). Mine was in practically brand new condition and it sure looked it.

It's gorgeous! I have been eyeing one for years. Congratulations on the coolest accessory ever!

Miele Germany have just launched a new 'ironing system' called Fashion Master. It's priced at 1200 euro!

Here is a link that might be useful: Miele Fashion Master

I want that!!! Gorgeous. And I was just relishing my new expensive Brabantia ironing board. Just shows me there is always another step up! It's not going to happen though :(.