When I iron my clothes they smell really bad, please help

Question

I've just got back from holiday and decided to iron some of my clothes. There was some water in there already so I didn't think I'd need to change the water, so I went ahead and ironed my clothes. The stench coming out of the iron was unbearable! Whats going on??

Answer 1

apparently the water was no good! I once had a big spider crawl out of the water reservoir while I was ironing. Maybe something crawled in there and died and made the water all smelly. Just wash your clothes right away and rinse out the iron really well. After rinsing it and refilling it I would turn it on steam for a little while and make sure the smell is gone before using it again.  

Answer 2

It's just stale, foreign water. It happened to me when I got back from spain, I had to throw away the iron. A lot of countries abroad have very unclean water and so only use bottled.

My advice would be to wash your clothes with a good amount of fabric conditioner and soap-powder and throw away that iron! If there has been white powdery stuff coming out, then it is fit for the bin!

Answer 3

Obviously the water left in your steam iron has gone stale and stagnent smelling...or possibly there is still soap residew in the clothing, that will do it also.

Answer 4

Sounds like your water turned in your iron.

Try to use either distilled water in your iron, or empty it out after use.  

Other things that can happen..you have hard water.  Eventually it spits out white stuff on your clothes.

How to get rid of it to make your iron operable?  I'm not entirely certain.  We usually buy cheap irons.  

On your clothes...you'll likely need to wash them.

Answer 5

You should periodically clean your iron. I would suggest using white vinegar.  

Answer 6

To avoid this problem, just spay your clothes with water when they are wrinkled. That is what I do and I have never ironed a day in my life!