How to steam clothes:

The mechanics of standing garment steamers and handheld steamers

Garment steamers can provide a new wrinkle-free experience. In this article, we’ll share several tips and tricks on how you can achieve effortless crease removal from top to bottom.

#1  - Your garment steamer should touch your garments

To get the most wrinkles out of your clothes, you should hold the plate of your garment steamer against your clothes. If you’re worried this will result in burnt clothes and or wet spots, it’s good for you to know that the steam plates on Philips steamers are safe for clothing.  You can press them directly against any clothing item that needs steaming.

#2 - Use your non-fabric steamer hand to stretch your clothes

To achieve better results, you’ll need to stretch your garment while steaming.

#3 - Get support for cuffs and collars

The easiest way to get pesky wrinkles out of areas like cuffs and collars is to steam them horizontally, letting the underlying surface support your garment. You can do this using our Style Touch Pure and Steam & Go 2-in-1 portable fabric steamers.

If you have one of our standing, home garment steamers that come with an extra-long StyleBoard, you can use it as support when vertically steaming areas like collars and cuffs.

#4 - Keep your garment steamer’s hose straight

Your steamer works best if your hose is kink-free because kinks block the pathway of the steam.

#5 - Keep yourself upright: save your back and knees

We know you can’t completely avoid bending over, but you should steam at a comfortable height. If you have a standing garment steamer, this means adjusting it to a height where you can steam your entire garment without hurting your back.

If you have a handheld steamer, try to find something at a reasonable height to hang your hanger on. If you decided you’d prefer to steam horizontally and have one our Style Touch Pure or Steam & Go 2-in-1 handheld steamers, seek out a surface at an appropriate height so you can steam in comfort.

To further save your back and knees while steaming, some of our standing steamers have FlexHead technology, allowing you to easily reach the bottom of your clothes.

How to use a garment steamer for special fabrics

#1 – Put a brush on your garment steamer for thicker fabrics

If you have to steam thick garments like coats and jackets, we suggest using a brush accessory to knock out wrinkles from your clothes. It’s a good idea to use a brush on thicker fabrics because its bristles open up the fibres, allowing better steam penetration.

An added benefit to using the brush on items like coats and jackets is that it also easily removes dirt and lint.

#2 - How to steam delicates, pleats, prints, and embroidery

Do you have wrinkles in clothing items with pleats, prints, embroidery, ruffles and the like, and are wondering how to get the wrinkles of out them?

If you are, it’s easy.

Whether you’re using one of our portable steamers or a standing garment steamer, you can steam garments with prints, pleats, embroidery and the like the same way you steam any other garment. Just press the plate of your garment steamer against your garment and steam away!