Price: $22.95
Topics:
- Normal use
- Breaking the rules
- Bang for your buck
Bang for your buck:
After testing this product for a few weeks, it occurred to us that there are many more products that are very similar to this one (in that they create steam for a specific purpuse). With this in mind, we wondered if this clothing steamer could be used for other various steaming tasks. Of the several possibilities that immediately came to mind (steam bath, humidifier, vegetable steamer, etc.), one of them seemed like it would rate slightly higher on the fun scale.
Intrigued by the vegetable steamer idea, we decided to test our theory. Why would you buy a vegetable steamer if you could just as easily convert your clothing steamer to do the same job? The core component of both of these is a heating element - the only difference is where/how the steam is delivered.
As long as you can come up with a way to deliver the steam to the vegetables, then the clothing steamer will become an effective vegetable steamer. Utilizing a pot and a steam tray, we were able to come up with the following rig to steam our vegetables.
With the steam tray resting nicely on the steamer head and the handle of a pot (which was, conveniently, the exact height needed), our vegetable steam test could commence. For this test, we chose frozen corn as our gourmet clothing steamer cuisine.
With everything in place and the steamer in the "on" position, the corn appeared to be cooking.
How did this test end? Approximately 1 hour and 3 refills later, the corn was finally cooked. Although this technique actually did steam the vegetables, you could probably find several more efficient methods. You might be tempted to ask: this method could be useful in an emergency, right? Yes... that is if your emergencies usually involve the loss of virtually all heat sources except for your Emerson Steamer... which happens to be powered by some form of electricity that is always available during emergencies.
Summarize:
Although this steamer may not be the best solution for your dinner, it is definitely a decent choice for your laundry. It gets a good score for being versatile, portable, and convenient. The one area where it falls short is that it can't compete with the crispness that you might be used to with an iron. Depending on your preference, the convenience factor may be enough to convince you even if it does fall short of an iron. Based on the varying utility of both appliances, we're convinced that any household would make good use of this appliance while still using the old iron from time to time.
VERDICT: RECOMMENDED
but... don't toss your iron... or your vegetable steamer
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