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- Six preset modes
- Auto-steam pulse
- Eco function
- Expensive
- Light is hard to see
- Control knob feels flimsy
If you hate ironing, it might seem counter-intuitive to invest in a steam generator iron but it can pay dividends by slicing your workload in half. One such iron is the Polti La Vaporella XT120C steam generator: it’s so packed with features to reduce ironing time that you may only need one pass to blitz creases.
Designed – and crucially, made in – Italy, La Vaporella’s innovations include a curvy soleplate with a double ceramic coating for reduced friction, an 8.5 bar pressure boiler and a 15-bar pump for less effort when removing creases. There’s also an automatic steam pulse, so there’s no need to hold a trigger down.
Unlike irons that have settings of one, two or three dots, here, there are presets tailored to different fabrics, such as silk and cotton, so there’s no temperature guesswork. Turbo is the one to break out for the most stubborn creases, while an eco mode allows you to iron using less energy and water.
The only real downside is the cost: while it isn’t alone at being at the upper end of the affordability scale, it’s from a brand that may not be your go-to. However, if you’re buying a steam generator iron with a view to spending much less time ironing, then the Polti La Vaporella XT120C could be worth every penny.
Polti La Vaporella XT120C review: What do you get for the money?
At £400 from Polti this is a super-premium stem generator iron, but there’s a lot packed into the La Vaporella XT120C. All in with the base it weighs 5.4kg and comprises a 1.5l removable water tank, a powerful up to 8.5-bar boiler and water cord storage. Despite the whole thing measuring 24 x 37.5 x 31cm (WDH), the iron itself is fairly light and nimble at just under 1kg, featuring an aluminium soleplate that’s gently rounded at the edges and has a ceramic coating.
When not in use, the iron locks into the base via a hook at the rear and a sliding section at the nose. Unusually, there’s a section of cork on top of the handle – it’s surprisingly comfy to grip – which is echoed by cork trim on the control knob, though to less dramatic effect. The control feels quite flimsy by comparison to the rest of the robust steam generator: there’s little resistance when twisted, so turning it to the right setting can require more than one movement.
There are six temperatures to choose from: silk (one dot), wool (two dots), eco, cotton (three dots), linen (max) and turbo. A small blue light indicates which one you’ve selected but you’ll have to refer to the iron itself to see when it’s heating and cooling – denoted by a faintly illuminated section on top.
Below the iron handle, you’ll find a trigger, but it works differently to those that need to be held down for steam. Instead, two clicks of the trigger turn on an up to 600g steam pulse that continues without anything being held down. Another click of the trigger turns it off. This results in less stress on fingers and wrists if you’re tackling a large ironing pile, making it handy for anyone suffering from arthritis or carpal tunnel.
What’s especially useful about the Polti La Vaporella XT120C – certainly for those without an ironing board strong enough to cater for a steam generator – is that the heatproof pad the iron sits on when on its base, lifts off. This enables the iron to be used on any ironing board without fear of it slipping off when not on fabric and the pad has ‘teeth’, so stays put even when wobbled.
Other good-to-haves include a no-calc feature, a boiler that’s designed to prevent limescale build-up in the iron by retaining it and a 10-year warranty.
What’s it like to use?
The manufacturer states that heat-up time for the steam generator is less than two minutes and I found this to be accurate, with it reaching the turbo heat in 1min 59secs. However, it doesn’t beep when the selected heat is reached – meaning that you’ll have to watch the flashing light on top of the iron to see when it changes colour or stops flashing after cooling. It draws a lot of power to get to temperature fast though – my meter recorded consumption as 2,514W.
I checked the minimum and maximum heats each setting reached with a thermocouple thermometer while the water tank was empty. The maximum heat reached 232°C when initially turned on for turbo but the average bracket ranged from 187-179°C. The three-dot setting averaged 182-176°C, while two dots was 136-132°C, down to one dot at 94-91°C. Overall, it delivered consistent heat for these settings without much fluctuation.
The Polti La Vaporella was one of the most comfortable I’ve used, which I felt was down to a combination of the cork section, which delivered grip without rubbing, and not having to hold down a steam trigger. The water cord connection isn’t part of the handle, so it doesn’t come into contact with your wrist, and the iron moves smoothly over fabric in any direction.
How well does it iron?
Compared to my usual steam generator, the La Vaporella XT120C felt very nimble and had a slightly smaller soleplate. I was concerned that this might mean it would take longer to cover an area of fabric, but I needn’t have worried. Not only does the iron glide over fabric easily, the addition of the steam pulse made it effortless to use. Ironing shirt sleeves, for example, only needed one or two passes, and often the reverse would be perfectly pressed as well. Only one pass was required for collars, and a couple for the front of a shirt.
I appreciated how easy the steam was to switch on and off, and the heatproof pad meant the tank could sit separately away from my board. There could be quite a lot of steam produced – but when it felt like too much, I switched to eco. This setting saves on energy and water. In practice, I found each pulse still produced a lot of steam but the shots seemed further apart, although the manufacturer states that it uses less water compared to the standard setting.
Crease removal was efficient, with no need to apply much pressure – it felt more like I was guiding the ironing rather than pressing out crumples. It wasn’t clear from the instructions if the iron could be used vertically or not, but it appears to be happy to do so and continued to emit steam. At the end of my ironing session, it was easy to empty thanks to the removable tank. It also features a hinged spout, so it was straightforward to refill without spills.
Should you buy the Polti La Vaporella XT120C?
If you’ve decided that a steam generator is right for you but that ironing is still far from being your favourite chore, Polti’s La Vaporella XT120C is a great investment. It has some seriously clever design features that come together to make ironing faster, more convenient and less of a strain. There’s very little I’d like to see improved – perhaps a brighter indicator light on the handle or a beep when it’s ready, and a control knob that doesn’t feel as flimsy.
While the price might be more than other steam generators, the fact that the boiler has a long 10-year warranty should provide some peace of mind, especially when stacked up against cheaper brands that only offer a few years.
