I have a standing Rowenta one (I got it a few years ago at BB&B, not only with a coupon, but with some promo they had at that time for the steamer giving me a BB&B gift card with the purchase!). I got it because I'm lousy at ironing (!), and because we have some articles of clothing that need to be "de-wrinkled" after laundering, without being perfectly smooth and pressed (if that makes sense). It works well for what it does, and I'm glad I have it for some things. DH has a bunch of cotton, button-down shirts that are supposed to be slightly wrinkled when worn, slightly being the operative word! I can smooth them out with the steamer, without giving them that freshly ironed crispness. I wouldn't get one in place of an iron (for example, you'd still need an iron to do napkins, tablecloths, a more "crisply" pressed shirt, or pants with a crease....), but it's nice to have one, too.

Hi sagelee, Garment steamers are quite controversial. Alot of people claim that they just don't work up to the standards of an iron. I'd have to go against the grain and disagree though in my own opinion. I've used a number of different garment steamers for travel and home use for the last 10 years. My personal favorite brand is Jiffy. Steamfast also produce quite good steamers aswell!. I've never had any troubles with my steamers not removing wrinkles properly from clothing. I personally prefer steamers which have longer steam times as i tend to do alot of clothes steaming at once rather than in shorter loads. My personal recommendations for a garment steamer is the J-2000 jiffy steamer. By far the best steamer i've ever owned mainly due to its steam time of 1.5 hours and that its reliable (touch wood). If i couldn't get this brand i'd opt for the Steamfast SF-510. I hope i was clear enough - my writing skills isn't the best. All the best, Jenny Here is a link that might be useful: A helpful resource for garment steamers (quick google search brought it up)

Have you looked into one of those all-in-one steam cleaning systems? I have one that you are supposed to use for cleaning your house, but it produces great clouds of steam and works great as a garment steamer, too. It came with a million attachments and I got it with a 20% off coupon at Linens and Things, so for $80 I have a steam cleaner, garment steamer and today I'm using it to defrost my little freezer!

dadoes, thanks for the info. We actually had the dryer exhaust ducting examined to see if the problem was with the dryer (also a Kenmore) originally. But it turned out there wasn't a clog in the dryer exhaust ducting. The issue was that the old Kenmore (100 series) washer's spin was never powerful enough to really spin out enough water from the laundry to allow for drying with a single dryer cycle. The basket/drum on the Maytag Bravo MVWX500X is 4.3 cubic feet, so yes, it is much larger than the basket/drum on our old Kenmore 100 series washer. The Maytag Bravo MVWX500X also does not have a center agitator, but instead has a "low-water washplate wash system". This "low-water washplate wash system" is interesting and new to me. I must say, it's nice not to have the center agitator and a larger drum, since I wanted to be able to wash quilts and comforters, and also loads with multiple large towels. However, I've read that because of how the "low-water washplate wash system" distributes laundry detergent, some detergent could build up on the internal plumbing. We were advised by the installers to run a washer cleaner tablet once a month in this new washer. The manual says this cleaning process can also be accomplished by adding 1 cup of liquid chlorine bleach to the bleach dispenser and running the washer through a wash cycle while empty. When our new washer was installed, the installers also ran a washer cleaner tablet through the machine while it was empty. The washer tablet's ingredients are sodium percarbonate and sodium carbonate. It remains to be seen if any detergent build-up will accumulate in this new washer, even with monthly cleaning, and if that will lead to any mold or mildew issues. If so, our choice of a high-efficiency machine may turn out to be unwise. It also remains to be seen if the electronics and the "low-water washplate wash system" hold up over time, or if there will be technological breakdowns because the machine is digital. We prepared ourselves for the fact that repairs to this machine will likely cost more than a traditional old-style "knob" washer. So this new high-efficiency washer is kind of an experiment in a way. I will try to report back after some time has passed and let everyone know how it's holding up. steveomc, our old Kenmore washer was in fact from the 110 series, lol. The 100 series have a notorious problem with the lid switch. We've had to have the lid switch replaced twice. The lid switch part only costs about $31 dollars but of course, the service visit cost much more than that. We also had to have a repair on another element of the machine, for a total of three repairs. Even with the repairs, the machine just never spun efficiently enough for our liking.