Frigg Live Chicouture: frigglive Reviews Laurastar

words: Dave Avran

images: Veronica Ng

Let’s get this out of the way straight off – the Laurastar ironing system commands a premium price. Our thanks to the kind folks at Visionary Solutions Sdn Bhd, who let us test drive it for four weeks to see if matched our high expectations.

Unboxing reveals that the Laurastar Pulse comes well packaged with a highly-resistant cover, a 3D protective soleplate for delicate fabrics, a special heat-resistant iron mat, a steam cord holder and an anti-scale water filter. The ironing board is taller, wider and longer than most normal boards.

It stores upright, is surprisingly compact with the electric cord retracting automatically and it is easy to push around with one hand as it comes complete with wheels. This easy portability is a huge plus point when it comes to doing vertical stuff like shirts or suits on a hanger or even curtains that need a bit of a touch up. Appearance wise it’s a good looking unit.

The test drive

All we needed to do was to fill the water reservoir and switch it on. It takes about 3 minutes to heat up fully and once the 1 Litre reservoir has been emptied you're probably ready to take a break.

The iron itself is rather light at about 1 kg, as it does not incorporate a separate water reservoir. This is great for people who have problems with arm and shoulder and repetitive movements.

The iron is purposely designed in an almond shape, and you can't rest it upright on its back edge like most other irons. It should be placed on the special mat that the system comes with. This almond shaped design ensures that ironing backwards is just as easy as ironing forwards, meaning no more inadvertent creases when we hook a straight edge into a piece of material.

The steam hose conveniently got out of our way once we threaded it through the spiral in the stainless steel holder that came with the system. For peace of mind, the system automatically shuts itself down if it is left unused for 15 minutes.

Laurastar’s method of easy ironing is to control the amount of steam that comes out of the iron. With a pressure of 3.5 bars this hot steam is diffused continuously through the micro-fine holes in the soleplate. Our clothes didn't get damp at all, particularly when we released the steam button on the back stroke. That effectively dries up any moisture. The micro fine dry steam particles also ensures it is safe and does not scald human hands.

We also found that we could save money on expensive dry cleaning bills as the

pulse function which diffuses steam by a series of short bursts for more intelligent ironing could also be used to clean, disinfect and remove wrinkles from our suits.

One feature we found amazing was that the steam can penetrate 4 layers of heavy cloth like a pair of jeans. Gone are the days when we have to turn them over and do each leg individually. This applies to tablecloths and curtains too, which is a huge time saver.

We found that very thin material can easily be spruced up without actually touching the material at all, by just blowing steam into it. Although there is a switch provided for continuous steaming, most of the time we used the very effective Pulse mode, small puffs of steam as and when needed. As a plus point it also irons very well without any steam.

For delicates like man-made fabrics, stretch sports apparel or even microfiber, the soft pressing 3D soleplate will ensure deeper penetration of the fine fibers. Its active board helps you remove wrinkles as its equipped with a 2-speed blower and vacuum system, which you can change simply by pressing a button.

Overall we were impressed by how comfortable the iron was to hold, and how lightly and easily the iron seemed to glide over the material how we always achieved the perfect finished look.

Conclusion

What strikes us after using the Laurastar is the meticulous attention to detail and thought put into making every single aspect of ironing as simple, intuitive and effortless as possible.

This is achieved because unlike most other brands, Laurastar is a company dedicated to only one particular type of product. They only make garment care products such as steam generators in a variety of models, including complete ironing systems. Laurastar therefore puts all of its focus on research and continual development of their products, which is typical of the Swiss.

Coming back to Laurastar’s premium pricing. Would Malaysians find it expensive? If you do a fair bit of ironing and you find it a chore we would highly recommend you give the Laurastar range some serious consideration. The money invested upfront will actually translate into savings later when we consider the perfect end results, the time and effort saved and the build quality and versatility of the system.

In fact if truth be told, after four weeks of using it, we had a tough time packing up and returning our test drive unit. The Laurastar does indeed make ironing effortless and even fun to do.