Jiffy Steamer J-4000 Garment with Plastic Steam Head, 120 Volt, 20 x 11 x 64, Gray

The Jiffy J-4000 Proline steamer is a daunting purchase for a recently graduated businessman who hates ironing. At $200 from Amazon, the cost of purchasing one of these things is the cost of about 100 dry cleaned and pressed shirts (about 6 months worth) at the local dry cleaners. However, I decided to give it a try, knowing that I could return it if I hated it. The steamer arrived 4 days after I ordered it, thanks to Amazon's free and fast shipping. Putting it together was a joke, and within 10 minutes I was preheating the water. (A word of advice, let the machine preheat all the way before turning it to steam mode.) I am currently used to turning the preheat on before I shower, then turning it to steam immediately when I get back to my room, and it will be ready when I need to use it. Using the machine seems simple, but there is a method that seems to work best. First, make sure you are sitting down. You can't use it standing up, and kneeling is uncomfortable. I used my computer chair, and that worked great. Once the preheat indicator turns off, turn the dial to steam. It will take a few minutes before steam starts coming out of the nozzle, so be patient. Once you see the steam, it's ready to go. I don't steam any women's clothing, so this is solely catered to males. Hold one end of one sleeve and work the nozzle down the sleeve horizontally. Do this twice. Then move to the front of the shirt. Hold the shirt at the bottom, and move the nozzle slowly down the shirt. You don't have to press the nozzle deeply into the shirt. Just hold it directly against, and even slightly off the shirt. Continue to the other side, then to the other sleeve, then turn the shirt around and do the back. Th entire process for 1 long sleeved dress shirt is about 8 minutes. A t-shirt takes about 2. This beast of a machine dissolves the toughest wrinkles fairly easily. Of course, the thinker the material, the longer it will take to steam, but overall, the machine is great and should last for a long time, making it one of the best purchases I have ever made.

I don’t take large purchases lightly. I own a handheld steamer that works well- but it is a lot of work to use. I wanted something industrial that would do the work for me. I am addicted to buying beautiful clothes- but with that curse they often wrinkle easily and I hardly wear them. This has changed that!!! I researched for a good week with chatgpt. What I learned was that (for me) the steam power was the most important specification and this is what sets the Jiffy J4000 a part from its competitors. I learned that my handheld one had a power of about 25g/min and so I knew I wanted something much stronger. Most other models run 30-40g/min. This model runs from 50-60g/min. It is more powerful and efficient than most other products. I received the product yesterday and I was ecstatic! It does take 15 min to warm up but then I pressed 4 outfits in the next 5 minutes. I also pressed a thick blazer collar that had been folding the wrong way. My only wish was that the rack was higher or adjustable for long pants (my inseam is 34-36) and doing the bottom of pants and dresses was difficult — but I plan on buying a steam board to mount and help with this. Overall- it’s a huge win for me and will honestly change my life in that I am no longer limited in what articles of clothing I can wear.

If you are looking for a nice ironed look, this does NOT provide that. I ordered this last year (delayed review) the first was broken, of course Amazon exchanged it without any problems, a few weeks later I got the second steamer, again broken. Since I was desperately looking for a good steamer (I had heard they were great but never owned one), I send the second back in exchange for a third one. Finally I got one that seemed intact and steam was coming out of it, so very excited I started to steam my business clothes. In a few short minutes I realized that I would never get the ironed business look that I was looking for. Now this may be my fault and my ignorance for not knowing this, so I guess I set myself up for disappointment, but I expected more. It also occurred to me how difficult this was to do without a steaming board, I am sure after a little bit of practice I would have gotten the hang of it with or without the steaming board but in my opinion the board would be very helpful and I would have ordered had the steamer not stopped working after the first 30 minutes. Initially I thought it had overheated, so I unplugged it and tried again the next day. Nothing. I tried everything that it said in the manual (Troubleshooting), still NOTHING. I tried again and again (I guess I refused to believe that I would get a broken item 3 times in a row), but after 1 week I finally decided that this is NOT what I was looking for. The steamer worked ok for the first 30 minute, but even then the clothes were not completely wrinkle free, maybe it's just me, but for this kind of money I expected much more, not to mention that I expected a functioning item.

If you have thought of buying a high quality garment steamer, this is the one to get. There are a few things that aren't clear from the description that I thought I'd share. First, the reservoir can hold more than a gallon of water, and I wasn't sure how long it would take to be "ready" to steam - well, if you fill the reservoir completely, it takes about 15 minutes to heat up the water to be ready. The steam is HOT and continuously pumps out of the steamhead, until you turn the machine off, or on standby. And the reservoir holds enough water to continuously steam for about 2 hours. Don't think that you will be able to steam up your clothes each morning before you go to work, because of the impracticality of heating up the water for 15 minutes first (I suppose you could, but that wouldn't be a very environmentally-friendly usage of this great tool). What I did this weekend was spent about 45 minutes steaming just about everything in my closet that had the slightest wrinkle to it. I think this is the first time in my life I don't have anything in my closet that is wrinkled! This machine is going to save me a ton in dry cleaning bills because about half the time, my dry-clean-only clothes aren't exactly dirty, just wrinkled. But the steam also removes odors - I noticed this when I was steaming my draperies - the steam released a dusty/musty smell from the drapes while I was steaming them. Anyway, bottom line, this is a good buy. Easy to assemble and definitely a quality work horse. One down side is that it does have a rather large "footprint" so you will need a little space in your closet or laundry room to keep it handy and ready to rock. Good luck and enjoy!

As a preface I should note that this is my first real steamer. I'd tried cheap portable ones in the past but I decided to try going with the best I could find (i.e., Jiffy J-4000) and was excited to try it. The bottom line is that it was a let down in some ways, but I'll be keeping it and using it despite the flaws. The positives: - Very easy to set up out of the box (even comes with a small wrench to tighten things) - Works decently (this is my first big steamer experience and it's really good, but not perfect) - Well-known brand and the company seems like it stands behind it (important) - Holds a lot of water (1 gallon) which can provide steam for a good 45 minutes - Seems solidly built (like a tank, really I think it would be difficult to damage it other than bending the bar that you use to hold up garments) - The plastic head works well and isn't as tiring to use as I read about the metal head (glad I got the plastic one, as it's tiring enough to use for a long while) - For dark garments I like that unlike an iron it doesn't fade the materials (especially with shirts I've had dry cleaned or ironed myself I've noticed that the color fades due to the ironing) Not so perfects: - Steaming is not ironing (no crispness to the garment, just gets rid of major wrinkles, for dress shirts or slacks I'll probably still pull out the iron) - Steam takes 15 minutes to come out when it's full and the water is cold (you have to decide you want to use it, turn it on and come back to it later) - It's bulky and doesn't really disassemble so storing it is a pain - Steaming process can be tiring, I've done about 12 garments in 30 minutes at a time (not super fast process) - Why isn't the opening to pour in water larger? This is a pain as I use a large funnel to fill it (it comes with a small flimsy funnel but it was actually cracked out of the box but it was too small anyway); seems like a larger opening would solve this issue and not require an extra thing to store either. - The design of the steamer seems very 1970's, which is great for quality but not for design (sort of ugly) - The bar that holds up garments doesn't adjust up or down, it's stationary so you can't set it at a comfortable height for yourself (I end up not using it, only using it as a place to hold the steamer head while I organize the item I'm going to steam next) I wanted to try the "best" steamer out there and I have to assume this is still it despite the many shortcomings. I won't be getting rid of my iron that's for sure, as the time necessary to iron versus steam something seems about the same to me. Steaming is not easier than ironing, as you need to push the steam head against the material firmly to really get the steam into the material and get it to release wrinkles. I wanted this to solve all my clothes wrinkling problems but it didn't do that. Overall I'm happy at a 4 out of 5 (and that's being generous because the machine is very well built in terms of toughness, despite the ugliness and bulkiness).

I have owned many many steamers like Rowenta, ConAir, etc etc. The Jiffy Steamer is in a category by itself as one of the best steamers you can own. With the previous steamers I own, like Rowenta or ConAir, it steams up quick but doesn't hold the steam for long. So if you are going to steam 2-3 garments, then your OK. But if you are going to steam 10 garments everyday, Conair and Rowenta slows you down because the steam is not constant. It is only constant for a little while and you have to wait a few minutes until it gets steaming. The Jiffy Steamer on the other hand takes a very very long time to steam up, but once it starts going, it will not STOP compared to other brands I have used. As I have used this steamer for 2 months, I realize the way to make this Jiffy Steamer steam fast is to put not to much water. My suggestion is getting a large coke you get at McDonalds and filling that twice with distilled water. That way when you turn on the Jiffy Steamer, it will only take 5 minutes to heat up not 15 minutes. Also this steamer is built so strong that you can kick it and it won't break. This thing is made like a "tank" but I wish the company could make it look beautiful looking. But in any case beautiful or not, I will be a proud owner of the Jiffy steamer. Not going with any other brands. Also a note of warning. This steam is a lot hotter compared to Rowenta or ConAir steamers in my opinion.

Works great

The J-4000 needs to preheat for 15 minutes and then takes at least another 5 minutes to make steam so I can't use it without thinking ahead. It puts out a lot of steam and I have scorched myself many times so I've started wearing gloves when I steam. That seems to be working. I am able to steam a lot more clothing than I was able to tolerate ironing. However, the final product is definitely not as good as ironed. I'm still glad I purchased it though. Thought I could use it to do my husband's pants, but they come out sub par. I'm going to have my husband make me a padded vertical ironing board once I figure out exactly what I want. I think that will improve the final product and speed up the steaming. The above was my initial review: Here's the follow up. I definitely have a system now and can do an enormous amount of ironing/steaming at one time. I now know what steams well and what needs ironing. For example, I iron collars and sleeves of dress and golf shirts and then hang them and steam the rest from the inside out hanging vertically. Everything needs to hang and to be steamed from the inside. I do all collars and sleeves and then whiz though the bodies of the shirts with the steamer. I always wear gloves. The steam is HOT. I now LOVE this steamer in conjunction with some ironing. I still iron all pants but can steam golf shorts (because I can get the steamer inside the shorter leg easily). Steaming is great on interlock and pique knits and nylons and performance fabrics. My husband and I do a lot of sports so much of our clothing is of this variety. It's also great on cotton dress shirts, but as I said, the collars and sleeves need regular ironing. So don't plan on throwing away your iron if you buy the steamer, but do plan on getting good and fast results if you use both. Remember, it does take 15 minutes to get the steam to the right temperature to steam and you will need a hanging board for best results. I hang a heavy towel over my built-in ironing board door and that works fine.