Electric steam iron with separately heated sole plate and steam chamber

A steam iron comprising:

• a sole plate including a plurality of apertures for conveying steam to a surface to be ironed, said sole plate including an electric heating element having a heating power of about 800 watts which is adapted to maintain said sole plate at a predetermined temperature that is at least sufficient to evaporate water condensed in the article to be ironed,
• a single, flooded steam chamber for containing a supply of water and for continuously generating steam, said steam chamber including a separate electric heating element having a heating power of about 1200 watts for heating the water in said steam chamber to form steam, and a steam tube for continuously conveying steam to said sole plate apertures, whereby an article being ironed is heated by steam continuously produced in said chamber and continuously discharged through said apertures into contact with the article and which condenses to water in the article, thereby increasing the transfer of heat per unit of time to the article being ironed and whereby said article is subsequently dried by the heat produced by said sole plate, the amount of heat produced by said sole plate being equal to at least the heat of evaporation of water condensed in the article;
• an electric circuit with a switch responsive to the temperature of the steam in the steam generator for interrupting the current through the two heating elements when the temperature in the steam chamber rises above the 105.degree. C.;
• and
• circuit means for simultaneously energizing said heating elements to continuously generate steam and heat said sole plate to said predetermined temperature.

A steam iron comprising:

• a sole plate including a plurality of apertures for conveying steam to a surface to be ironed, said sole plate including an electric heating element having a heating power of about 800 watts which is adapted to maintain said sole plate at a temperature of about 200.degree. C.;
• a steam chamber for containing a supply of water and for continuously generating steam, said steam chamber including a separate electric heating unit having a heating power of about 1200 watts for heating and maintaining the water in the steam chamber at a temperature of about 100.degree. C. to form steam and a steam tube for continuously conveying steam to said sole plate apertures, whereby an article being ironed is heated by steam continuously produced in said chamber and continuously discharged through said apertures into contact with the article and which condenses to water in the article thereby increasing the transfer of heat per unit of time to the article during ironing and whereby said article is subsequently dried by the amount of heat produced by said sole plate which amount is at least equal to the heat of evaporation of water condensed in the article;
• an electric circuit with a switch responsive to the temperature of the steam in the steam generator for interrupting the current through the two heating elements when the temperature in the steam chamber rises above about 105.degree. C.;
• a manually actuated switch by means of which the current for energizing the sole plate heating element can be switched on separately;
• and a thermal element responsive to the temperature of the sole plate for fixing the temperature of the sole plate to a fixed value below 100.degree. C. when the current through the two heating elements is interrupted because the temperature in the steam chamber rises above about 105.degree. C.