Philips Steam Iron Series 5000 DST5040/86 Review
The iron arrived in a branded box with images of the iron on the sides along with a list of features, inside the iron came well packed and protected with a plastic sleeve, a card insert protecting the front and card flaps each side for added protection. The iron comes with a warranty pamphlet, a large multilingual sheet covering safety and a small instruction pamphlet covering usage in diagrams, I found this adequate but sparse on detail.
Once I have opened it all up I set the iron up to give it a test out, I found the filling straight forward with a good large inlet on the front of the iron covered by a clear plastic hinged cover, the water level is easy enough to see with the smoked plastic body of the iron. Once the iron had reached temperature I tested it out on a shirt, I found the stream very good and the iron glides well and is not too heavy weighing around 43oz/1220g without water. I thought the cable could have been slightly longer but it did give a really good result when the shirt was finished.
I have been using the iron a while now and tried it out with a multitude of garments as has my wife and find it works really well, it glides very smoothly and heats up very quickly, the handle grip is good and feels comfortable. I have tested the vertical steam feature and that seems to work well giving a good blast of steam, the eco mode seems to just be without steam and lower temperature for items such as silk or synthetics although usage is not really detailed in the manual.
The iron can operate with tap water and has calc-clean built in and selectable on the upper front lever, it appears to work well for the limited time I have used it, the iron has a press to spray button which works as it should, and the steam press button both at the front end of the handle, both are easy to use while ironing.
Overall I thought this was a nice practical iron, the steam functions work well and are nice and powerful, the iron glides nice a smoothly, it handles any type of garment well, the iron heats up nice and quickly with good button layout and feels comfortable in the hand, I did think the cable could have been slightly longer and instruction manual could have been better but apart from that overall a very good iron.
If you have any questions please feel free to ask them in the comments and I will do my best to answer.