Garment Steamer Boards and Press Pads

If you have a handheld garment steamer, one of the challenges you may face is where to hang your clothing when steaming.

Whilst doorways and curtain rods can be useful, you soon find the piece of clothing twisting and turning as there is nothing behind it to keep it straight.

Steaming directly against the door itself can potentially damage the paint and timber. That is where a garment steamer board may come in handy.

A garment steamer board can either be a long piece of covered board, a multi-layered hanging pad, or a smaller handheld board designed for collars, cuffs and portability.

Here are the different types of garment steamer boards available, and as usual, my thoughts, pros and cons on each.

Jiffy Garment Steamer Board

The Jiffy garment steamer board is a solid board, coated with water resistant very low pile carpet. It is by far the best garment steamer board available in terms of durability and longevity of use.

The board measures 24 inches wide and 48 inches long. The board itself is 3/4 inch in thickness.

You can hang the board over a door using the included bracket, or fix the board to a wall for a more permanent solution.

Included with the garment steamer board is a built in hook and a Jiffy professional clothes hanger, with built in coated clips for pants or skirts and a rubber coating to stop your clothing falling off the hanger during steaming.

Pros

• Excellent size
• Made in the USA
• Can be moved around if using the over the door bracket
• Will cut down on your steaming time

Cons

• Weight – weighs around 28 pounds
• Pricier than the roll up steam pads

Dritz Vertical Steam Pad

The Dritz Vertical Steam pad isn’t a board, but a padded door cover. It has a cotton back, polyester lining and padding, and a aluminum and pearl powder front for a smooth, water resistant finish.

Ideally, you will want to hang this vertical steam pad behind a door, so there is something more solid behind it.

There is a coat hanger style hook on the top, great for hanging on an over the door hook, which you will need to purchase separately. Below this is a ring, which accommodates your coat hanger.

This isn’t a fantastic design, as the round metal ring and curved coat hanger will slide against one another when moving the garment around. This is likely to cause additional movement of your clothing whilst steaming.

This isn’t a huge problem, but something to keep in mind if you are considering purchasing this garment steamer door pad.

You’ll need to use your own hanger as well, as there isn’t an included hanger like with the Jiffy garment steamer board above.

The steam pad measures 19.5 inches wide and 46 inches long. It cannot be laundered at all, but can be wiped with a damp cloth if needed.

Pros

• Lightweight and portable
• Offers protection when steaming against timber or painted surfaces
• Lengthy, great for long dresses or pants

Cons

• Could be wider to accommodate sleeves and larger sized clothes
• The ring hook design could be improved
• Price – it is more expensive than other similar designs

Sunbeam Over the Door Press Pad

I want to like this garment steamer press pad by Sunbeam, but I’m having trouble getting past the design of the over the door straps.

Those two curled straps in the top of the image are meant to be positioned over the top corners of your door.

Combine a slippery strap, with odd positioning, then add the weight of a coat hanger and your clothing… All I can see happening is the straps come flying off and everything lands on the floor!

To avoid this, you will need to shut the door you are steaming against. Alternatively, find an innovative way of fixing this press pad to the door.

I like the option of 3 hanger spaces (the tabs at the top), which allow different positioning of clothing such as dress shirts, so you can effectively steam each sleeve against the pad.

The tab on each side is probably just an extension of the hanging strap, but either way, I see it as useful.

I also think you could make this better by adding a keyring to the top, then hooking it on to the Conair Complete Care Storage Station, which hangs nicely over the door.

The size of the steamer pad is 19.5 inches wide x 45.25 inches long, a similar size to the Dritz over the door pad above.

It is more cost effective than the Dritz steamer pad also.

Pros

• 3 hanger positions to make steaming sleeves easier
• Lightweight and portable
• Offers protection when steaming against timber or painted surfaces
• Lengthy, great for long dresses or pants, if you use a pant hanger rather than a full sized coat hanger.
• Economical to buy

Cons

• Not wide enough to steam sleeves on shirts without repositioning

Rluii Freestanding Garment Hanger & Steamer Board

This is an interesting concept as a potential solution for where to hang your clothing when steaming, that is completely portable and free standing, and includes a garment steamer board.

Converting from a standing vertical steaming hanger and board to a horizontal mini ironing or steaming board this looks like a practical and totally portable steaming accessory.

This could be useful for small spaces, college students or apartment living.

What concerns me is the steaming stand and garment steamer board is crafted from lightweight aluminum and plastic. The board itself is only 13.77 inches x 11 inches, which is big enough to steam a handkerchief.

The 4 legged design is an effort to keep the hanging rack stable, but I fear that it may topple over easily, it looks so lightweight and flimsy.

More expensive than the over the door pads, but less expensive than the Jiffy Garment Steamer Board, I’m having a little trouble seeing the value in this piece.

Consumer feedback on Rluii garment hanger (without the garment steamer board) hasn’t rated the product well.

Priced at around $60, if you were to also purchase a good quality garment steamer (for around the same price), you may as well have purchased something like the Rowenta Prostyle Steamer below.

Mini Garment Steamer Boards

These mini garment steamer boards are some of my favorites. You can position them inside pockets, collars, cuffs and in between buttons to easily remove creases.

The set of three pictured above, includes the collar board on the left, a garment steamer glove in the middle and a pocket steamer board on the right.

At under $20 these handy garment steamer accessories are versatile and portable.

They don’t solve the problem however of a larger sized garment steamer board for steaming full pieces of clothing. This is why I prefer to combine the steaming tools with a firmer steaming board.

A good solution is the Conair Garment Steaming Mitt (under $15) or the Youthup Garment Steamer Glove.

The Youthup insulated glove has a pointed design that would assist with getting under collars or in between buttons. Here is what they look like:

Not only do they protect your hand whilst steaming, they also double as a garment steamer board. These steaming mitts are economical, portable and best of all, work really well.

In a perfect steaming world, I’d have

• The Jiffy Garment Steamer Board
• The mini garment steamer accessories for collars and pockets, and;
• The padded garment steamer mitt as extra backing and heat protection for your hands!