Thanks ladies,

The problem with my original iron only occured after I started using distilled water in it. Since I do love the Rowenta, I think that I will buy another pro and see what happens. Other irons just don't pack the same punch.

I was told by Rowenta to never use Distilled Water. I purchased the Rowenta Expert Steam Generator 8 years ago and have faithfully put only what they recommended in it which is Bottled Spring Water. It's still going strong and I use it daily, 7 hours a day in my business. I almost didn't buy it because I had had problems with the last regular Rowenta iron I had, but the representative at Rowenta convinced me it was the water and not the iron. I've been a happy camper.

I bought a Rowenta Professional iron about a year ago and the instructions manual states very specifically "Never use 100% pure distilled water since this can cause the iron to spit and leak." It also states, "Rowenta irons are design to be used with REGULAR TAP WATER..." If you have unusually hard tap water, it recommends using inexpensive bottled spring water.

Ricky says that ALL irons eventually get incontinent! Therefore he recommends that you use a dry iron and a misting bottle if you want moisture or steam!

Good plan!

I have long been a fan of the Rowenta professional iron. I purchased my first iron sometime in the 80's, and it lasted until quite recently, when the water from the tank started leaking out, to the point where I had to be careful not to give myself an electrical shock. To be fair, I was not consistently using distilled water in it. More recently, (5 years ago), I purchased another Rowenta iron (not the pro), and the same thing was happening to this newer iron, in fact much worse then the older one. I had only used distilled water in this one. I do still prefer the Rowenta pro to any of the other irons that I have tried, but perhaps there is an alternative that I don't know about. Any advice?