Philips Classic Dry Iron - HD1172

The Philips HD1172 is the classic dry iron, and it earns its place on the shape of the soleplate rather than on a features list. Two details do the work: a groove around the plate edge and a genuinely pointed tip.

The button groove matters because a shirt front is where ironing usually goes wrong. Without a groove, the plate rides up over each button and leaves the fabric between them creased. With one, the iron runs straight down the placket in a single pass and the front comes out flat.

The pointed tip covers the rest of the awkward geography — collar points, cuffs, the gathers at a sleeve head, the fabric around a pocket. These are the areas a wide flat plate skips over, and they are also the parts of a garment people actually look at.

Behind those two, it is a straightforward 1000 W dry iron on an aluminium soleplate: quick to heat, even across the plate, light in the hand, with a ready light so you know when to start. There is no tank to fill and no scale to manage, which is why irons like this stay in service for years.