Ultimate Travel Steamer Guide | Considerations & Tips Before Buying!
Whether you're heading off to a destination wedding or business trip, a portable travel-sized steamer is a fantastic investment to ensure your clothes stay wrinkle-free while traveling!
Our Ultimate Travel Steamer Guide dives into what you should look for when shopping for travel steamers as well as our personal favorite portable steamers!
Questions We'll Answer About Travel Steamers:
- How Effective Are Travel Steamers?
- Do Travel Steamers Work As Good As Normal Steamers?
- What Are The Biggest Differences Between Travel and Normal Steamers?
- What Should You Look For When Buying A Travel Steamer?
- Our Favorite Travel Steamers!
How Effective Are Travel Steamers?
The first question you'll probably ask yourself when looking at a portable, travel-sized steamer probably is - will it even work?
This is certainly a valid thought especially when you consider a travel-size steamer can be half the size, if not even smaller than a normal steamer.
We recently tested multiple travel-sized steamers and found while they may be small, travel steamers are certainly strong enough to be an effective tool to steam out wrinkles in most fabrics and types of clothing.
That being said, typically the smaller and more compact you go with travel steamers, the more you're going to have to work to get tough wrinkles out of your clothes.
If you think you'll be steaming multiple articles of clothing then keep in mind you'll spend some time filling the water tank up multiple times and waiting for it to heat up when you choose a smaller travel steamer!
From our research and testing, we found that a 1000-watt steamer is a sweet spot for heating speed and steam temperature without sacrificing too much portability!
Do Travel Steamers Work As Good As Normal Steamers?
Travel steamers get the job done, but they aren't nearly as good as a normal steamer.
You're making a sacrifice in power and water tank size in exchange for portability and weight when it comes to choosing a travel steamer over a normal-sized steamer.
Some travel-size steamers can get very hot, very fast, but it's still nothing compared to the heating speed, steam temperature, and water tank size of a normal steamer.
You shouldn't be scared of making that travel steamer purchase though!
Most of the travel steamers we've tested have been sufficient in getting tough wrinkles out of most types of materials and articles of clothing we tested them with!
Scroll down to the last section of this guide to see all of our favorite travel-size steamers!
What Are The Biggest Differences Between Travel and Normal Steamers?
There are a few key differences between travel-size steamers and normal steamers that make travel steamers unique.
- Portability: Travel steamers are way more lightweight and smaller in size when compared to a normal steamer.
- Steam Heat: Normal-sized steamers are going to generate hotter steam than travel steamers. This only means you may have to work a bit harder to get wrinkles out of certain clothing materials with travel steamers.
- Heating Speed: Travel steamers are going to take just a bit longer to heat up when compared to a normal travel steamer. From all of our tests, we've found the difference to be minimal, and typically takes less than 2 minutes for a travel steamer to heat up.
- Water Tank Size: One of the biggest sacrifices made to increase the portability of a travel steamer is the size of the water tank, which is substantially smaller than a normal steamer. If you only need to steam a few articles of clothing then you won't have much of an issue, but if there are a lot of garments you plan to steam, then it may get a bit tedious constantly refilling the tank and waiting for the water to heat up.
Aside from the water tank size, we found none of these differences to be problematic and had great experiences with the travel steamers we tested!
What Should You Look For When Buying A Travel Steamer?
When buying a travel steamer you're going to want to strike a balance between portability and functionality.
We recommend looking for a steamer that's no larger than 12"x7" unless it can fold up to reduce its size.
We'd also suggest going no heavier than 3 lbs. Many great travel steamers are far lighter than 3 lbs so buying a steamer heavier than this is going to add unnecessary weight to your luggage.
Finally, while wattage doesn't always dictate how hot the steam will get or how fast a steamer will get hot, it's never a bad thing to get a steamer with a higher wattage. We recommend looking for steamers with wattage in the 900 - 1000 watt range.
Our Favorite Travel Steamers!
We've listed our three favorite travel steamers below! For a more in-depth review of the steamers below, check out our Best Travel Steamers Guide.
#1 Best Overall Travel Steamer: Neusugar Portable Steamer
The Neusugar Portable Steamer is our overall favorite steamer for being extremely portable and light while still packing the ability to remove wrinkles from most fabric types. Bonus points for a very sleek design, but loses points for a very small water tank.
#2 The Stronger Option: Beautural Portable Steamer
A stronger option to the Neusugar is the Beautural Portable Steamer. This larger and heavier alternative has a bigger water tank, faster heating time, and removes tough wrinkles more easily than the Neusugar, but you'll be purchasing the bulkier and less sleek-looking option if you go with Beautural.
#3 The Larger Alternative: Conair Handheld Steamer
The Conair Handheld Steamer is nearly double the size of the Neusugar but is perfect for those who have some extra space in their luggage and will be steaming multiple articles of clothing. The Conair produces the strongest steam and has the largest water tank making it perfect when steaming a lot of clothes and tough wrinkles. You're going to be taking up a lot more space with the Conair, but when traveling for special occasions like weddings it's a great choice.
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