What is the Morphy Richards Breeze 300254?
The Breeze 300254 is an affordable steam iron that offers great value for money. It's not the most powerful iron we've tested but it matches the performance of some irons that cost twice as much.
It's light and it looks pretty good in matt black. But there are a few design niggles, for example there's no clip for keeping the power cord tidy and the flap for the water hole falls open when you're ironing. Still a good buy if you're on a budget though.
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Morphy Richards Breeze 300254 – Design and Features
Morphy Richards has a whole series of irons called Breeze. This particular 300254 model is an unusual all-black design. Not just black but matt black, the body and the soleplate alike. The result is like Disaster Area's spaceship in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: so black that no light is reflected from it whatsoever. In a sea of white irons, it looks downright weird, in a good way.
Just the controls are visible, then. A simple red dial on the body to set the temperature, a pair of grey buttons under your thumb to trigger water spray and 120g/min steam shot, and a grey thumb lever that you push to the right to control the constant steam of up to 45g/min. This lever also doubles as a trigger for the anti-calc system: heat the iron, unplug it and then push the lever it all the way to the right (over a sink) to flush out any limescale deposits.
Features include an auto-off function that turns off the power after 1 minute left still horizontally or 8 minutes when left still vertically.
Build quality feels cheap and plasticky… but then this is an affordable iron and you get what you pay for in terms of materials.
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Morphy Richards Breeze 300254 – What's it like to use? Filling the Morphy Richards is fine. It has a medium-sized fill hope that works with the supplied jug or under the tap. But the flap covering the fill hole doesn't clip into place, which is extremely annoying as you iron. In theory it shouldn't fall open as that would mean tipping the iron back. In practice it happens all the time if you're ironing in a rush, you put the iron vertically on its heel but tip it back slightly in the process and suddenly the flap's fallen open.
Steam power is modest. It gets the job done, but you find yourself having to pass the iron over a crease several times when an iron with more powerful steam would have nailed it in one.
The 120g/min steam shot doesn't seem remarkably powerful… until you consider that this is a budget iron, at which point it becomes impressive. We've seen irons at twice the price produce less steam. Steaming vertically, we found we could produce 11 good pumps of steam before it started gasping. And the 45g/min constant steam was impressive, it just kept on coming.
The steam stops automatically, straight away, when you stand the iron vertically on its heel. The iron also boasts an auto-off function that is effective but too slow: it's good that it beeps to alert you when it turns off, but 1 minute is too long to leave an iron on your clothes if you get distracted.
We also found that light fabrics clung the soleplate too much as we lifted the iron from the board.
Finally, there's nowhere to wrap the power cord – if you try wrapping it round the base of the iron it just falls off – and there's no clip to hold the cord to itself.
Should I buy the Morphy Richards Breeze 300254?
If you're on a budget, yes. It's by no means the best steam iron we've tested. But it's the best in terms of value for money. It matches the performance of some irons that cost twice as much. So if you're counting the pennies, or if you don't do a lot of ironing, it's a good buy. If you want something pricier but much more powerful to tackle an ironing mountain then look at the Bosch TDA7060GB or the Tefal Ultimate Anti-Calc FV9640.
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Verdict
Impressive performance for the price with just a few niggles; if you want a budget steam iron, bet on black.
