Alexandra Ramirez
1. Brabantia
Best Overall Ironing Board
5/5 Product Rating
The Brabantia Ironing Board also comes with a rather wide frame. This is great, being that it gives you a much larger degree of maneuverability. It’s rare you here of an ironing board being too short, but it’s not at all uncommon that you hear someone complaining of an ironing board’s width. It’s nice to see a manufacturer offer a simple solution to a longstanding problem. Lastly, it comes with a safety feature which ensures the board doesn’t collapse when its legs are tampered with. Although this might not sound very necessary, things are different when children or pets are added into the equation. If kids or animals are a concern, such a safety feature should be considered downright mandatory.
– Sarah Lytle
2. Household Essentials
Best Overall Ironing Board – Runner Up
4.8/5 Product Rating
Ironically enough, the Household Essentials Fibertech, despite its wide stance, actually comes with nothing in the way of added safety features to prevent leg tampering. As such, this particular ironing board may be very safe for those using it, though not for children and pets. If; however, everyone in your house is above two feet tall, you can be sure this will be one of the safest ironing boards on the market, being that its only weakness becomes apparent when its legs are being tampered with by someone who doesn’t know any better.
– Sarah Lytle
3. Homz
4.7/5 Product Rating
Like the other two ironing boards on this list, it also comes with an iron rack, increasing both the board’s level of convenience as well as its overall safety. This is the type of ironing board you could get away with using in any situation. Despite its rather heavy-duty status, its built-in rack and durable frame make it suitable for both at home and while camping. On the other hand, it comes with little in the way of additional safety features. As such, if safety is your top priority, you may want to take a look at the above two products we’ve covered thus far.
– Sarah Lytle
Ironing Board Buying Guide
What is an Ironing Board?
Of course, you needn’t feel as if the above three products are your only viable options when selecting a new ironing board. While they’re certainly of the highest degree of quality, you may want to branch out and find something more catered toward your own needs, assuming one of the above three doesn’t already do so. If this is the case, keep the below considerations in mind while shopping to ensure you walk away with the best possible product.
Do you need any safety features?
Just because an ironing board comes with a safety feature or two does not necessarily mean it will be safe in any given situation. Whether you need something that protects you, your possessions or any children/animals which you may be sharing your home with, there are a large variety of safety features to choose from, each with its own main purpose. We’ll get more into these safety features further down in the buying guide. For now, think about who or what your ironing board’s safety features need to protect in the first place.
Do you need a shelf?
One of the three ironing boards we covered earlier comes equipped with its own shelf. While most other ironing boards don’t exhibit this feature, there are a few that do. However, while it can be easy to assume that a built-in shelf is always a good thing, this isn’t entirely true. As such, it’s important to consider whether or not you’re actually going to use a shelf before paying the inevitable price markup to buy one.
For example, if you plan on going camping or bringing your ironing board to a hotel room for any reason, having such a shelf is a great idea. Before you get to your location of choice, sometimes, you just don’t know what equipment you’re going to have at your disposal. As such, a shelf won’t only prove to be convenient, it may end up being the cleanest option. On the other hand, if you know you’ll be doing all of your ironing at home, such a shelf will prove to be nothing more than a money pit and dead weight. It helps to know exactly what you need before finalizing your purchase.
On what surface will you be using your ironing board?
If you take a close look, you’ll notice that all of the above ironing boards we’ve covered come with caps on the bottom of their legs. As I’m sure you’ve already figured out, these are meant to stop the ironing board from slipping. 
A general rule of thumb is that rubber is better than plastic and plastic is better than nothing. As such, if you’re using your ironing board on a smother surface (such as tile or hardwood), you may want to go with something which has rubber caps, as this will likely prove to be your safest bet. On the other hand, if you’re using your board on carpet or something similar, limiting yourself only to ironing boards with rubber caps will likely do nothing for you other than close your potential options. Think about where you’ll be using your ironing board before shopping.
Types of Ironing Board Safety Features
I mentioned earlier that there are a wide variety of different safety features you may expect to find in any given ironing board. While you may be able to find them all in one ironing board, this is not usually the case. As such, it helps to know which safety features you actually need in the first place. Let’s take a look at the most common ones and decipher just what it is they do.
- An Iron Rack – An iron rack is a metal rack which protrudes from the cutting board, giving you a safe place to put your iron. Not only does this protect you through lowering your risk of burns, its protects your clothes and the ironing board itself, being that you have a safe surface to lay your iron on when it is not in immediate use.
- A Safety Lock – Safety locks keep your ironing board’s legs fastened securely while in use. These are essential if you have children who might play with the legs. Otherwise, such a feature will be largely useless, being that you yourself likely won’t be engaging in such activity.
- Leg Lock – Similar to a safety lock, the leg lock keeps your ironing board’s legs secure when it’s not in use. As such, you’ll be able to store your board upright in a closet without fear of its legs opening up and breaking anything which may happen to be directly in front of it.
- A Wide Stance – Unlike the last two safety features we covered, this one only serves to protect When an ironing board’s legs have a very wide stance, you don’t need to worry about it toppling over when you’re ironing.
Common Ironing Board Features
There are a few key features which are always nice to see in an ironing board, no matter where your preferences or needs may lie. Let’s take a look.
- An Ironing Rack/Wide Stance – Of the four safety features we covered above, these two are sure to come in handy at some point or another, no matter where you store your ironing board or who else you share your home with.
- Leg Caps – Whether or not your caps are rubber or plastic depends on where you’ll be using your ironing board. You should; however, expect to find some sort of leg caps in your ironing board.
- A Wide Upper Frame – Ironing boards have always been long and skinny. While they’re never too short, they can be too thin. Getting one with a wide frame allows you to be more efficient, as you’ll be able to work with a larger piece of clothing at any one time.
Conclusion
Outside of the above three features, it will be up to you to decide which characteristics should be in your next ironing board. Through keeping all of these considerations in mind, knowing what you need is simple. As such, buying the perfect ironing board should take no time at all.
