The electrical cord is seperating from the base of the iron and exposing the cord. The plastic covering is in parts. Can this be repaired?

To replace the cord on an iron, you will need to:

1. Unplug the iron: Make sure the iron is unplugged and cooled down before attempting to replace the cord.
2. Remove the cord from the iron: Depending on the model of your iron, you may need to remove a cover or panel to access the cord. Look for any screws or clips that hold the cover in place and remove them using a screwdriver. Once the cover is removed, you should be able to see the cord and the connections to the iron.
3. Disconnect the cord: Use a pair of pliers or a wire stripper to carefully remove the wire connectors from the cord. Be sure to hold onto the wire connectors so you do not lose them.
4. Attach the new cord: Follow the steps above in reverse to attach the new cord to the iron. Strip the ends of the wires on the new cord and attach them to the wire connectors. Be sure to connect the wires according to the correct polarity (i.e., positive to positive, negative to negative).
5. Replace the cover: Once the new cord is attached, replace the cover and secure it with the screws or clips you removed earlier.
6. Test the iron: Plug in the iron and test it to make sure it is functioning properly.

If you are not comfortable or experienced in electrical repairs, it is recommended to have a professional perform the cord replacement. Tampering with the electrical components of an appliance can be dangerous and can cause damage to the appliance or injury to the user.

You will need to obtain a completely new power cord kit from the manufacturer. If you are not familiar with doing electrical repairs, you may want to have a technician do it. Insulation on the power cord is important for several reasons; especially a method to keep you safe from a fire, electrical burn, shock, etc.

0) Unplug the iron.

1) Remove the (2 or more) screws holding the plastic bottom plate (that the iron stands up on).
The screws are likely to be #20 Torx "Security" screws -- for which you will need a special bit for your nut/screwdriver. A kit of various sizes of Torx security bits will cost you about $10.

2) Remove the plastic cord-holder assembly from the iron.
2a) If the cord-holder is held in place with screws (you are in luck!), simply unscrew them. If you see no screws, then it is being held in place by several (probably 4) plastic tabs that you must simultaneously release. This makes the job much more fiddly. Use a small/medium blade screwdriver to carefully bend and hold each of the plastic tabs out of the way of the latches. You'll need one screwdriver per tab/latch! Take care not to break the tabs...
2b) Carefully wiggle/pull/work the cord-holder assembly out of the iron taking care not to bend the pins of the integral plug (inside the iron) that are seated in the cord-holder socket. Basically, with the iron resting on its metal surface, pull/pry/wiggle the cord-holder straight upward until the cord-holder (socket) pulls free of the (3 or more) stiff wires that function as a "plug".

3) Note that there are 2 crimp-on connectors attaching the 2 wires of the cord to the rest of the wires in the iron. Take a photo of the wires and jot down notes of which wires are connected together. NOTE: One of the cord wires is "neutral" and is attached to the wider spade at the plug end of the cord. Typically the "neutral" wire is marked with a white stripe or ridge down length of the cord. Don't mix up the "neutral" wire and the "hot" wire when you re-connect them in a later step!

4) Cut off the crimp-on connectors and separate all the wires.

5) Remove the cord from the system of zig-zagging "strain-relief" notches that hold the cord securely in place. You may have to remove a small plastic clip first.

6) Cut off 6 inches of the cord. (Or supply a new cord, if the cord has been shortened too much in previous repairs.) This eliminates the broken section wire within the cord. You may use an ohm meter to verify that both wires have a low resistance again (less than 1 ohm).

7) Route the cord back into the "strain-relief" notches in the cord-holder. Don't forget the plastic clip (if there was one)...

8) Strip all wires, exposing about 3/8" of copper on each.

9) Referring to your notes and photo, re-connect all wires using proper-sized plastic wire-nuts for secure connections.

10) Re-attach the cord-holder to the iron body. Make sure you line up the stiff wire pins with the cord-holder socket. Push the cord-holder into place and secure it (via screws or snap-in-place plastic tabs).

11) Replace the plastic cover, taking care to position the wire-nuts and wires to allow it to drop into place without forcing it. Secure the cover with screws.

12) Plug in the iron and test it out!

This the link you can use to order new parts for your iron,

http://www.unbeatable.co.uk/spares/tefal_irons-parts-repairs.html

Okay, here's what fixed mine. But first, understand this is a $23 iron and it may not be worth your effort. I'm an engineer and like fixing things, and I hate throwing stuff into the landfill, so I took the time to repair mine. If you can use a screwdriver and are good at taking things apart (and putting them back together) this will take less than an hour. NOTE: I often make use of a digital camera while taking things apart. Take a picture of things as you go, so you can see how to put them back together later.

The problem is the switch is corroded, from oxidation or carbon buildup, or both. Getting to it is most of the trouble. Follow these instructions:
1. Unplug the iron (helpful hint for the simple-minded. Can't iron if you're dead.) Dump out any water that's in it.
2. Remove two phillips-head screws from bottom of cord winder at base of iron.
3. Pull cord winder housing away from iron to expose electrical wiring.
4. Remove the small gray insulator card from it's slot to expose the screws that attach all the wires.
5. A red, blue, and black wire go up into the handle and attach to the shut-off circuit board. Tug on them gently to slide the circuit board out of the handle, remembering which side is up.
6. There's a screw inside the handle. Look where the circuit card came out and you'll see it in there. Use a screwdriver to remove it. Now you can lift up on the back of the small curved cover where the steam and squirt buttons are, and it will come off. Don't lose the steam setting button, it may fall off.
7. Now you can see the water jet nozzle. Lift it out of the way to find a screw under there. Take that screw out. I call this screw #1 for a reason.
8. There are three screws in the back of the iron, near the wires. They hold the iron together. Left and right are like screw #1. Take them out. The other one is a machine screw that's in the center, going down into the base. Take it out.
9. You can now lift the plastic part of the iron up off the metal part and set it aside. On top of the black plastic where screw #1 went through, near the pointy end of the iron, there should be a small washer. Locate it and set it aside. You'll want to make sure it gets back where it belongs when you reassemble.
10. There is a lamp that turns on when the iron is heating. It has two fine bare wires, a copper one (on the right if the iron is lying flat and you're looking at the base), and a silver one to the left. Find the screw where the silver one attaches and loosen that screw. Gently pull that wire off the screw. Note the routing of that silver wire around the black plastic, including where the tube insulator on the wire lays-- you will need to put this back right later. Lift the lamp out and the silver wire so it's more or less sticking up in line with the screw where the copper wire attaches. This will facilitate the next step.
11. Separate the black plastic cover from the brass-colored metal iron base by lifting at the pointy end of the iron. The wires will try to hang you up in the back, but if you wiggle things just right you'll be able to get them mostly separated. The lamp will need to descend down through the black plastic where the wires go as you lift the plastic cover off. As you lift it off, look inside. You can see where the rotary switch is inside there.
12. So here's the deal: the rotary switch controls a thermostatic set of contacts. This means there's metal in there that bends as it gets hot; the hotter, the more it bends. This controls your iron's temperature. When it bends enough, it opens a set of "points", which are tiny cylindrical contacts at the bottom of the rotary switch mechanism. Put on your glasses and look under the mechanism as you rotate the rotary control and you'll see them click open and closed. You need to clean them.
13. Get a small strip of fine sandpaper (400 grit or finer), about 1/4" wide and 2" long. Turn the control until the points are open and slip the sandpaper in between them. Now turn the switch the other way to get the points to close on the sandpaper. Pull the sandpaper back and forth between the points; that'll clean the contact on the gritty side of the paper. Now open the points again, pull the sandpaper out, flip it over, put it back in, and close the points. Now another few pulls on the paper to clean the other contact.
14.Remove the sandpaper. Put the iron back together in reverse order. Some things to watch out for: When you put the black plastic part back down onto the metal iron base, you'll need to make sure the wires and the lamp go the right way. You also need to make sure that the grey rubber grommet that lets water from the plastic tank down into the heated elements is properly pushed up through the hole in the black plastic. If you have trouble seating the black plastic onto the metal iron base, it's probably because that grommet is stuck halfway through the hole. Make sure you put the steam selector button back where it goes before you put the curved cover onto the top of the plastic tank. Getting the screw up through the hollow handle and into the hole it goes into can be tricky. I held the phillips screwdriver point-up and set the screw on top. Then I held the iron point-up and slowly put the screw up through the handle and into the hole. This might take a couple of tries; be patient-- you'll get it. Be sure to put the circuit card back into the handle the right way. Finally, be VERY SURE to route the lamp wires through the plastic parts correctly, and also make sure that you have correctly routed the red, blue, and black wires from the circuit card correctly before you re-install the cord winder housing.

Good luck!

Find where the leak is coming from, and coat the leak or crack with silicone.

you need to take the base off the iron

I had the same problem. There is a thermal cut-off switch mounted to the top-side of the base-plate. Unfortunately, you have to completely disassemble the iron to get to it. It is an easy replace, just make sure you take good notes on how it's all wired and put together. To disassemble the iron, I did this:

- Mount it in the cord base and move the switch to the "wireless" setting to remove the cord assembly from the iron.
- There are 2 small while nubs on the bottom of the blue plate in back. These are plugs. Pull them out to expose 2 screws.
- Remove these two screws plus the one in the center of the back blue plate.
- Pull the blue plate from the back of the iron and MARK all wires so you know where they go, then remove them.
- You will see 2 screws into the blue plastic base-plate at the back. Remove these.
- Open the door at the front of the iron where you pour the water in.
- Pry the spray nozzle at the bottom out (pry it forward). This will expose a third screw into the blue part of the base-pate. Remove this screw.
- Pull the white plastic and blue reservior away from the blue plastic base-plate. This will expose three screws into the metal bottom plate. Remove these three screws (on in front, 2 in back).
- Pull the blue plate away from the bottom metal plate. This will expose the thermal cut-off. There is a screw with a small metal clip holding it down. This is the part you will need to replace.

I bought my replacement part from a local electronics store. On mine, it was a 240 degree C cut-off. The part I used was from NTE. Part number is NTE8242. It cost me $1.40.

I suspect the reason this blew on my iron is because Oreck engineers didn't expect it to be plugged in all the time (my wife did not like the 'wireless' mode as it did not stay hot long enough so she uses it in 'corded' mode). If you use the iron on it's hottest setting in this mode, it appears that perhaps the plate gets hotter than 204C. That, or Oreck just got a lot of bad thermal cut-off parts and they are cutting off at a temperature lower than 240C.

Hi, there is probably a something broken in the moulded plastic trigger assembly (there is a plastic broken finger that actuates a micro-switch under the rubber handle cover). If you are so inclined, use an orange stick and gently pry up the rubber handle cover on either side from the front to the rear cord end to access, inspect and troubleshoot. I am in SoCal and use the California Electric website to obtain parts or go to the Rowenta home website to locate useful manual information, PDF reader and dealer near you.

first, i'll apologize for not posting pictures with this, but i didn't have a camera handy when i "fixed" it. i'll do my best to explain the sitch.

i also have a sunbeam 4124 whose retractor was jammed...the cord would not release more than two feet or so, nor would it retract. i was able to disassemble it, but broke some internal retaining clips meant to hold the retractor housing to the iron. WARNING!! do not attempt this if you do not want to void your warranty. i can only assume that the manufacturer did not want you to disassemble the cord return housing and as such, hid the retaining clips where it would be impossible to disengage them. i got lucky and only broke one set of the retaining clips....if you carry on, you stand a chance of breaking both sets, which will not allow you to reattach the retractor housing to your iron securely. best thing to do is call sunbeam and have them send you a new iron, but if you're bent on fixing it yourself, here's how i did it (you'll need one medium philips head screwdriver):

1) remove the rubber feet from the bottom of the iron. this will expose two screw holes (the third foot under the retractor button has no screw; this is the side where the reaining clips are buried).
2) remove the two screws
3) WARNING! this is where you have a good chance of breaking your iron. pull the base of the iron really hard, rocking it from side to side. there are two sets of retaining clips recessed in the housing of the iron. the button will come with the base of the iron, the entire cord retraction assembly is self-contained. you can carefully use a screwdriver to pry the two halves apart. also, be careful not to pull too hard as the electrical connections between the iron and the retractor assembly has only about 2 inches of slack, though the connections are just wire-nut'd together and could be reassembled in a pinch.
4) after the retractor housing is separated from the iron, remove the housing cap by unscrewing the four screws.
5) carefully separate the two halves of the housing; the spring may be loose inside and could snap out at you.

here's where my iron was broken....the coil spring is contained by a plastic tray that had snapped, probably due to somebody pulling the cord out too hard. a section of the tray had jammed itself into the inside of the housing, immobilizing the winding mechanism. my only recourse was to completely remove the spring and permanently extend the cord all the way (not one of the features i bought the iron for anyway, so what the heck). PLEASE be careful unwinding the spring if you have to do it....wouldn't want anybody poking out an eye inadvertantly.

6) reassemble the retractor housing by screwing the cap back on with the four screws
7) if you're lucky enough to keep one set of retainer clips, snap the base of the iron back on and reattach the two screws located under the feet.
8) rubber pads back in and voila!

hope this helps!