Rowenta Focus Excel DW5280 Review

The Rowenta Focus Excel has a very elongated, narrow nose that helps it do detailing work with ease. It's great on certain fabrics but has a sloppy steam boost function that, more often than not, leaves large water drops on the fabric.

Performance Comparison

Ironing Performance

The Focus Excel is one of our favorites to use on cotton and linen. It flattens wrinkles quickly, requiring just 1 or 2 passes. It sometimes bunches up the fabric rather than gliding over it, but it still does an admirable job. On silk, satin, and polyester, however, it has a harder time smoothing out regular wrinkles. Using the steam boost function resulted in large drops of water rather than extra steam. This model boasts over 400 steam openings (though the actual number on our test model was closer to 370), meaning smaller openings in more locations around the iron. While the principle behind this sounds great, it didn't seem to make much of a difference compared to the others we tested.

Steam Output

With so many steam holes, very little steam is actually visible coming out of them. We measured the steam output of the Focus Excel at just shy of the average amount among models in our lineup. It also fluctuated temperature during our testing, changing the amounts of steam it released, despite having no one fiddling with the controls.

Heating

The Focus Excel is solidly below average in terms of the temperature it achieves. Hitting an average of just 309°F across its soleplate, this iron is one of the coolest in our lineup. However, its nose gets much warmer at 338°F. This translated to better detailing performance throughout our testing.

Detailing

Not all accentuated noses are great for detailing, but the one on the Focus Excel truly is. It's very long and pointy, making it easy to angle into all the little crevices and pockets of your garments. It feels great to use, with a comfortable grip on the handle. Our only complaint is that the cord is a bit closer than we'd like and occasionally brushes against the wrist while twisting around button holes and collars.

Ease of Use

Like many of the irons we tested, the Focus Excel has a nice long, 8-foot cord that permits freedom of movement. It's attached with a ball joint meant to swivel 360 degrees, but it proved to be too rigid to rotate properly. The indicator light is rather dim, forcing you to squint to see if it's on or off. Filling the water tank took some getting used to. The back of the opening appears to be a funnel for directing water but resulted in a lot of back spray and shooting the water off to one side. On the flip side, the extra spray function on this model is one of our favorites. It's nearly as wide as the iron and shoots out far enough that it only requires a single press to get the right amount of water. The only way it could be better is if it were a finer mist, but we still like it a lot, just the way it is.

Should You Buy the Rowenta Focus Excel DW5280?

The Focus Excel works well on certain fabrics and for detailing jobs. If you never find yourself needing to iron polyester, silk, or anything satin, this limitation probably won't apply to you. It's one of our favorites for detailing. However, it's also more expensive than several models we liked even more that offer better and more well-rounded performances.

What Other Irons Should You Consider?

For a more balanced iron that details well but also performs admirably on large swaths of all kinds of fabric, the Black+Decker D3030 Allure is an excellent option and costs less. If you must have the best for detailing and are willing to sacrifice all medium and large jobs, the Panasonic NI-L70SR Cordless is an intriguing model that does top-notch detailing work in short bursts. But if you prefer the traditional corded style and truly value detailing abilities above all else, the Focus Excel may be for you.