Does It Really Do That: Steam Buddy

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- Are you tired of ironing?

The Steam Buddy promises to be the fastest, easiest and safest way to get rid of wrinkles. But does it really do that?

In the infomercial, Billy Mays claims the Steam Buddy can steam press a shirt on the hanger.

If it does, the Steam Buddy will be Laura Scott's new best buddy.

"We have a hemp clothing line," said Scott. "Not only eco-friendly, but it's four times stronger than cotton."

Scott travels across the country packing and unpacking wrinkled clothes.

"Boxes, plastic bins, garment bags, suitcases, you name it," she said. "The car is packed and we drive everywhere."

The Steam Buddy is small and supposedly easy to use. You just fill the supplied cup with water, fill the steamer and plug it in.

The directions say an indicator light will turn on, but our light does not go on for several minutes.

Then, it flashed on and off. According to the directions, it's time to steam.

To start Steam Buddy, Scott slowly pushes the steam button four to five times and nothing happens. We try again and we wait and wait.

Then, Scott runs the Steam Buddy up and down the shirt but the wrinkles stay.

"I say it's not working," she said. "There's a little heat but no steam. I'm really pulling for it though. I'm not impressed so far."

We figured our first Steam Buddy was a dud, so we ran out and bought a second one.

Again we fill. But this time the indicator light comes on immediately and goes off in a few seconds.

This time when we slowly push the steam button, we do see some steam. When we push the button in and hold, we should see continuous steam, but it does not happen.

"This is just as disappointing," said Scott.

Although we still have trouble getting continuous steam, we are getting bursts of steam. Those bursts of steam are getting out wrinkles, but not very quickly.

"It's a little labor intensive," said Scott. "An iron might be faster or just letting them hang and selling them wrinkled."

So Scott tries it on a silk dress.

"It's definitely easier to move on the silk," said Scott.

She says a Steam Buddy might be nice to have around for touch ups.

"I want to like it, but I don't think I'd buy it," she adds. "I would probably end up returning it."

Overall, we give the Steam Buddy a thumbs down.