– Why do some garment steamers require salt and some tell you not to add it?

Question

My girlfriend has a travel steamer and the instructions said to add salt, and I tried it without salt and it didn’t work. I use handheld steamers regularly at work and have never needed to add salt to make them work. Some instructions I found online explicitly say to not add salt because it can cause mineral deposits. Why is it required for some steamers and not for others?

In: 4

Answer 1

I would hazard a guess that her steamer uses the resistance of the water to heat it rather than having a heater. The salt increases the conductivity of the water letting it heat faster.

So instead of the electricity going though a heater and that heater warming the water, the electricity instead goes straight through the water itself. This kind of heating water is not uncommon in underdeveloped countries but is very dangerous because the water itself is electrified