LG Styler Review

Reducing your trips to the dry cleaner, the LG Styler steams, dries and refreshes clothes, hygienically cleaning items to keep them looking their best. Not one for all households, but for those who have a number of difficult-to-clean, expensive clothes, the Styler is a unit that will get daily use.

Popular throughout the Far East and growing in the US, steam cupboards for refreshing and drying clothes are found in many homes. Now, the LG Styler delivers the same functionality to these shores.

Designed to refresh your clothes with steam, the LG Styler can kill germs, infuse clothes with a scent and even dry them. It isn’t a tumble dryer; more a daily unit to extend the time between dry cleaning of delicate items, and keeping coats, say, in their best condition.

It’s a neat bit of kit, but it’s expensive and heavy; it isn’t the kind of thing for which all households will have space. The LG Styler is a niche product, then, but potentially a valuable one for the right household.

LG Styler design and features – Like a hi-tech mini-wardrobe

Tall and exceptionally heavy (1850 x 445 x 585mm, 82kg), the LG Styler resembles a fridge. Open the glass-fronted door to take a peek inside, and it still looks a bit like a fridge, sporting a gloss-white interior. However, you’ll soon see that this product is designed for clothes.

On the door is a trouser press, with a hook for hanging items above: you place your trousers into the hanger upside down and close the door of the press on them. There are also three hanging spaces for clothes (shirts, coats and the like), with LG providing hangers for them.

Finally, there’s a wire shelf at the bottom, upon which you can place folded woollen items. You can also pick up the shelf and hang it on the back, out of the way.

While this may not sound like much room, it’s important to keep in mind the purpose of the LG Styler. Rather than competing against washing machines or tumble dryers, this steam cupboard is built for everyday use, refreshing and revitalising smaller items of clothing.

The Styler doesn’t technically clean clothes or remove stains, but it uses steam to kill germs (it’s 99.9% effective against E.coli and S.epidermidis), as well as being certified to reduce dust mites and fungi.

You fill up the water tank at the front of the unit to create steam; a second tank collects used water during the drying process.

With the addition of an aroma sheet, which clips into the holder at the back, not only can you refresh clothes but you can infuse them with a clean smell.

Effectively, the Styler has been designed mainly to refresh clothes, removing germs and leaving them clean from a hygiene perspective. So, for example, rather than having to take a suit to the dry cleaners when it isn’t actually dirty, or because it smells after a night out, the Styler can work its magic to leave it looking and smelling fresh. Or, think of a winter coat that smells a bit musty because it’s been tucked in the back of a wardrobe for the summer; the Styler can make it feel clean and smelling fresh.

The Styler comes with several set programmes. Select your desired option via the simple touch controls on the front of the unit; or use the handy quick-guide – it attaches via a rubber sucker to the side of the Styler – to choose the right cycle for your needs. Do check that your clothes are compatible with the options first, however.

These include Refresh (normal, light or heavy) for bringing life back into regular clothes; Special Care (suits, wool, sports wear); Sanitary (normal, bedding, fine dust and heavy duty), which runs an extra sanitise cycle; and Gentle Dry, which is for drying clothes that can’t go in a tumble dryer – or for sticking in a rain coat that’s just had a soaking. There’s a download option, preloaded with cycles for jeans and down-filled items, too. Plus, you can even use the Styler as a dehumidifier by leaving the door open and running the Dehumidify option.

If you hook up the Syler to Wi-Fi then you can use the LG ThinQ app, which lets you remote control it, setting the programme automatically. Currently, you can only access the same programmes as those on the front control panel. Turn on Remote Start from the panel and you’ll be able to set your Styler running whilst out and about, which could be useful if you want to come home to refreshed bedding, for example.

Turn on the machine, and it gently hums to life. You’ll hear the compressor running and the gentle sound of steam being emitted, but it peaked at just 45.2dB when measured from 1 metre away. Effectively, walk away from the Styler to another room and you won’t be able to hear it.

On the front, the display points out where in the cycle the machine is: prepare, steam or dry. And there’s a count-down timer that indicates the time to the end of the programme.

LG Styler performance – Quiet and simple to operate

The Styler provides a number of different cycles, but I attempted using the three main ones. First, I took some suit trousers that were left looking very wrinkled after a wash, using the Special Care Suit cycle to try to remove some of these, while also refreshing them.

Taking just 34 minutes and using 0.4kWh of power (around 6.5p in cost), my trousers were noticeably improved – although the Styler didn’t remove the need for an iron. Instead, the unit rejuvenates items that have been pressed before – say, after travelling – rather than being a replacement for an iron.

Next, I took my winter coat and ran it on the Normal refresh cycle (39 minutes), hanging it up in the main area. As well as steaming and drying, these hangers move to gently agitate the clothes to improve overall response. This mode costs around 3.7p (0.228kWh). My coat emerged feeling soft and smelling far fresher.

Finally, I ran the Gentle Dry Cycle on a coat that had been rained on. It was quite well saturated when it went in, but came out completely dry, and it smelt fresh, too. It took 51 minutes and cost around 5.27p (0.327kWh).

Should you buy the LG Styler?

In answering the above, it’s first important to point out what the Styler is not: it isn’t a replacement for tumble dryer, nor can it remove the need for an iron. Instead, this is a unit for keeping your clothes in the best shape, hygienically steaming them and gently drying wet items. Sure, it’s expensive and there isn’t a huge amount of room inside, but the Styler isn’t trying to compete with your average tumble dryer. Whether or not you decide to invest will come down to the type of clothes you have and the amount of space in your home.

So, if you have the cash and space – and if much of your wardrobe comprises dry clean-only garments – the Styler provides a way of keeping your items in the best shape, reducing the number of trips you make to the dry cleaner. That in itself may make it worth the purchase price for many. So, the LG Styler is a niche product for sure – but in the right households it could prove invaluable.