I hate steam irons and I never use water in mine it always ends up all yukky so I just use it dry with a little hand spray that you use for flowers .. much better
I have never used my steam iron with water and use it all the time as a dry iron. We live in an area where the water is extremely hard and the minerals in the water can furr up and shorten its life. If I need to steam press anything I simply use a damp cloth over the article in question and this works perfectly.