HOT TOOLS(2018 MODEL) Pro Artist 24K Gold Curling Iron | Long Lasting, Defined Curls (3/4 in)

Love this curling iron. Does everything right and heats up fast. It's the one to buy!

I received my curling iron this week and even though I've only used it for a few days, I am loving it! I bought the Hot Tools Professional Curling Iron 1 1/2" barrel, which is the perfect size for larger curls and adding body to your hair. I've used Conair brand, same size barrel for over 10 years and every time I had to buy a new one, it was because the spring on them always gave out, the heat was always fine. This time I decided I was going to try a new brand, since I wanted a longer lasting one and being a big fan of Amazon, I done my research and this is the one I went for based on the mixed reviews and the awesome price.Here are some PROS:** VERY HOT at the highest heat (For thick fine straight hair such as mine I need the hottest setting, and the curls feel so soft when done using it and adds nice body).** Cord length is perfect, longer than Conair.** Barrel thumb holder at the end is awesome, Conair doesn't have this feature to stick your finger in to hold the end of the barrel.** End of the barrel holder is longer and helps not to burn delicate fingers.** Swivel cord is very helpful.** Definitely start at a low temperature and move the dial forward as you need to for the temperature setting you like.** Hand grip is soft and comfortable.********* The BONUS: 2 extra springs (Comes with directions of how to install them, with black and white step-by-stem photo process, seems easy). Now this makes having this curling a MUST for long term, especially when the spring is the first to go. Plus, the directions come with a mailer if you want to buy more springs at a rate of about $2.00 per spring (If you absolutely want more).OVERALL: For the price of this curling iron and the 2 additional springs that come with it, long term seems indefinite and it is an EXCELLENT DEAL!! Only question is how long does the temperature dial button, on/off switch, and heating element go out? That is the only question that arises when using this for years down the road...Here are some CONS:** The location of the temperature button on the left side and the on/off switch on the right side take some getting used to for your fingers if your new to Hot Tools. It can be easy to turn on/off with your finger, which could cause some problems. Takes time to get used to having an on/off slider switch.** The power indicator light is on the left side, where the temperature control dial is. The power light indicator is a light orange color, it's not that bright to signify the power is on.** ONLY DOWNSIDE: The power light indicator stays a solid orange, does NOT signify when the curling iron is ready to use at your select temperature setting. The directions says it takes 60 seconds to heat up, but the power light indicator does not show the time it's taking to heat up. As a previous Conair user it was very handy to see when the curling iron was ready to use because the power light quit blinking to signify to the user that it was ready to use.**** Recommendation: A different power light indicator would benefit this curling iron, perhaps a better location at the top, in between the temperature dial and on/off power slide switch, a brighter light to indicate power, and some sort of blinking motion for the indicator power light to let the user know that it is ready and hot enough to use. A different on/off switch could help as well.Best wishes to any new Hot Tools curling iron users, I hope this review helps you to decide and ENJOY! :-)

Favorite curling iron! This is my second one, I bought this one again after the 1st one stopped working after 10 years. It gets nice and hot and works well for thick corse hair. The iron is lightweight which is nice when you have lots of hair.

Purchased 6/2010, reviewed 6/2014:Well, better late than never. I bought this curling iron for my wife, after reading online reviews. She LOVED this curling iron. She liked that it heated up fast, opened and closed well, gripped her hair when she wanted it to, and let go when it was supposed to.I couldn't say exactly when it went from "love" to less than that. But it started probably around the two year mark, after being used on average, about once per week. It started to not heat up really well, and I think that there had been a flaw of some kind in the power cord, at the point where the cord attaches to the swivel connection on the iron. There was no visible problem, anywhere on the cord. It eventually got to the point where it didn't heat at all. That was probably in this last year, so it was a good 2-3 years old, I would say.So this last winter, about 2/2014, I took the thing apart, and couldn't find a thing wrong. I put it back together and kind of told my wife that it was her imagination--I don't know, I think I was just too busy at the time to be bothered. Then when I saw her a few weeks later using another old curling iron, and I asked her why she wasn't using the her favorite, and she said it just doesn't work anymore. So I figured maybe she wasn't making it up :)I took it apart again, and put an ohm meter on the cord part, and it was not good. I figured it unlikely that it was in the actual cord. So I started to cut into the thick part of the cord where it had a reinforced curve in it, and was able to get down to where I found that there must have been a break there. I cut that part of the cord out, soldered the cord onto the connectors that had been inside that molded reinforced curve, and put all of it back together with epoxy as something of a new homemade connection to reinforce it, and she was off and running again.Then in just the last few months, probably when the curling iron was about 3 1/2 years old, my wife started complaining that the curling iron was not gripping her hair well enough, and was slipping, and also that it was making a squeaking sound whenever she opened and closed the pincers--don't know if that's the right term. I am also not sure I understand another comment that she made, though, that she has trouble getting her hair out of it when she finds it is slipping.Anyway, all of that doesn't matter. I just looked at the spring area and could see that up underneath where the spring is, the point that contacts the pincer just below the thumb knob, there is a tiny roller that helps the spring to slide quietly back and forth, that was off center, and it also wasn't rolling anymore. It was mostly sliding. So I adjusted it to the side a little, and liberally sprayed some dry lubricant on it. The action works better, and it doesn't make any noise, so we will have to wait until she uses it again to see if it works.So as of today 6/16/2014, the iron is still going after approximately 200+ uses, albeit with some required tweaking to keep it out of the garbage. I would like to believe that the power cord issue that we had was a rare defect, and that most people never run into that. I'm thinking that most people could use this iron over 200 times and probably just be starting to have a squeaky spring issue, and that's about it. If I were to have to start this product search again, I would definitely take a chance again on this iron, and hope that we didn't get the cord defect in that reinforced bend near the swivel.For the money, and the use that we've had with this, I think it's a great deal. I actually just realized that we probably have used it many more than 200 times, as we have four girls aged 12 and under as well, but they generally don't get their hair curled, although on some special occasions, several of them do.Details on my star rating:Why did I ding this by one star? Well, although I would buy it again in a second, Amazon's star system equates four stars with a "like it" and five stars as a "love it." I could imagine some engineering tweaks to their design that would eliminate the issues we had. Also, I saw the inside of it when I was working on it, and although the parts were adequate, I would be cheating a curling iron with better quality parts that deserved the five stars, if I were to give this one five.As I've said in other reviews that I've written, to me, either four or five stars is a "buy with confidence" in my book. I wouldn't buy anything again with 1-2 stars on my scale, and a middle-of-the-road three star review by me would be "your mileage may vary" and would be a 50/50 shot.