With Iron unplugged, Remove the 2 screws holding the rear plastic to the base and handle assembly. Turn Iron over on your lap so that its base stainless steel base is facing up and the pointed end towards your knees. Using a wide but thin flat blade screwdriver or flat end of bottle opener on a penknife set, insert blade between the join of the plastic back plate and plastic of the base - insert the blade just to the outside on either side of the silver 'Russell Hobbs' label that's affixed to the plastic - this is where there are 2 plastic clips inside that secure the back plastic to the base plastic. Gently prise apart each side and the clips should separate without breaking. Pull the base plastic gently up and you should be able to see a third inner clip located between the 2 screw holes and inside the iron base - insert a screwdriver or similar up into the back where this clip is and you should be able to prise the clip from its connector. Then gently lift the base cover towards top of iron and this will release 2 further inner clips adjacent to the back of the handle. That will give access to the wiring in the rear so that you can then disconnect the lead and attach a new one. The paired wires are clamped together with 2 flattened metal connectors covered by clear plastic. Unflatten the connectors using pliers on the plastic covers, pull off the plastic connectors revealing the bare wires. Make a note of which wires connect to each other - blue neutral on lead to white neutral in iron, brown live on lead to black live in iron, disconnect the yellow/green earth on lead from the screw connector from same coloured earth on iron and reconnect new lead earth. The paired live and neutral wires are also clamped together with plastic clamps which should be carefully cut off and replaced with similar sized new ones that are cut short once tightened up - take care not to cut into the wiring whilst removing these. The mains lead is also clamped onto the iron inside the handle by a black plastic clamp secured by 2 screws. Undo both screws and remove one screw on one side in order to remove the mains lead which is taped with black insulating tape where it meets the clamp. Once all leads are disconnected you can pull the whole mains lead out from the top of the iron by the rubber grommet housing. Remember to remove this from the lead and put it back onto your new lead. Reverse procedure to reconnect the wiring and put the base housing back together.
Steve., January 2015
