Philips Azur Steam GC4410

That isn't very helpful. If the iron NEVER automatically steamed, then I wouldn't have asked the question. The fact is that it did once work and now it doesn't. The manual steam works when the button top right of the iron is pressed as does the "squirter", the button top left, but it doesn't steam automatically any more. The slider between the button (0-6) has no effect. The iron has been cleaned using a de-calcifier.

The Philips irons are a bit more technical than most. Mine stopped producing steam automatically but worked fine manually. There's what looks like a miniature upside down metal disc inside the iron. Google "Bimetal Disc For Anti-drip" in image search and you'll see one. It has a little bit of oblong metal attached to the plate that sticks out. When the iron heats up then what happens is that in an instant the plate turns from being upside down to being the right way up. (Just like when your brolly turns inside out from the wind). You'll hear the iron doing that when you hear that loud "ding" inside it when it's heated up. That little bit of metal is lifted up by this action and that opens a valve and that lets the steam through automatically.

I noticed a rattle inside mine and eventually a tiny bit of metal dropped out. (The oblong bit that opens the valve). After putting up with it a while I opened up the iron to find put what had happened The oblong bit had been welded to the plate but the plate was severely corroded and that had eaten through the weld and so the metal oblong valve opener had ceased to work and dropped off. There was no corrosion protection on the plate at all. I bought a second hand cheaper Philips iron and removed the plate (which DID have corrosion protection) and swapped them over and the iron works fine.

The absence of adequate corrosion protection on those discs seems to cause these failures. At the very least Philips should provide replacements for them free.