Hot Tools Titanium Curling Iron has the best record for fast heat-up: 14 of 14 shoppers said it heated up quickly, though that is a modest group. Conair Instant Heat 1-Inch Curling Iron follows at 25 of 28, and Conair Double Ceramic 1-Inch Curling Iron has the weakest record here at 16 of 22. Beyond heat-up, the repeat complaints are curls that fall out and an iron that is hard to use.
Updated . How we count
Share of reviewers who stated an outcome for slow heat-up. Ranked by the lower bound of a 90% confidence interval, so a product needs both a good share and enough reports to rank high.
Heat-up is just part of the story. Further down the list, 30% of Conair Double Ceramic 1-Inch Curling Iron reviews say curls fall out and 32% say it is hard to use, against 15% and 12% for Conair Instant Heat 1-Inch Curling Iron.
Praise and complaints are the points reviewers repeat most, shown as a share of each product's counted store reviews.
Hot Tools
Best for curls that last
No misses among the shoppers who stated an outcome (14 of 14), though it is a modest group. 67% call the curls nice, 33% say they last and 40% call it easy to use. No complaint showed up more than once.
No repeated complaints yet.
Conair
Best for value
More reviewers weighed in on this iron than on any other here (28), and 25 of 28 said it heated up quickly. The reviews first posted on Conair's own site agree at 9 of 9, which we show but don't count. 41% call it good value. The repeat complaints are curls that fall out (15%) and an iron that is hard to use (12%).
Conair
Strong on heat-up, weaker on curls. 20 of 23 said it heated up quickly and 17% call it good value, but the repeat complaints are curls that fall out (20%) and an iron that is hard to use (14%). 6% mention tangles or snags.
Kristin Ess
Just 9 of its 32 counted reviews said anything about heat-up time. 8 of 9 said it heated up quickly. The rest talk about the curls: 31% call them nice, but curls that fall out (25%) and an iron that is hard to use (19%) are the repeat complaints. 12% mention damaged hair and 6% say it stopped working.
Conair
16 of 22 said it heated up quickly, the weakest record here, while 6 of 22 said it was slow or never got hot enough. An iron that is hard to use (32%) and curls that fall out (30%) are the repeat complaints. 15% still call it good value, so experiences vary.
The 5 products ranked here carry 953 reviews at Target. We read the newest reviews of each product (up to a thousand per listing), kept the ones that talk about slow heat-up, and counted up to 40 per product, posted between Jun 2009 and Sep 2026.
A review counts only when the reviewer used the product themselves. We drop reviews written in exchange for a free product or a sweepstakes entry (23 on this page), and products that are no longer sold.
Target also shows reviews first posted on brands' own websites. We show them on product cards but never count them, because brand-site reviews run more positive than store reviews of the same products.
Because we searched for the problem, people who had it are overrepresented. Compare products with each other rather than reading a share as your own odds.
Skin type, skin tone and age splits use what reviewers chose on Sephora's review form (and age on Ulta's when given). We only show a split when enough reviewers fall on each side.
Amazon buttons appear only on products that most reviewers here say fix the problem (at least 60%, with enough reviews to trust it). Everything else gets no buy link.
An AI model labels each review against a fixed list of points, and we spot-check the labels before publishing. We publish counts, never the reviews themselves.
Hot Tools Titanium Curling Iron has the best record (14 of 14), followed by Conair Instant Heat 1-Inch Curling Iron (25 of 28) and Conair Double Ceramic 1.5-Inch Curling Iron (20 of 23). The leader rests on a modest group of shoppers, so treat the order as a hint.
Follow the maker's heat settings. Start on a low setting and raise it just enough for the curl to hold. Keep the hot barrel away from your skin, and unplug the iron and let it cool on a heat-resistant surface after you use it.
Not always. This page counts heat-up, not curl-holding, and that part varies. 30% of Conair Double Ceramic 1-Inch Curling Iron reviews and 25% of Kristin Ess Soft Bend Titanium Curling Iron reviews say curls fall out, while 33% of Hot Tools Titanium Curling Iron reviews say the curls last.
No. Conair has three irons on this page and their records differ: Conair Instant Heat 1-Inch Curling Iron at 25 of 28, Conair Double Ceramic 1.5-Inch Curling Iron at 20 of 23 and Conair Double Ceramic 1-Inch Curling Iron at 16 of 22. The two Double Ceramic models come in different barrel sizes, and Conair Double Ceramic 1-Inch Curling Iron has the weakest record here.
HiveTried earns a commission when you buy through the "See price & reviews on Amazon" buttons. It never changes the ranking: the order comes from buyer reports only, and a product gets an Amazon button only when buyers here say it works.