Yes, the appliance switches off automatically after a few minutes of non-use. Normal water goes without a problem (I use it all the time) if it is not too hard. It also has an extra yellow limescale collector which is easy to empty.

The manual says that normal tap water can be used, there is a kind of plug at the bottom of the iron where you can remove the limescale, I filter the water through Britta beforehand, as for the automatic switch-off, I think it just goes into a kind of stand-by mode, but it doesn't switch off completely