How to wash a down pillow

It is quite difficult to wash a feather pillow at home, but it is quite possible to do it if you do not want to spend money on dry cleaning. It is important to adhere to only the basic rules and carefully choose detergents.

Features of washing feather pillows

Bird down and feathers are one of the classic options for pillow fillers. Usually feathers of ducks, geese, swans and other waterfowl are used in pillows, the products are very soft, “breathable” and have natural moisture-repellent properties. If you are not allergic to bird feathers and down, then the pillow will be a very good choice for a comfortable sleep.

The disadvantage of feather pillows is the difficulty in washing. It is strictly necessary to wash a pillow with down and a feather inside at least once a year, this helps to prevent the appearance of insects and mites, to eliminate the microparticles of dust and skin that inevitably accumulate in the feather pillow. But feather products do have a few things to consider before washing down pillows at home.

• If washed improperly at home, a feather pillow can knock into a tight, uneven lump and fall off, after which it will become uncomfortable to sleep on it.
• Hot water can damage bird down, it will only dig in the dirt deeper, and the pillow will get an unpleasant odor.
• Intensive washing can tear the pillow, and then the feathers will begin to crawl out of it, the pillow will have to be sewn up, or even thrown away.

Feather pillows should not be wrung out in the same way as regular pillows, as this also contributes to the lump of fluff. You need to dry feather products only in a natural way without using a battery and a hair dryer.

Preparing the down pillow for washing

In order for washing to help clean the feathers and not cause additional harm, the pillow must be properly prepared.

• Before washing your feather pillow, you need to buy or sew a few new covers from cotton or fine calico yourself. In size, such covers can be slightly smaller than the pillow itself, in which case you will need about 5 pieces, or twice as much pillow, then you can do with only one cover.
• Before washing, a feather product must be taken out to the balcony or outside and properly knocked out with a cracker or other suitable object, this will help get rid of the main dust.
• After that, one of the edges of the used cover is ripped open, all the fluff is removed from the pillow and transferred to the prepared new covers, or naperniki. The fluff is stuffed into a large cover or laid out in several small ones, filling them about half.
• Feather covers are sewn around the edges, best of all with a typewriter, so that the seam does not come apart during the wash process.

It is in these temporary covers that you will need to wash the fluff at home.

How to wash down pillows

Before you wash your feathers, you need to find the right laundry detergent.You cannot use an accidental cleaning agent, you will have to sleep on the washed pillow, so it is important that the powder does not have a strong persistent odor that irritates the sense of smell. For the same reason, it is better to wash a feather pillow at home without using fabric softener. These products usually have a powerful fragrance that will make it difficult to fall asleep.

Some of the most popular products designed specifically for washing a feather pillow at home include:

• Nikwax Down Wash - liquid soap for washing with a light structure;
• Grangers down wash - impregnation for gentle washing of products with natural feather filling;
• Heitmann - liquid for washing products with feather or down filling.

The listed funds cost several times more than ordinary powder. However, they help to achieve the desired effect and wash the pillow without leaving a strong chemical smell on it. In addition, such funds are enough for a long time, and often you will not need to spend extra money.

How to wash a down pillow at home

You can wash a feather pillow yourself, at home - you don't have to dry-clean it. True, you will have to spend quite a lot of time on washing and pay special attention to the process, but this will save money and clean the bedding with high quality.

How to machine wash a feather pillow

Hand washing at home is not very popular, it is natural that most people are interested, first of all, in how to wash a feather pillow in a typewriter. This can be done, although you will need to take precautions so that the automatic wash does not ruin the thing.

The first step is to fill the washing machine with a suitable detergent. It is not recommended to use ordinary powder, it has a too strong odor, moreover, microparticles of the product are difficult to rinse out. If you wash a feather pillow in an automatic machine with ordinary powder, the product can be saturated with its smell and, moreover, provoke allergies even in a healthy person. Another reason to stop using powder is the poor effect of bulk substances on the physical properties of feathers and down. It is best to use special detergents designed to effectively wash a pillow, down jacket, or other down-filled product without damaging its structure.

Before washing your down pillow in a washing machine, you should purchase special soft plastic balls for use in washing machines. Together with the filling of the pillow, such balls are loaded into the drum, and during the washing process they not only provide additional mechanical action, but also do not allow the fluff to fall off in lumps.

To wash a down pillow in an automatic machine at home, you need to adhere to the following algorithm:

• several sewn-in bags with feathers stuffed in them are loaded into the drum of the unit;
• tennis or special balls are thrown there;
• detergent is added to a special compartment of the washing machine;
• choose a mode - ideally it is necessary to put "down" or "duvet", but if such a mode is not provided in the device, then you can simply choose a hand or delicate wash;
• set the temperature to no more than 30 ° C so that the structure of down and feathers is not destroyed;
• set the number of drum revolutions during spinning - no more than 400.

When washing the feather pillow filler at home, it is recommended to use the intensive rinse mode - this will help to qualitatively remove the remaining detergent.

If the filler from the pillow takes more than 2-3 bags, then it is better to run several washes in turn - it is not recommended to load the machine tightly so that the fluff does not get lost in a lump during the washing process. If the machine ends up being too lightly loaded, you can add a few towels to the bags of down and feathers to help distribute the load more evenly.

Since you cannot use the intensive spin cycle for automatic washing of down pillows, the bags will have to be wrung out mostly by hand. After the machine finishes the cycle of work, the covers with the filler will need to be removed and carefully, but carefully, squeeze the water out of them over the bathtub or a spread towel.

How to hand wash a feather pillow

Despite the fact that washing a feather product in a typewriter is real, many are afraid to do it. If you don't feel like loading the feather bags into the automatic drum, you can wash the pillow yourself with your hands - it will take more time, but it will allow you to better control the process.

• For hand washing, you will need to pour lukewarm water into a large basin or bath - the temperature should not exceed 30 ° C.
• You can hand wash feather filler at home without special bags. Down and feathers are simply removed from the pillow, immersed in a basin and left to soak for 3-4 hours.
• Some of the washed feathers must be collected with a colander and carefully rinsed under the tap, making sure that the feathers do not fall out of the colander. Several times, the entire filler is washed in running water, and then the water is drained from the basin into the toilet or the bath is drained. In the latter case, an additional mesh must be installed in the drain hole, since in the soapy water, in any case, small feathers and particles of down will remain.
• After that, clean water is again taken into the basin or bath and the detergent is added to it. If it is not at hand, you can also wash the product using natural shampoo without a strong odor or shavings of baby or laundry soap.
• The detergent is thoroughly stirred in water, and then feathers and down are poured into the water and gently rubbed with their hands for several minutes. Most of the dust and dirt will go away after soaking and subsequent rinsing, but you still need to wash the filler with detergent - this will get rid of the remaining dirt.

The washed filler is again thoroughly rinsed under the tap in cool water using a colander, and then lightly squeezed with your hands to drain off most of the water.

How to steam clean

Another way to self-wash your down-filled pillow is to steam it at home. In practice, the method is not used very often, but it has its advantages - steaming not only removes dirt, but also kills bacteria and disinfects the pillow.

For cleaning, both a special steamer and an iron with a steam function are suitable. The process looks like this:

• the pillow is fixed in weight with several clothespins;
• water is poured into the iron, the vaporization mode is activated and the surface of the product is carefully treated from all sides;
• the pillow is left hanging for 15 minutes, and then the procedure is repeated.

This method works well for new pillows or items that are frequently washed. But if the pillow is old, and it is time to wash it for a very long time, it is wiser to nevertheless carefully open the cover and remove the feathers. The steaming process will look like this:

• the pillow is opened and the down and feathers are poured into a mesh bag with small cells - a mesh for washing is well suited;
• the mesh is suspended, and then thoroughly treated with hot steam from all sides;
• the pillow cover is thoroughly cleaned from the remains of down and feathers from the inside, washed and ironed.

The dried, clean feathers are returned to the pillow and the cover is sewn back up.

How to dry feather pillows properly

It is not enough to just wash your feather pillow at home, it also needs to be dried properly. If you approach the drying process inattentively, the results will be disastrous - the pillow can acquire an unpleasant odor, become a breeding ground for microorganisms, and lose its comfortable shape and structure.

When drying feather products, the following rules are followed.

• After washing, the fluff must be dried completely so that even the slightest traces of moisture do not remain. If you wash the padding at home, and then push at least slightly damp fluff back into the cover, fungus and mold will inevitably start in the product, an unpleasant smell will appear, and sleeping on such a pillow will become simply unpleasant and dangerous.
• It is necessary to dry the fluff in a natural way. You cannot lay them out on a hot battery or use a powerful hairdryer - intense heat will damage the feathers, make them more fragile and disrupt their unique hygroscopic properties.
• Down padding must be dried with a thin layer, first of all, this will significantly speed up the process, and will also help to maintain the light and airy structure of the filler, which is responsible for increased sleep comfort.

Usually, the drying of a feather pillow is carried out as follows:

• the washed down is laid out on a dry, flat surface in a thin layer and placed in a bright, but well-ventilated place without direct sunlight;
• it is advisable to put paper or a thin cloth under the feathers - they will absorb excess moisture and make drying faster;
• if drying is carried out at home, then the surface with feathers can not be covered with anything, but if the feathers are dried on the balcony or in the yard, they must be covered with gauze from above so that the light feathers do not fly apart.

Drying of the filler can take about 1-2 days at warm air temperatures and low humidity.

You can also hang the washed feather padding to dry directly in the covers or move the feathers into the net. But it is not recommended to use this method unnecessarily - in a single coma, feathers always dry more slowly, and there is a chance that some moisture will remain in them. During the drying process, the feathers must be regularly agitated if they are spread out open, or shake the bags.

For quick drying of feathers, it is allowed to use a hair dryer, but its application time should not exceed 15 minutes. In addition, the mode must be set so that the air flow is warm, but not hot.

After the feathers are dry to the end, they will need to be pushed into the washed cover of the product and tightly sewn up the edge that was ripped open earlier. After that, the pillow needs to be lightly fluffed with your hands to give it a comfortable shape and fluff the feathers inside.

Conclusion

There are several ways to wash a feather pillow at home. It will take more time to wash the down than when using dry cleaning, but the result will be no worse if you follow the main rules.