Any tips for washing my king size winter duvet in the bath?

[SlinkyDogg]

Cos it won't fit in our washing machine and I don't want to go to a launderette.
Just soak for a few hours in warm water and normal clothes detergent, then rinse a few times.
Squeeze as much water as I can out, put in a bin bag and drape over our two clothes lines in the garden.
Sound reasonable?

Don’t. Just don’t. You’ll not get all the water and soap out and it will stink. Spot clean any areas of (ahem) soiling. With as little soap as possible. Then hang outside.

God, no! I wouldn't! It will be SO SO HEAVY! Impossible to squeeze surely? It'll be hell to move when wet. Can't it just have a good airing in the garden and spot clean any marks? I think you'll regret it if you wet it.

No no no! It will be incredibly heavy when wet. It'll drip all over the floor and you'll never get it dry.

leave it until we get a prolonged heatwave or you can get to a laundrette. Obviously not urgent so just pack it away until now.

otherwise all you'll get is a smelly damp duvet which you will have to throw away.

Depends if it's feather or a cheaper poly one .. it's it's feather you will ruin it . If it's hot enough you can wash it and hang it whilst continuously squeezing the water out but it needs to be boiling for this to work..
I'm an ex dry cleaner and I know what I'm talking about ( I've seen some really silly things ) .. feather duvets come out the wash completely flat and lifeless so unless you can spin it and tumble it don't bother as it will stink by the time it's dry!

Dont, you wont be able to get the water out and it will be ruined.

It's not feather, it's from Tesco, so whatever regular duvets are made from.

Echoing the others: don't.

It can be done, and I have done it – both feather and artificial.

With feather, you need an excellent drying day (ideally warm and windy), and you have to go out and clap it and move the feathers around frequently. If it's feather, it will also weigh so much wet that the seams or fabric may rip if you lift it wrong.

If you're determined to go ahead, try the following.

Warm soapy water in bath (special cleaner if it's feathers).

Get in and tread it, although the detergent may not be very nice to your feet/legs.

Pull out plug and leave to drain for some time, eventually rolling duvet up to squeeze.

Fill bath with rinsing water and repeat the above. You may want to do this twice.

After the final long drain in the bath, then the rolled up squeeze, you may still have a very heavy duvet. At this point I've found it useful to put a clothes horse flat over the bath and manoeuvre the duvet onto it for further dripping over the bath.

By the time you can get it outside it may still be very heavy and in danger of ripping, so may initially need to be hung doubled up, or spread over the top of a whirligig.

I have vowed never to do this again ever in my life. It's such hard work.

X-posted.

OK with artificial it'll be lighter and dry a bit quicker, but still do as above, and only on an absolutely cracking drying day.

You'll still need to batter the duvet around a bit as it hangs, to move the filling and moisture around.

oohnicevase I have frequently washed my goose down feather duvet in the washing machine and it has come out perfectly. It comes out squashed and flat, but spun off so no extra spinning required.

I would then hang it over the banister to air dry for the day, then finish off in the tumble dryer or, seeing as we have no dryer here now, by folding it on the radiator, rotating every so often (you are right that it does need heat to puff up, but radiator will do the job - not on a soaking wet freshly washed duvet of course, but one which has air-dried 80% or more somewhere like over the banisters. It puffs up perfectly even when finished off on the radiator.

I was going to come on and say don’t! Why not just air it outside for the moment? If there is something on it, sponge it off. Temporary solutions.

Also I believe with natural fillings such as feather duvets you need to use non-biological detergents as the biological ones disintegrate the feathers, but on manmade fibres then biological detergents are fine.

Don't. Nightmare situation will probably ensue

Also you could consider washing just the dirty sections, if it's not the whole thing that needs freshening. For spot cleaning such as drinks spillages in just one area, I have just put the section that's dirty in the bath (even if it's the middle - bundle up into a cone starting with the dirty bits as the top of the cone and dunk just that bit in the bath) and washed that, then squeezed out the water between towels and hung it out to dry.

But to answer your questions, no, I haven't and I wouldn't wash the whole kingsize duvet in the bath.

It will be unimaginably heavy and wet and without mechanical spinning it won't dry out any time soon.

Don’t.

I never wash my duvets. I buy cheapish ones from Dunelm or Ikea every season and give them to the local dog rescue charity once I'm ready to change it. Probably costs me £50 a year.

I've done it but as PP have already said, it's really hard work and may not be effective.
Please wait until you can go to a laundrette.
Maybe put 2 covers on it at the moment?

No. Unless you've got a shitload of Nikwax down cleaner and access to industrial kit. In years gone by DW would make inner covers out of old sheets to protect our wedding present duvet, but even that got manky. We washed it in the bath and fucked it completely.

I've never heard such negativity!
Where's your can do spirit!
You're almost forcing me to do it!

... but maybe when the weather is warmer and I'm not feeling so lazy!

P'raps we're all saying "don't" cos we're all right?
Tell you what,OP. Take it to,f'rinstance, a Morrisons with a Timpson's concession. Have it washed and dried and pick it up the next day.
Works for me!

I've never heard such negativity!

Don't ask, then 🤪

I washed mine in the bath last week.
King size - synthetic but only 10.5 tog.

Dissolved the laundry detergent (not too much) in bath before putting the duvet in. Then I got in and trod it for about 5 minutes - then left it for about an hour. Then trod it again.

Pulled the plug out and let it drain - and trod it in the empty bath. Then filled bath with warm water (I'm not a masochist) and repeated twice.

Finally squeezed as much water out as I could with my feet, and carted the whole lot downstairs wrapped in a bath sheet and pegged it out with a billion pegs.

It was a good windy drying day so dried in a couple of hours. And then in the airing cupboard to finish off.

Getting a wet duvet out of a bath would be akin to manhandling a dead body.
I'm another one who will replace duvets rather than wash them. They are all of the cheaper polyester variety and when I discovered that the cost of having one professionally cleaned was much the same as buying a new one, well, I bought new.
I used to wash thick and unwieldy horse rugs by hand though. The final rinse was done by hosepipe with the rug draped over a fence, having washed them in a plastic dustbin. Still heavy work though, and you got very wet!

If you've got a launderette which does service washes, they're brilliant. (May be for future reference, as they may not offer that atm.) I always put duvets in for a service wash if needed/before storing them - £13 washed and dried same day! Think its £15 for feather duvets.