Pillow washing. What the hell was I thinking?!

[Malin52]

Spilt an entire cup of coffee over most of the feather and down pillows on the bed this morning. They were about £120 each so I Googled it and turned out you can wash them. Is it supposed to be this much of a sodding mission?!

Put the worst one in the washing machine. The bloody thing wouldn't spin and caused an error message on the washing machine. Came out dripping wet and all clumped up and stinky so had to fling it around in the garden for about an hour where it excreted gallons of water. Hung it on the line in the sun for several hours where it dripped another ton of water. Put it between two towels and sat on it for an hour where it exuded several litres of water and stank a bit more.

Finally span the bastard and it came out significantly less wet and now it's been in the tumble dryer for about two hours with two tennis balls. It sounds like a fucking rave in the laundry.

Anyone with anyone experience with this hellosh experience who can advise if this is going to be worth it or should I just chuck the other 3 pillows now and accept I'm £500 down? I'm on 8 hours and counting and the thing still stinks and is about four times the weight it started at. I'm bloody exhausted.

I've always washed our down pillows in the machine without any issue.

If you find they keep too much water, put a couple of towels in with them. This works for my DC's down coat, no longer comes out dripping wet.

They do stink when wet. Normal. Don't tumble on a high heat. Run it once, leave it to cool for an hour or so and then dry it on extra dry, low heat.

I wash feather duvets. They do smell strongly when wet but will be fine when they dry. It's much easier in summer. Keep tumble drying on low and putting it out in the day.

I think I'd go to a laundrette and use one of the really big washing machines and dryers.

I think some laundrettes actually offer a duvet washing service so I'm sure they'll be able to do a few pillows.

I’ve had 50/50 success f do ping this
Washed them once at home, came out and dried perfect
Did the ones at my mums (same brand bought together with mine) and they stunk to high hell had to buy new ones , couldn’t get past the smell at all

Ooh I did this.

The pillow lived on the heater for about a week while it dried.
It smelled quite bad, but is now pleasingly floofy

I think this is why I don't have expensive things like that.

Close to £500 for something that's easily damaged and hard to clean?

No thanks. My cats would be queuing up to piss on or throw up all over them (foster cats or kittens, either due to being babies or having issues).

If you have accidental damage cover on your home insurance, it might be worth claiming. Or is dry cleaning an option?

Might the washing machine work better if you put more than one pillow in so the load is less uneven?

Many dry cleaners or laundrettes offer a duvet/pillow laundering service. I'd pay to have a professional do it (costs less than replacing them)!

No I have no experience of washing a £120.00 pillow . I wash my feather pillows ,leave them to drip in the sun , put on radiator, and shake them around when dry.

I'm not totally sure of the cost if I'm honest. I know they seemed fucking expensive when I bought them and I now work in $ so I've lost all sense of £values. I'm happy with a polyester fill pillow but DH was in charge of bed linen when we kitted out the house.

Anyway, my point is a whole day of tending to a soiled pillow has been torturous and after now 9 hours I'm still left with a stinking clump of damp stuff in a dry fabric bag. Good to hear that others have done this and won... sometimes (even though it seems I may be waiting several days)

It does take ages to dry - I have only down pillows and wash them every few months. My advice is to only put one pillow in the dryer at a time. And out on full heat and not the auto dry where it clicks off when it thinks they're dry. I usually have to do one pillow for quite a few lots of forty mins. If I put them in together two at a time they don't dry fully. You need lots and lots of hot air and space. They will dry! One at a time and then stick it in airing cupboard overnight

You can't ruin them. They just sound wet. The whole benefit of having them is that they are washable and will go on and on... maybe rewash snd fully spin and start again. No fabric conditioner and only light amount of detergent

A whole day tending to a soiled pillow Sorry but everything about your post just makes me laugh

Give up, buy new cheaper pillows you can wash easily. Who wants to spend an hour sitting on a wet pillow sandwiched between two towels.

Dh on arrival home; what have you been up to today dear?

Op: Oh you know just spent the day shaking a wet pillow about in the garden, sitting on it, and sniffing it. The day went surprisingly quickly.

I washed my feather pillows. Easy to put one in the washing machine but wouldn't spin out as unbalanced. I put it on a rack over the bath for a few hours til it stopped dripping then put it on a rack on the radiator for a couple of hours. It went on the ceiling rack overnight. Continued this pattern for at least a week with a fierce puffing and declumping twice daily as well. Smell disappeared as they dried. Second one I did go the launderette to dry it.

I took our pillows to a dry cleaner in London about 6 years ago (different pillows I hasten to add). I got them back a week later slightly damp and fusty. Dry cleaner told me he'd never done a pillow before so took them home and washed them in his own washing machine. He declared them 'tricky to dry'. No shit.

Charged me about £60 for the pleasure of me binning them about a week later. I only remembered this about 7 hours into this fiasco.

Unfortunately I live in a country that doesn't believe in central heating and whomever constructed this property decided the boiler would be best situated outside so no resort to radiators or airing cupboards. Thankfully the sun is excruciating this time of year so I'm flinging the damp bag out on the deck at sunrise tomorrow and hoping for no rain...

I’ve washed down jackets a few times. They come good in the end. Once properly dry they do fluff up again but not till all damp is gone. Personally I put them on a radiator rather than tumble dry.

I wash ours (feather and down or just down) - only one at a time, no problem. They go straight in the tumble drier for about an hour on Hot.

Always fine.

I started washing them regularly after reading about dust mites in Bill Bryson’s A Short History Of Nearly Everything. 😱🤮😱

It was ‘interesting’ to see the colour of the washing machine water the first time - a sort of dirty yellow, presumably from all the accumulated dust mite poo.

Laundrette ( then tumble dry them again in your own home to make tripe sure they are done)
Or do them 1 at a time and takes your about a month to do them and about £500 in electricity, but they are worth it

they are a massive PITA to wash. The smell will go once they are dry in a years time
Just reminded me that I haven’t washed mine for a while.

@thekingfisher

Laundrette ( then tumble dry them again in your own home to make tripe sure they are done) Or do them 1 at a time and takes your about a month to do them and about £500 in electricity, but they are worth it

yep. Thank god our electric is renewable. I might end up bankrupt but I don't like to think of them ducks being plucked for naught.

If £500 worth of pillows 😳 have been accidentally destroyed you can claim on your insurance (accidental damage)!

I wash ours. I use down loft washing liquid, and dry them in a tumble dryer with a pair of old (clean) trainers or some of those dryer balls. I wash them in pairs so that they are less likely to fail on the spin cycle (it will stop if unbalanced).

I usually sit them on a radiator for a couple of days after the tumble, just to make sure they are absolutely dry.

I washed ours yesterday, two at a time in the washing machine and then into the tumble dryer - came out like new. They too were stupidly expensive (pre-kids when luxury bedding was possible), they’ve lasted for years and wash beautifully.