Do you ever wash your duvets in your own washing machine?

[fluffyanimal]

Just asking because DS wet the bed last night and there were wet patches on his duvet cover. By the morning I couldn't find any wet on the duvet but don't want to assume it wasn't soiled. Normally I take duvets to our dry cleaner but they take over a week to come back and this duvet is our only summer weight one.

I'm hoping that since it is a single duvet and only 4.5 tog so not very thick, I could get away with washing it myself. It does just fit in the drum of the machine but it's obviously quite full. Is it worth the risk?

[MousyMouse]

beedles hollow fibre duvets dry really quickly.

[HorryIsUpduffed]

Yes, manmade dries stupidly faster than feathers. My hollow fibre dried in under an hour on the line.

[TrulyMadlySleeply]

Beedles should have mentioned they're all hollow fibre. We keep the thermostat really quite low in winter while the kids are at school to try and save money on the heating bills. I usually wear my dressing gown over my clothes to keep warm (removing it to answer the front door I might add )

[Xiaoxiong]

So it's ok to stuff a double duvet really tightly into a 7kg drum so there's no movement, IYSWIM? It will still get clean? That's what's been putting me off.

[LegoRelatedInjury]

My drum is always rammed full and it still works fine. Always comes up lovely and clean. If you can get it out to dry in the sun too in the fresh air it makes it smell amazing too!

[HorryIsUpduffed]

Yep - so long as you can still squash your two hands in.

As a result of this thread I have one on the line and one in the machine

[BeedlesPineNeedles]

I'm now worried that I am in fact turning into my mother, worring about things being "aired" properly (this is after she has line dried things and ironed them, they then need to go into the airing cupboard!) :o

[fluffyanimal]

Well it went in and came out fine and is now flapping on the washing line, as it's warm and blowy here in Yorkshire, and our tumble dryer is only diddy. If it's still damp by the end of the afternoon I'll give it a slight whizz in the dryer.

I agree re: cost of dry cleaners vs launderettes (my DH always says we could buy a new duvet for the cost of sending them away via the dry cleaners, but I think that throw-away mentality is a bit unethical) but I think launderettes must be disappearing businesses, there are hardly any near me now.

[ouryve]

I've washed lightweight kids' duvets in the machine with no problems.

[changeling1234]

fluffy I think you can get duvet protectors, which go over the duvet to make it waterproof, then put the duvet cover over that. Saves having to constantly wash the duvet. Same goes for pillows.

[GrimmaTheNome]

So it's ok to stuff a double duvet really tightly into a 7kg drum so there's no movement, IYSWIM? It will still get clean? That's what's been putting me off.

I occasionally put our kingsize bedcover into the machine, which is a really tight squeeze - its comes out cleaner at any rate. I always use the 'aqua plus' setting and give it an extra rinse.

Single duvets, no issue at all.

[Jan49]

I would always take duvets to the launderette and wash them there myself. You can probably have them dry to use that night or the next, though I just wash the one that's out of season. I'd rather take them to a launderette than squash them into a machine if it isn't big enough. I think my local launderette charges £6 for a very big machine.

I live in a large Southern town and there are 3 launderettes in the centre, 2 of which offer service washes too. So they're not all gone.

[Mutley77]

Yep - my DD was a bed wetter, and now DS is - both very reluctant to wear pull ups at night before they could realistically stay dry. I have regularly washed their duvets of various togs in my washing machine - I keep the cover on too so that I can hang it out (or tumble it) all together and have it back on the bed the same night.

[PigletJohn]

I have known a thick winter double be too big and jam against the door of a domestic machine and prevent it turning, so those go to the laundrette (no need for dry cleaning) and wash fine in their big machines.

A summer duvet, or a single, will probably fit in your machine OK. Waashing liquids are I think better than powders for this as the machine may be crammed too full for pwder to slosh around and dissolve.

Be careful with a domestic tumble drier; if it is crammed very tight it might not rotate or could block airflow and could scorch or worse (I have seen this)

[fluffyanimal]

Changeling I did consider duvet protectors but then I heard from another MNetter that they are stiff and noisy. Besides, DS gets very hot and sweaty in bed and he already has a waterproof mattress cover which doesn't help, if he had waterproof covering on duvets and pillows he'd find it too plasticy and sweaty I think, as well as too rustly, and he's a crap enough sleeper as it is.

[valiumredhead]

Yes I always do, we have ikea washable ones.

[starfishmummy]

I do ds's hollowfibre one all the time and tumble dry it BUT I recently got him a warmer winter one and it the outer shell is some sort of weird fabric which is not tumble dryer -able. Was cheap from sainsburys - will look for an ikea one next time.

[PigletJohn]

might be polyproplene. I've been caught that way with mattress covers, they melt in the drier and look like someones tried to hot-iron them.

A half-heat drier setting may work if you have one.

[MousyMouse]

I had one of those duvets once...
the cover tore when washing it in the laundrette.
white fluff everywhere, I was rather

[fishypie]

I was a bit wary about using the washing machine for a duvet until I looked up some info. I have a Bosch rated for 8kg washes (bought 2014).
No problem at all with a king size summer duvet at 60 degrees C. Got it spotless.

Id be careful with an older model if you really have to jam the duvet in and the drum doesn't rotate! That's what finished off the old Ariston unit it replaced (not a duvet but overloaded with bed sheets)

[pressone]

If this duvet still hasn't been washed since August 2013 I'd chuck it out.

[MrsCakesPrecognition]

This is why I have Spundown duvets - they all go in my washing machine, even the Superking.

[TheWomanTheyCallJayne]

All the time. I have dcs with nocturnal enuresis

[Kingston74]

Thanks for that information.

[Moonywormtailpadfootprongs]

Yes 8kg drum with a duvet option.

Comes out just fine.