Dry clean only curtains - will washing machine kill them??

[BigbreastsBiggerbeard]

Have some blackout curtains from Dunelm that say 'dry clean only'. As I've had them for years and they were very cheap, I'm not bothered about keeping them and not prepared to pay more than they cost to get dry cleaned. What would happen if I put them in the washing machine? Has anyone taken a chance on bunging a 'dry clean only' item in the machine??

I would normally say no to curtains but why not. My cushion covers are made from left over dry clean only curtain fabric and I’ve washed them fine.

I have! Washed them on quick cool wash and they were fine, came up really well.

I’m tempted too. M and S curtains. Ancient though so may disintegrate.

Brilliant, thanks. Will bung them in tonight. It'll be an experiement...

I washed my on "hand wash" and no spin. Came out fine.

On my machine the spin, even low spin, seems to make wool etc shrink. So no spin is the safest option for dry clean items.

I do mine regularly (ok probably yearly!) tend to
Wait til it’s hot outside to dry them on the line but always come up fine

The patterned bit of my curtains shrank, while the lining didn't, so it looked like they were wearing the wrong length petticoat

Well, I washed them. Came out in a usable state, could still put them up. However, the dye had run into the lining. They were purple so it was very noticeable. It wouldn't affect the usability but wouldn't look so great from the outside! Hadn't shrunk though. Had to do them on a 60 wash as saw a bit of mould on them, they may have fared better on a lower temperature, dye wise.