Have you washed a down jacket?

[middleagedspread]

I've got an old Boden Puffa type jacket.
It's ££ to have dry cleaned & I wondered about sticking it in the machine on a wool wash.
I don't want to totally ruin it though.
Dare I?

What do the instructions say? I washed mine on a 40C wash and then tumble dried it with tennis balls to fluff up the feathers. Came out perfectly.

Yes I wash all our down gilets and coats - 30c wash using liquid detergent and then dry naturally before chucking in tumble drier for 10 mins.

Not sure what I did wrong, but tumble drying my down jacket made my washer-dryer smell awful!

dexter, it says specialist clean only...
Thanks for the advice, I'll risk it.
Tennis ball is an inspired idea!

I was the down jackets that we all have in 30C and then tumble dry, only I use tumble dryer balls (the fluff the clothes up, allowing them to dry faster), as the tennis balls I bought made everything smell.

Tumble dry on a low heat - or you can shake the jacket to fluff up the feathers inside in.

*it not in!!

The tennis ball bit was on the washing instructions! It said to use them or a clean sneaker, which I didn't have. (Jacket was an American brand). I would probably still give it a go in the machine as I love ignoring dry clean only labels.

Oh dexter I am with you - sometimes dry cleaning is a waste of money. I think tennis balls are a good idea, only the ones I bought smelt really bad so I bought tumble dryer balls (they are "spiky" plastic ones) and they seem to do the same job, only odour free. Maybe your tennis balls are more fragrant than mine were.

Wash mine on 30o and use dryer balls in the dryer with it . Takes a while for the down to sort out and you need to air dry too as somehow the down never gets completely dry otherwise.

Thanks all, off to Tesco to search for tumble drier balls..

I hand wash ours then air dry them. Has to be a really sunny day, or they don't dry before becoming smelly and horrid.

I am / was a dry cleaner . I can tell you categorically that down / puffas do not like being dry cleaned. They like being washed at 30/40 then tumble dried until puffed up. The feathers do not like the solvent and it won't get the coat clean, especially if its white or light coloured. Specialist cleaning doesn't mean anything ( naughty Boden) . They put that on there as they are easily ruined by home washing and it saves returns .

As what seeker said you must dry straight away or it needs I be a very sunny windy day to get them dry if you have no dryer but in my experience they won't puff up as much as they do in a dryer . Do not under any circumstances wash unless you can dry quickly as it will smell and you won't get rid of it.

Another vote for machine wash and then tumble with tennis balls - this is how the instructions say to clean my puffa and has always been fine.

Make sure it is a cool tumble

Washed my down jacket tons of times (before I realised it was down) only time it went wrong was when I accidentally put it on a hot tumble. still only damaged a teeny tiny bit of the lining.

Thanks for the advice, I've washed it.
No tumble drier balls in my local (rubbish) Tesco so opened a new tin of tennis balls.
Jacket lovely & clean, and fluffy, but it does smell a bit odd from the tennis ball. Better than the previous bonfire smell though.
I can't believe all the money I've wasted on dry cleaning.

as a family we all wear down gilets and coats so there is no way we could afford to have these all dry cleaned.