Washing pillows and duvets
We collected care-related questions from our Facebook and Instagram followers in October 2019. Most were wondering about washing pillows, which was perceived as a challenging and even frustrating task. We've put together a guide to washing duvets and pillows to help you succeed! When you love your sleep products, they will love you back.
WASHING PILLOWS AND DUVETS
Go through the following points before pressing the start button on the washing machine.
Wash in time.
The best advice is not to let your pillows and duvets get too dirty. Dirtiness literally eats the fibre, even if you can't see it at first glance. Time and dirt are a destructive combination for all fibres and textiles.
Always check that the pillow or duvet is intact before washing.
Otherwise, you could be facing a small white catastrophe.
Assess whether your home washing machine is big enough.
Always leave 1/3 empty space in the washing machine. If the washing machine is too full, the detergent and dirt will not wash out properly. When using laundry services, the responsibility for a good wash is shifted to a professional, read the article on this.
Use a liquid detergent at 1/3 dosage.
Powder easily leaves residues on the machine or laundry, and can make laundry feel coarse. There's no need for fabric softener – you can achieve a soft wash by loading the washing machine loosely and using liquid laundry detergent. Note: For down products, use down detergent or wool detergent!
Too much detergent pollutes the environment.
Wash at 60 degrees and spin gently.
All Familon pillows and duvets can be washed at 60 degrees Celsius, which means they are thoroughly cleaned of the sand, grease, tallow and chemicals that they have absorbed. Always follow the recommended washing temperature. If the temperature is too high, the textile may shrink.
For pillows and duvets, it is safest to choose a low spin setting. A heavy product, such as a heavy duvet, may require a slightly faster spin to dry.
DRYING PILLOWS AND DUVETS
A tumble dryer is a good aid in the drying phase. Also, the dryer should not be packed too full, and the emptier the tumbler, the drier the end result. You can take the duvet/pillow out of the tumble dryer every 15 minutes or so and shake it.
Dryer labels: 1 point means a drying temperature of 60 degrees Celsius, 2 points 80 degrees. Heat behaves differently in water and air, so the drying temperature can be higher than the washing temperature. Natural fibres often withstand higher drying temperatures.
It is also essential what you start doing to the wet-washed product. Textiles only shrink when they are heated. If tumble-dried or mangled too dry, the result will be a wrinkled finish.
Outdoors, the laundry will dry wonderfully fresh, but direct sunlight will brittle the surface material of the product.
WASHING DOWN
When a down pillow gets heavy and flat, you should have washed it already yesterday. As with washing normal fibre pillows and duvets, use detergent at a moderate 1/3 dosage for washing down products. However, natural fibres are washed according to their own principles.
Use wool detergent or down detergent specifically intended for down – they save the natural fat in down and feathers that gives them their characteristic heat and moisture insulating properties.
Down likes longer spinning and tumble drying, and without a tumble dryer, you should reserve up to days for the down to dry. Not all down products are the same, either, and a down product with proportionally more feathers will take more tumble drying than a product with more down filling. Pause the programme now and then, fluff the pillow or duvet and keep on tumble drying. This prevents the feathers and down from clumping together.
Forget the gimmick of putting a tennis ball in the washing machine or tumble dryer! A ball would only damage the machine. Airiness and fluffiness are achieved without a ball that damages the washing machine or tumble dryer. It is important to continue until the duvet is completely dry.
Discover easy-care pillows:
Familon Feel Aerelle Organic pillow is capable of something revolutionary; retaining its shape and returning to its original shape after use and several washes, as if new. The secret of the pillow's resilience lies in the Aerelle® Soft Flex spiral hollowfibre, which returns to its original shape incredibly well even after several washes.
The Extra Life pillow is another hero of the laundry day: it returns to its original shape like new after washing. The fibre in the pillow’s filling is designed to be durable and retain its shape. Proven to be very supportive even after several 60-degree machine washes, the Extra Life pillow is the sleep companion for one thousand and one nights.
Easy care as a standard; Familon fiber filled pillows are washable at 60 degrees and suitable for allergy sufferers.
Time to change a pillow, see our tips for selecting a suitable pillow.
Would you also like to wash your top mattress?
The innovative Air top mattress is not afraid of laundry day! Thanks to its filling material, the top mattress is the easiest to wash in the world: just spray the filling clean with water and it dries in no time. The light and airy Breathair 3D spiral fibre filling is also ideal for those who sweat and allergy sufferers. The top mattress cover is machine washed at 60 degrees Celsius as usual.
Find the right Familon pillow and Familon duvet for you in the good sleep range.
See also care instructions for Familon pillows and care instructions for Familon duvets.
Published 16 October 2019
