Washing Comforters and Bedspreads

Washing a large household item is never an easy task, especially when they’re linens. They are much too large to fit in common home washing machines or are much too delicate to be left to a robot’s arm.

Your comforters and bedspreads are one such linen in your household that you could have problems with. Squeezing your large comforters or bedspreads into your washing machine could compact the fluff within it, thus ruining the stuffing, or worse, the comforter or bedspread could tear causing the fillings to leak.

Washing Instructions

Before dropping your comforters or bedspreads into your home washer, you should also read the washing instructions carefully. Depending on the fill materials used, they may not be washed by water and must be professionally dry-cleaned. Others have special demands on machine arms such that they have to be washed only at a certain machine speed or be washed by hand or the thread may start to run.

Luckily, most comforters and bedspreads don’t require dry cleaning. They can be washed normally, just follow the wash instructions on them. The real problem is really getting a machine that can accommodate them. And since you don’t wash your comforters that often at home, it’s not logically to get an extra large washer just for washing them.

A better alternative would be simply bringing them to your laundry shops nearby. They may either wash them for a fee or they could provide you with large enough machines for you to wash your own comforters and bedspreads.

Water Temperature

Most comforters and bedspreads are best washed using cold water, so remember to set the washer to cold water before washing. Hot water can cause some fabrics to shrink when dry. Hot cold are also harmful to certain types of fill materials. Silk fillings especially, cannot be washed with water that is too cold or too hot. Water temperature has to be mildly warm and scrubbing is strictly forbidden.

Detergent and Washing Chemicals

Water alone is usually not good enough for cleaning, but you have to be careful with what detergents you use and how much you use. Gentle detergents are of course your best option. It is much better leave a stain stuck on your comforters and bedspreads than to ruin them totally.

Even with gentle detergents, you should use them very sparingly. Comforters have great absorbing properties because of their fillings and therefore hold on strongly to the detergent water even after rinsing. Using detergent sparing will make it easily to remove the detergent, and even then, multiple rinse cycles are recommended to get rid of all the detergent.

Drying

Washing your comforters and bedspreads is one thing, getting them to drying is another problem altogether. Washing machines usually have the dryer function, if not; your comforters can be simply hung up to dry. But after drying, comforters and bedspreads can remain ‘dense and heavy’ without its original fluff even after it has dried completely.

While it’s not a serious problem since the fluff does return after some usage, but if you’re particular about the fluffy feel, you can always throw in a few tennis balls into the dryer during the drying process. The tumbling of the balls in the dryer will help to puff up the comforter or bedspread. Remember to use a low heat setting for slow drying since some of the comforter materials are flammable and can be easily burnt if you’re not careful.

How often you wash your comforters and bedspreads will affect how long they will last. Every time you wash your comforters and bedspreads, the fabric weakens and some of the fluff within disintegrates. The more delicate your comforter, the less often it should be washed. Naturally the more often you wash, the shorter its lifespan, but of course, if you don’t wash them at all, they may rot from infestation by mold or insects. To reduce the frequency of washing, your best bet is use your comforters and bedspreads with a covers instead.