Before all the duvets disappear in spring into the linen cupboard or storage box, you should wash them. How do you wash a feather down duvet? Our guide explains how to wash and dry them properly — and avoid getting clumps of feathers.
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Tips to wash a feather down duvet
Duvets are made of many variations of feather and down combinations, but the advice below applies to all of them when you need to wash a feather down duvet.
1. Every three years at least
At regular intervals, you should wash or clean and dry your down blanket and feather pillow. This should happen about at least every three years, but many people prefer to wash a feather down duvet every year before they put it away. If you want to save the money for a professional, dry cleaning of the duvet, then you should wash the down blanket in your own washing machine. Afterwards, careful drying — ideally in a tumble dryer — is necessary.
If you decide not to wash a feather down duvet in water one time, you should air it out well for three or four days, ideally where breeze and sunlight can reach it. You can also lightly mist it with a lavender oil and water spray during this process.
2. Drying the duvets – How to do it
» Tumble dry
When cleaning the duvet and the pillow, a gentle spinning process should already be selected, which is immensely important for the subsequent drying – up to a maximum of 1000 revolutions,so that the springs do not stall too much.
» Drying process
A tumble dryer is ideal for drying. Especially since during this drying process the down rarely stick in the duvet, which in turn occurs more frequently when drying in the sun. On the other hand, only a frequent, extremely tedious shaking of the duvet during drying usually helps. On top of that, duvets do not tolerate direct sunlight, which in turn indicates the drying of the duvet in the dryer.
» Drying time
During the drying process, only one duvet should be placed in the dryer. Use tennis balls and add them to the dryer,then the down in the duvet are evenly whirled up during drying – so they hardly stick together.
It should also take a maximum of 60 minutes to dry after cleaning the duvet. Then remove the duvets from the tumble dryer, shake well and let cool. This process can be repeated until the duvets are completely dry.
» Dissolve clumped feathers
If, however, a few downs are clumped in the duvet at the end of the drying, you can cut the quilt seam on the duvet a little. In the resulting opening slot, you must now hold a hair dryer in and turn it on. Due to the heat and air of the hair dryer, the springs are whirled up and dissolve from each other again.
So if you want to dry your duvet the next time, remember our tips, you will get a wonderfully fresh and pure duvet next year!
