Have you ever machine washed a down comforter?

I'm thinking about doing this at the laundry mat in the big over sized machines and dryers.  They want a fortune to dry clean them around here.

Any words of wisdom, pro or con?

Molly

our great big fluffy one down comforter i take to the cleaners. but i have washed them before. just remember to throw a couple of tennis balls in the dryer when you dry it.

Molly, I have done it forever, I do use the oversized washer at laundry but bring them home line dry and then put in dryer for 20-30 minutes with a sneaker to "fluff" them....after I figured out that the "dry cleaner" was really machine washing them and I was paying dry clean prices I started washing them myself!

Ok...that's good enough for me!  I have more time than money these days!

Thanks

Molly

Yes, I have.  As long as the machine is big enough.  My "little" top loader at home is way too small.  I took our goose down comforter (queen size) to a local laundry mat with a front loader.  Put it in, put the coins in, pressed start, and said a prayer!  After it was done, put it in the dryer with some tennis shoes (clean).  More coins.  It came out perfect.  You put in the tennies to "punch" the goose down clumps.  BUT, if you have any small tears, holes, etc. then you need to fix those first otherwise they will just get bigger!

Good Luck - cathy

I am so glad you ladies are posting about this. I have a down comforter and I have washed in my machine but because my dryer is a small apartment size one I cant dry it in it. So I have hung it out on the line(which I dont ever recomend doing). I didnt know that you could dry it with tennies. I will have to do that with the comforter the next time I wash it. Hopefully it will fluff it back out.

Yes, I do wash my down comforters at home using a liquid detergent.  I have a large washing machine and then dry them with either tennis balls or clean rubber sneakers to knock them about while drying.  When it is almost dry, I lay it out on the living room to finish drying.  The only thing that changes is that the covering itself gets a little lighter in color, but that's OK.

Rosemary

 Yes- I wash mine and it comes out just fine.

just to not try it if you have a reg. washer. I did mine last year in my washer, supposedly a super capacity, and I had so much trouble keeping it agitating. Probably what broke my machine.

I haven't washed mine yet in my new washer.