Is there a way to wash pillows in front loader without them becoming unusable?

[mark_wpduet]

I have 2 King sized pillows that I have washed several times. I usually will wash one at a time with some sort of blanket and by doing this they wash and dry perfectly fine! That said, I have two smaller pillows that I've washed (same inside stuffing) and one came out perfectly fine, the other one ended up completely out of shape to the point of no return. I also had a friend who gave me a large leather sofa yesterday and it came with three pillows and I HAD to wash the pillows. They came out fine. Is there a "best way" to wash pillows in a front loader? If so, please let me know.

 

[passatdoc]

I think it may have something to do with what's inside of the pillows. I have perhaps two dozen sofa throw pillows, many of them from IKEA and probably the stuffing is synthetic. That said, they launder beautifully in my FL and come out nice and fluffy---actually a little too fluffy right out of the dryer, but they smash down to a normal size after a few days of use. I launder them like once a year.

I did however ruin some king size pillows from Bed/Bath/Beyond which had some sort of "Natural Light" corn fiber filling. They came out lumpy and never regained their shape. Then again, the label said "dry clean only". I've never had a problem though with either down or synthetics. Since I am allergic to mold and pollen, I am moving away from down and replacing pillows and comforters with synthetic filled versions. They launder and dry very nicely.

The ruined king size pillows became the dog's floor pillows for use in his "den" underneath the coffee table in the living room. At 90 lbs, he barely fit, but at least he liked the pillows.

 

[hotpoint95622]

hotpoint 95622

Wash them with some tennis balls, this stops the filling clumping together also use them in the dryer.

 

[aldspinboy]

Hello Mark ...
I heard from a Miele laundry manual, that you should put three to four large rubberbands around the pillow's... this will keep the stuffing from shifting or balling in the corner.
And that should keep the pillow in shape.
Keep us posted.

Darren k

 

[rp2813]

I wrecked all of the pads for the chairs that go with our patio table. I put them through our Duet and they came out all mis-shapen and wouldn't go back to normal.

I was blaming it on high-speed spin.

 

[ronhic]

Personally....

....I will never wash pillows in a front load machine again....

- They go out of shape to the degree you need new ones
- and they often cause the rudest out of balance situation..

I prefer to put them in the bath or laundry tub with some detergent and hand wash them....

Then carefully squeeze the water out....rinse...and squeeze...

Finally, put some towels on the (clean) floor...lay the pillows on them and more towels on top and walk over them....

 

[dj-gabriele]

I wash synthetic pillows in my FL all the time. The secret is to stitch the corners and the centre to the pillowcase so the filling won't move and use a delicate wash cycle but with a high final spin speed so they dry in a reasonable time! Oh and only liquid detergent please so it dissolves better in the centre!

 

[mark_wpduet]

I'm going to try the rubber bands next time I wash them. I just hope they stay on. LOL

 

[iheartmaytag]

My Maytag is a cousin to your Duet. I have washed the throw pillows from the couch as well as the fiber filled bed pillows with no problems.

I used a cool water setting and a slow tumble (gentle) when it came spin time, it struggled for a bit so I just opened the door and repositioned them and away they went. Some I have dried in the dryer on low, others I have hung on the line. Both methods came out fine. The bed pillows I had to reposition the stuffing before drying, but they weren't too mishapen.

 

[whirlpolf]

don't know what's all that fuss about

put them in, wash - spin dry - tumble dry.
using feather laundry liquid here in case of downs.
otherwise just regular color detergent.

IF (and that is very rare) some extra filling displacements or feather lumps should occur: I use regular tennisballs in the dryer.

One of my ex's mothers used a direct air vacuum (Vorwerk at that time, but any Kirby/Royal would do as well): She'd put the blower hose end into a small cut-open seam of the pillow case and refluff all downs and feathers stirring the blower tube).
Too much for me though, just a regular laundry did it for me.

Tomorrow my sofa pillows will have their "spa" again, so...(as usual) = cycle 5 and some minor re-shaking before drying. So what?

 

[animasinsulinpu]

Pillows

Thanks Mark, Your thred reminded me to wash ALL the pillows in the house in my Duet too. Just talked my cousin Shirley to buy a new Duet also. She's sooo happy she said she fells like she's on crack(even though shes christian science and has never taken an asprin) Bill in Az

 

[mark_wpduet]

I use tennis balls in the dryer too. I have for a while. Like I said though, 2 of the exact same pillows were washed, one of which came out of the wash great, the other very lumpy and not fixable. (I tried).........At that point the one pillow was so lumpy that using tennis balls in the dryer did absolutely nothing. That is what prompted me to start this topic. I wasn't sure why this sometimes happens and other times not. I thought perhaps there was a method to do this. I'm still going to try the rubber bands

 

[strongenough78]

Usually what I do is use a small enough front loader to where they get saturated with the soap and water but don't actually tumble around. It seems everything comes out during the spin cycles. Even pretty dirty ones come clean. So you may want to try that. I'm not saying over stuff it of course. I usually put 3 maybe 4, depending on the size, in a double load plus. I'll double check the washer size for you and let you know, just to give you a better idea. I hope this helps! I've had success doing it like this.

 

[jeffg]

Mark, the polyester stuffing in most pillows is shaped like layered sheets. If they shift while the pillow is being washed/dried they have to be realigned. You can sometimes get away with doing this through the pillow cover, other times you'll need to cut/resew a seam, or just throw the pillow out and buy a new one.

 

[mark_wpduet]

I can't sew (LOL)

At any rate. What I have found that works MOST of the time is throwing one pillow in along with say a mattress pad from the bed or a blanket from the bed etc.....this sort of keeps the pillow from tumbling too much but they come out really clean. I like to use to hottest water possible so I don't use delicate. This seems to work 80% of the time, but there's that gamble that it will lump up. The sofa pillows came out fine albeit I could feel on one of the sofa pillows a small lump where it tried to get out of shape a little but not noticeable and you can barely feel it. The spin cycle on my Duet had a little trouble but ultimately it balanced the load and reached max spin speeds. This is what prompted me to post this because I know I will want to wash the sofa pillows again in the future and I wasn't sure they would be ok through another wash..........I couldn't imagine trying to wash pillows in a TL washer with an agitator though.

 

[iheartmaytag]

If you prefer Hot, and it's working, wash hot. Just remember if you have feather pillows to use a non-enzyme detergent.

 

[mark_wpduet]

Yes none of the pillows I'm referring to are down filled, they're all synthetic.

 

[strongenough78]

Yeah I've made the mistake of washing pillows in my mom's old 1976 Whirlpool with the Super Surgilator when I was younger. Yeah they were clean, but man were they lumpy and messed up. I never did that again lol.