Needing A Little Comfort

[mixfinder]

I see reference to many new machines and their ability to handle a comforter.

1. Washing an expensive comforter, that often co-ordinates with other expensive sheets, dust ruffle and curtains, makes it looks like an dish rag. Why is everyone on the site washing comfoters in daily laundry?

2. For as often, in my life time, that I have ever needed to wash a comforter, why would would I base my decision to purchase a new washer for daily laundry on it's ability to wash a comforter.

3. What is everyone doing to get their comforters "dirty" so often?

4. Once you have a freaking wet comforter, what dryer has a drum larger enough to refluff the wadding, stuffing, or feathers, so it will ever look like anything but a wrinkled lumpy old moving pad?

Please tell me, what is the comforter fascination. I must be missing something in my daily living.

Kelly

 

[frigilux]

Are you sure you live in America, Kelly? It's all about bigger, brighter, louder, more, more, more, big, bigger, BIGGEST! Whether or not you actually ever USE the washer to wash a king-size comforter is completely immaterial; It's the fact that it CAN that makes this country great.

Never in a million years did I think I would live to see the day a washer's capacity was described as 'Canyon Capacity'. AWESOME!!!!

(No longer able to keep a straight face, Eugene doubles over with laughter.)

 

[arrrooohhh]

What exactly is a comforter?

In Australia we have doonas and in the UK they have Duvets. Is a comforter the same thing? My doona is in a doona cover that gets washed regular, if the doona needs washing you take it to the dry cleaners.

Joke for you all.

What lies on your bed and sings?
Madoona! Ha! Ha!

 

[lavamat_jon]

Well, we have duvet covers which get washed every week but I also wash duvets themselves. I can fit any duvet bar the thick 13.5 tog winter king size duvets into my 5 kilo Miele... single and thin double duvets fit in well and wash superbly! The dryer does a grand job too on getting them dry. In fact my mum's new Miele washing machine actualyl has a dedicated cycle for pillows and duvets. Will have to post a pic one time of a double duvet in the Miele...

Jon

 

[arrrooohhh]

What on earth do you do with a king size duvet? Dont think that would actually fit in my entire bedroom!

What did you think of the joke?

 

[2-drumsallergy]

15 Tog King Size Duvet/Comforters

I wash all the Duvets in our home every month without fail. My Dyson washers swallow 15 Tog King Size Duvet/Comforters with ease. Dyson washers have a dedicated Duvet cycle 60ºC with a high water level designed to kill dust mites and dust mite allergens. Duvet/Comforters need to be laundered just like any other bed linen and I can tell you from personal experience I would constantly sneeze in bed if my Duvet was not laundered every month; I have severe dust mite allergy.

David

 

[toggleswitch]

Speak English GD it!

ah, that explains what the hell duvet covers are; And why they are so named. We here have learned that it is a compforter cover.

Some many countries divided by a common language *LOL*

 

[2-drumsallergy]

Hi Toggleswitch,
As Automaticwasher.org is an American web site I thought it best to include Comforter in the description to be courteous and avoid confusion.

David

 

[launderess]

Duvet, eiderdown, etc, all the same thing referring to various weights of down filled "blankets".

King size linens and bedding, indeed beds are a unique American invention, rarely seen outside of the USA and perhaps Canada. Indeed when one wishes anything larger than say matrimonal sized linens from certian European high end linen makers, they must be custom ordered. Same goes for the other unique American bedding invention, fitted sheets.

Do not understand why so many people place such store on being able to launder down duvets at home either. If properly encased within a cover, the duvet itself shouldn't become soiled easily. Especially the way most Americans use a duvet, that is over a bedsheet and maybe a blanket. Even in the coldest parts of Europe where duvets are used more often and for longer periods of time (longer cold season, coupled by dear heating costs), and persons tend to sleep under a eiderdown only (no blanket or sheet), it tis the covers that are replaced and laundered frequently.

L.

 

[appnut]

Personally, I can't stand comforters, most likely because I don't have the facilities to wash a queen size one or larger at hoome. When I had a dog, some times were necessary to be able to wash my bed cover "on the spot" so to speak. Thus, I've had quilted bedspreads for the past 30 years. Plus I can't stand all the fru fru crap of pillow shams, bed skirts, and such that are a requirement with comforters over here.

My 20 y/o spread is needing to be replaced and have few options due to this mania for comfortes.

 

[mixfinder]

Doona

I love the joke and the exchange of nomenclature. Thanks for the insight. If Toggles gets too much for you, just flip his toggle. The good news is he never holds a grudge and is 100% reliable at the flick of switch. ATW Toggles, dear.
Kelly

 

[brettsomers]

i think many people are washing cheap poly-filled comforters. most dont bother using a cover on those. if you eat in bed/let pets on the bed/sit naked on the bed, you MUST be able to launder it easily. and if the machine is super-sized, like a Duet, it can handle it. being able to handle a comforter means you can also wash pillows and rugs. if the machine, like Duet, is very large, it is less likely to age the items being laundered.

 

[frigilux]

Bing, David! All three comforters in my house are inexpensive poly-filled units. No covers on them. I lay on my bed a lot to read, watch TV, eat, because I like having all the room to sprawl out. I throw mine (queen-sized) in the washer every three or four months. It's usually not dirty, just needs a good freshening.

BTW, Kelly, yours is a very nice comforter. I wouldn't want to throw that in the washer all the time, either!

 

[whirlcool]

Comforters & Feather Pillows

We have a very thick Queen sized feather comforter that we have had for a few years. We have a few covers (Duvets) for it. These are changed and washed weekly. The comforter itself goes to the laundramat and is run thu a Wascomat Senior machine using Persil Non-Bio liquid. We also have three large dogs that sleep on the bed as well. When the comforter starts smelling like dog, we then wash it. This is about twice per year. It is a pain to wash the comforter due to the long drying times. When it comes out of the washer it smells like a dirty gas station restroom. It takes about 5 cycles of the Speed Queen super dryers at the laundry to get it dry. After each cycle we have to take it out and "punch up" the feather cells to make sure the dry feathers and the still wet feathers are mixed well. And we do use 4 tennis balls in the dryer too. When we get the comforter home, we put it in the bed and run the ceiling fan over it on high, just in case. By bedtime it is ready to use.
I determined that the way to check to see if all is really dry is to smell it. If it still has the "restroom odor" it's not fully dry.
We also have some large queen sized Pacific Coast pillows that seem to have gotten thin over the years. They are about 5 years old and since we use pillow undercovers that get washed every other week we never thought about washing the pillows themselves. So we decided last weekend to wash them. We washed them at home in our Whirlpool top loader, one by one using Persil Bio Liquid. Since the pillows tended to "float" it required a lot of manual action to agitate them properly. They really were dirty. Then we rinsed them about three times using Sauvitel Baby Fresh softner in the next to last rinse. Then we ran them one by one thru the Pakistani extractor (with Lid plastic made by GE)and that really extracted a lot of water from them. Into the dryer, two at a time with four tennis balls they went. We'd run them for about 20 minutes, take out and punch them up, run another 20 minutes, punch up, etc. This method took about 3 hours until the pillows were completely dry. So it took an entire day to get them cleaned. But the results were definitely worth it. The pillows are fluffed up just as good, if not better than new! And they smell just great. We were thinking about buying new pillows, but we'll get many years more out of these.
We like feather pillows and comforter just because of the sheer comfort. In the winter we can lower the thermstat to 60F and still stay nice and warm and cozy. Combined with Egyptian Cotton Sheets (300TC) you really feel like you are sleeping in luxury.

 

[alr2903]

Bob

I put fitted twin sheets on our 2 box spings, it is a king size bed, I cant deal with those aptly named DUST RUFFLES either. Lately I have really learned to Simplify. I do have a thin quilted comforter. although we do not much care for the heat of the comforter, It covers the sharp edges on that Da#n footboard, that i was convinced was out to get me. It looks pretty sharp when all made up. Kelly, your room looks very nice. arthur.

 

[launderess]

You want to be careful drying large down duvets in any dryer that may be too small. As the wet down dries it will fluff up quite a bit, and unless there is room it can scorch.

Another problem is black streaks/markings from where the fluffed up duvet rubs against the rubber seal of the dryer door. This happens allot when people take uber-sized duvets to laundromats and though the place has large front loaders, does not have an equally large dryer. As the outer cover of the duvet and much of the down dries, the dryer gets hotter (even on low or delicate settings), because there is not that much moisture left, however as anyone who has washed a down duvet knows, there are always wet spots and the desire to see the down duvet dried totally to prevent mould. However the longer the duvet dries, the fluffier it becomes and without room to move about, it can lead to those marks. What I do is about every 10 minutes for the last 30 minutes or so, will stop the dryer and remove the duvet to refuff and position. When the thing is almost 90% dry, take it out and hang it over a clothesline to air dry for a day or two. In a pinch one can aim a fan towards the line, or hang wait for a nice breezy day to do down laundry.

L.

 

[DADoES]

Large bulky items should be dried on low heat for a longer time.

 

[whirlcool]

Laundress:

You are so right about the "fluffing factor". We started out with two pillows drying in our dryer, but as they started drying we realized that there was only room for one in there at a time. So to wash/dry 4 queen sized feather pillows was over a 10 hour job!
At the laundry we remove, redistribute, fluff after each dryer cycle (12 minutes each).
I can easily see how you could scorch if you are not careful. Thanks for the advice!

 

[chachp]

One word - Pets!

We have a Duvet cover over a Thick down comforter. The Duvet gets washed once a week along with the sheets. I usually do the sheets in one load and the duvet cover and 6 pillow cases in another. I dry the sheets and duvet separtely because I find there are fewer wrinkles. My Bosch Axxis pair handles them fine. I wish the dryer was bigger because I could dry more of them at once with fewer wrinkles but I live with it. We had the washer and dryer before we had the king size bed. LOL. The next washer and dryer will be a large one that's for sure. What I love about this Bosch pair is that both the washer and dryer are 220. The internal heater on the washer is fast I think because it's 220. The newer model is 110 and I wonder how that would extend the cycle.