Pillow Washing Made Easier

[tomturbomatic]

I have one of those polyester fiber-filled body pillows about 5 ft long. Even though I keep it in a case I thought it was due for a washing. I knew it would not fit in any of my front loaders and trying to get it submerged in a top loader would not be fun so I borrowed some modern technology to wash it in my A806. I put the pillow in the machine where it almost fitted the circumference of the tub. I added liquid detergent and filled the tub to the minimum level. Just when it started to agitate, I stopped it. I put an extension on the drain hose and held it over the tub then turned the dial to the drain after wash and restarted it on slow spin. This nicely sprayed water on the pillow while the spinning tub forced water through it. After a couple of minutes, I stopped the washer and let the pillow soak. After 10 minutes, I repeated this. I moved the timer to the final spin at 757 rpm speed. As the wash water sun out, I used a hose with one of those big round garden diffusers that make a gentle rain to spin spray the pillow for about three minutes then reset the timer for the spin after the wash. I filled it to medium for the deep rinse, but did not let it agitate, just dunked it repeatedly and let it soak for a few minutes before the final spin. Drying took much longer, about an hour with position changes every 20 minutes, but the pillow is clean and undamaged by agitation.

 

[peterh770]

Good procedure. At the laundry, I constantly see poly-filled pillows emerge from the washer irretrievably disfigured and twisted out of shape. Body pillows are even worse. One woman came in who had tack-stiched through her pillows to hold all the stuffing in place.

 

[sudsmaster]

Or, you could use a large front loader on the gentle cycle.

Problem solved ;-)

 

[tomturbomatic]

"Or, you could use a large front loader on the gentle cycle."

But how do you saturate a pillow on a gentle cycle and, at the same time force water through it? Also, how do you deal with a domestic front loader balancing a water-logged pillow for spin? If we are talking about a commercial machine, how could you make sure it did not go into spin in a twisted position since the door is locked and you could not position the pillow before the spin?

 

[peterh770]

A large HOME frontloader. There is no gentle cycle in most coin-op frontloaders. Most of the time, it is just cold water temp or a short last spin. Even if there is a gentle cycle, it is still done within a coin-op >30 min cycle, so the results are not optimal.

 

[strongenough78]

I usually use front loaders at the laundromat. They get submerged. I put like 3 or 4 in a double or triple loader. They don't tumble around but they do get clean with no damage and the stuffing doesn't bunch up in one place. Much like with what you do in your machine, I figured the spin cycles will extract the dirt out. And it does!

 

[vintagesearch]

i wash the white body pillow in our toploader it does fine on normal which is slow wash fast spin i use the large setting and hot water comes out white never bunching or anything and hang dry in the sun the other one i had was like velvet and said "dry clean only" well, my ocd told me to wash it regardless in hot water and that turned out to be the best damn thing ever! fluffed up and more comfy than ever! im a chronic side sleeper dont sleep on my back or stomach. body pillows rock!

 

[sudsmaster]

I generally wash two queen size pillows in my Neptune front loader. There is not a problem with submersion, especially if I add a pre-soak and/or the "stain cycle" options, both of which lengthen the immersion time. Balancing tends not to be an issue as well, since the two pillows tend to distribute themselves equally around the drum, naturally.

I do find that the pillows come out better if warm, not hot, water is used, and a gentle liquid instead of a harsher powder, with no fabric softener, is used.

My current favorite type of pillow is that labeled "down substitute". It tends to be soft yet supportive, without lumpiness, even after washing.

But usually I just wash the pillow cases and only wash the pillows if I notice an off-aroma or staining on the pillow itself.

 

[hoover1100]

Body Pillows

I wash mine in my "small" 5kg (11lb) front loader, I just make it into a circle with both ends touching each other and place it in the drum so that it sort of stays around the sides of the drum.

Always gets fully saturated and thoroughly washed and rinsed, never had it make the machine go out of balance either.

I just lay it flat on the clothes airer to dry.

Matt

 

[tomturbomatic]

Matt, I was tempted to try washing it in my Miele W1986, but was not sure if I would be able to get it all the way in or maybe cause damage to it getting it out through the small drum opening. It was easier to just place it in the Maytag without all of the shoving and calculating. If I live long enough to have to wash it again, I will try it your way. Thanks.

 

[iheartmaytag]

I wash mine in the front loader. If you use the delicate there is no problem with saturation as it fill higher on delicate. Then with the tumbling everything is well washed.