What are the consequences of machine washing a comforter that states dry cleaning only?
Question:I have a king-size comforter and the quoted price to have it dry cleaned starts at $50.
Answers:
Wash in cold water, pretreat stains, find a place to hang to dry. The worst thing that will happen is, if it has real feather in it it will flatten, if it has puffy stuff, not sewn in, it will separate and clump up. Next time, buy washable.
The usual consequence is that the comforter stuffing will get lumpy and it won't work well as a comforter any longer. You can get home dry cleaning kits for much less than $50. And you can put a washable cover on your comforter that can be taken off and washed in the usual manner, then put back on.
You risk the fibers of the comforter breaking down. It could be a material that when it wets wet it wrinkles very badly.
If you are going to risk washing it, take it to a laundry and put it a king size washer, and do not dry it. You may also need to put a warm iron to it.
Well, it depends on the material and also, it depends on the item. I machine-wash all of my comforters, down-filled ones, ones that are cloth only, etc, and nothing ever happens; there is one that was kind of furry-textured that became fuzzier and fuzzier and less like it was before, but I could buy a new one for the price the dry cleaners charged.
Unless the comforter costs WAY more than the dry cleaning costs, then go ahead and give it a try in the washing machine. The worst thing is you'll have to blow what you blew on the dry cleaning to get a new comforter, right? So you'd come out even either way.
Yeah I have done that actually, it was a down comforter, but nothing really bad happened to it, it's still really comfortable, but it did take the like "shine" out of the fabric. Depending on your comforter it could probably get lumpy, or run some colors together, or mess up the fabric.
If it is a down comforter you can wash it at a laundry matt. Bring tennis balls with you or a sneaker to throw in the dryer to fluff it back up. It comes out very nice. A regular comforter can be washed also and dryed. I wash mine all the time and have done so for 5 yrs and it is still in great condition.
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