How to wash a white down jacket in a washing machine so that there are no streaks?
In order for a white down jacket to always be clean and not turn into a simple jacket after washing, you need to know some rules. If you wash it in a washing machine, you should select the correct mode and also dry it correctly. Only in this case there will be no streaks and the fluff will not get lost.
Preparing a down jacket for washing
In order to wash a down jacket, the first thing you need to do is get liquid laundry detergent or even a product specifically designed for washing down jackets. There are a great variety of them in household goods stores. This product is simply a necessary condition for successfully washing a white product.
The best option would be a gel for delicate fabrics. You can also use liquid soap or shampoo. A white down jacket cannot simply be washed with bleaching agents, despite the composition of the fabric. It is unknown what effect such a product will have on the filling of a down jacket. If it sheds, then divorces are guaranteed for you. The main thing is that the detergent is not powdery. The gel dissolves better, does not leave anything on the material from which the product is made, and does not get clogged under the fabric with the filler. This has a positive effect on the quality of rinsing, which is the most important factor in avoiding streaks.
Before washing a down jacket in the machine, you need to carefully inspect it to identify the dirtiest places. This is usually the collar, cuffs, edges of pockets.It is advisable to wash them by hand with soap. Do not use shampoo or powder under any circumstances, because they are difficult to wash out of a down product. And it is recommended to take laundry soap, but not “red”, but light anti-stain soap.
The down jacket must be buttoned and turned inside out to avoid damage to the back of your favorite item. Do not throw other things into the machine along with the down product.
Correct washing mode
The main thing in successfully washing a down jacket is the choice of mode. It is this that makes it possible to wash the product without leaving streaks. Do not wash it in water whose temperature is above 30 degrees.
Modes suitable for washing:
- wool;
- synthetics;
- handwash.
Most often, stains are a consequence of the fact that the filling of the down jacket is not completely clean to begin with. In order to wash your winter jacket well without streaks, you need to wash out all the dirt from the down. Simple tennis balls and a terry towel are considered excellent helpers for this. The balls will fluff up the fluff, and the towel will prevent the item from swelling to the full drum of the washing machine. It is because of improper rinsing that streaks appear on products filled with artificial material.
Delicate modes allow you to wash the item without fluff sticking out of the seams. To avoid streaks, you need to set a mode that has 2-3 rinsing cycles. If there is none, then it is recommended to set an additional rinse. There is no need to remove the tennis balls because they help the soap to be washed out of the filler faster. You can add vinegar, which can remove solutions at this stage of washing the down jacket in the washing machine.You can also cheat a little: instead of the third rinse, run the machine for 30 minutes with a water temperature of 30 degrees. There is no need to add detergent to achieve a warm water rinse.
Drying a down jacket
Almost all washing results directly depend on proper drying and spinning of the product. To do this, you should follow some tips.
- The spin should be performed at maximum speed. This is important for the material from which the down jacket is made.
- If the washing machine has a drying function, then the temperature for a product made from down filling should not exceed 30 degrees. After 30 minutes, you can take out the jacket and hang it out in the fresh air to dry.
- If there is no built-in drying function, then after you take the down jacket out of the washing machine, you need to unzip it and turn it back inside out. The fluff must be distributed evenly across the bottom of each cell. Outerwear should be dried in a horizontal position on a trempel.
- You should not dry outerwear, especially with fluff in the middle, near any heating appliances. They dry out the delicate filler and make it brittle. Moreover, when drying a down jacket near a battery, the chance of detecting stains increases several times.
- The sun also does not have a very favorable effect on the fabric of the product. Because of this, it is best to shake it and hang it in a well-ventilated area.
During the entire drying time, the down jacket should be fluffed several times. This can be done in a washing machine on spin cycle. You should put a down jacket and tennis balls in the drum and start the machine. This procedure distributes the down evenly throughout the product and makes it airy and soft.
A good method for removing excess moisture from a product is a vacuum cleaner. It fluffs up fluff if you vacuum the product at low power without any attachment.
You should not wash your down jacket too often, especially if it is light in color. It doesn’t matter that you can wash the item according to all the rules, that the detergent will be gentle, and the washing mode will be delicate. In any case, fluff and fabric will lose their appearance and deteriorate. With each wash, the fluff will penetrate more and more through the seams, and the once warm down jacket will become an ordinary jacket.
I washed the down jacket as written in the instructions. No streaks, no fluff crumpled.