How to Wash A Down Coat?

In the cold winter, a down coat is definitely essential to keep you warm. But sometimes we can not help being careless and getting stains like juice and blood on our down coats. Maybe you tend to clean your down coat with a soft cotton cloth and water. However, the down coat can not be cleaned thoroughly through this way. Or as spring comes, you need to wash your down coat before putting it into the wardrobe. Then how will you wash it?

Some teenagers who lack the life experience may put it in the washing machine directly. But as adults, we all know that the down in the coat is likely to be clumped after being washed by the washing machine, or distributed unevenly. Apart from these, down coats will always be less fluffy after being washed, which is also a problem. So washing a down coat is not easy at all. So today in this passage, we will provide you with certain suggestions of washing a down coat.

Most difficult things cannot be accomplished overnight, and the same is true for washing down coats. We need to do some preparations before washing a down coat. To speak more specifically, we should:

Read the labels on the down coat above all. Most people tend to ignore this label after buying a down coat and put it on directly. However, the information on this label is extremely important for learning how to wash and care for your down coat. Are all down coats not machine washable? No. The label will tell you whether your down coat is machine washable or not. If you see a hand and a pot on the label, it means that your down coat can only be washed by hands. If you throw your down coat into the washing machine, then the result we have mentioned in the previous section. But if there is no such a signal on the label, it is acceptable to wash it in the machine.

Secondly, you need to take off all the unnecessary decorations on your down coat such as the fur collar. In addition, if your down coat has been stained by food, juice, blood or ink, then you need to move the stains by hands initially. Otherwise, these stains would be retained even after being washed by the machine. And you also need to pay more attention to the details such as the neckline and cuffs of the coat. These are the parts that are most likely to go dirty. And remember not to leave anything in the pockets of your coat before washing it, especially tissues.

Then we also need to prepare the water to wash the coat. If the label has already stated the water temperature for washing this down coat, then do as the requirement. If there are no clear requirements, then A safer option is water at 30°C. Water that is too hot or too cold is likely to ruin your down coat. Nowadays, there are cleaning agents specially designed for cleaning down coats. If you have the conditions, you can buy some.

To provide references for more readers, in this section, we will divide the ways of washing into two types: hand washing and machine washing. We will discuss the steps of washing the down coat from the perspective of the situations.

❄️Hand washing
🎈If you wash by hand, then stain removal is part of the process. We need to choose the right stain remover according to the type of stain. For example, if the coat is stained by the lipstick, then we need to use a brush dipped in makeup remover to clean. If your coat has been stained by ballpoint pen ink, then you can apply gasoline on the stain.
🎈It would be great if the outer cover and filling of your down coat could be separated. If so, you can wash the outer cover only, and the workload will be greatly reduced. But if the outer cover and the filling can not be separated, then you need to soak the entire coat into the water of 30℃ after removing the stains from your coat. In this step, you still need a brush to clean the different part of the coat because the down coat will be extremely heavy after soaking into water. So you can not hold up the down jacket and rub it repeatedly like you would when washing other clothes by hand.
🎈Then use a brush dipped in detergent to clean every part of the down coat. After ten minutes, put the down coat covered with detergent into clean water. After a few minutes, pour out the water with floating foam, replace it with a basin of clean water, and put the down coat in again. Repeat this process several times until there is no detergent left on the down coat.

❄️Machine washing
🎈Zip up all the zippers on your down coat and then put it into the washing machine. Adding a certain amount of detergent in the washing machine. Then, select the gentle wash mode.

After washing a down coat, how to dry it is a question. If you wash it in the machine, the machine will dry the down coat to a great extent. But what about washing it by hand? Where can we hang our down coats to dry? And how long does it take to dry a down coat?

If you wash your down coat by hand, then it is better for you to take it to the balcony and put it on the clothes drying rod and make it fully expanded. Then you can use clips to fix the down coat on the clothes drying rod. If the wet down coat is too heavy for you to be carried, you can look for a partner to carry it together with you. The reason for not using a clothes drying rack is that the wet down coat is so heavy that it will deform the clothes drying rack.

Then we need to remind you of the place of hanging and drying your down coat. Even if the washing machine has dried your down coat to a large extent, it is better for you to carry it out of the room and take it to the yard or balcony to be exposed to the sunshine, especially who your room is on the dark side. Otherwise, if your down coat is dried in a dark place where the sunlight can not reach, your down coat will be smelly after being dried. On the contrary, if it is dried under the sunshine, then the coat will be filled with the smell of sunshine.

Generally speaking, if the down coat has been dried by the washing machine, then it can be completely dried the next day after being carried outside. If it has not been dried by the machine, three days are also enough. If you feel that the down is clumped or distributed unevenly, then you can tap the down coat during the process of drying. To dry the down coat faster, you can turn your pockets inside out to dry.

If your down coat has been dried by the washing machine, then you can also hang it on a clothesline. This helps to maintain the original shape of the down coat. And remember to place your down jacket in a ventilated place. Moreover, if you have a portable heating equipment, you can also put it aside your wet down coat to quicken the process of drying.

In many cases, no matter how careful we are during the process of washing the down coat, it will be condensed after being washed. So what can we do to fluff the down coat again after washing it?

The first way is to use a clothes hanger or your hands to tap the down coat. This method is effective for those down coats which are not so seriously condensed after being washed.

But if your down coat is severely condensed after being washed and dried, greater tapping force is needed. Almost no one can persist in vigorously patting down coats for a long time, so we still need to use a washing machine. Put the down coat directly into the washing machine and turn on the spin drying mode. In this way, after the high-speed operation of the washing machine, the down coat will become fluffy again.

The third way is to place the down jacket on the heater. Due to principle of thermal expansion and contraction, after being baked at high temperatures, down will gradually stretch and the down coat would become more fluffy. The methods mentioned above are to try to restore the down coats as much as possible after it has become less fluffy, but the most effective way to prevent clumping is to reduce the frequency the down coat is washed. Whether it is hand washing or machine washing, water washing or dry cleaning, washing down coats will have an impact on the warmth-keeping effect of down. Although close fitting clothing can be changed and cleaned daily, down coats are best washed once a year.