Down comforters, bed pillows and featherbeds are fine and luxurious products. With proper care, they will provide you with exquisite sleep comfort for years to come.
To maintain loftiness, fluff your down comforter and pillows daily. You may want to occasionally air your down comforter outside on a nice day. Keep out of direct sunlight, as sunlight can yellow the cotton cover. Protect your down comforter with a duvet cover, your featherbed with a featherbed cover, and your down pillows with a pillow protector as well as a pillowcase.
To maintain your down comforter's fluffy loft for many years, refrain from lying or sitting on top of the comforter or placing other objects (like stacks of laundry!) on top of the comforter. Down clusters are strong, but if they are repeatedly crushed they will eventually break, causing your comforter to lose it's warm fluffiness!
Featherbeds should be spot cleaned or dry cleaned only. Use of a featherbed cover is highly recommended.
We recommend that you wash your down comforter once every three to five years, and only if necessary. Frequent or improper washing can damage the down clusters, stripping them of their natural oils and causing them to lose their resilience. Machine washing can also cause your down comforter to shrink about 3% to 5%.
Down pillows should be washed once or twice a year, if necessary.
When it is necessary to launder your down items, we suggest that you use a professional cleaner who is experienced in cleaning down.
Your down comforter can be dry cleaned, but laundering with water and gentle cleaning solutions specially formulated for down is a preferred method.
Home style washing machines are not designed to handle large down items. Washing your comforter at home can cause damage to your comforter or to your washer or dryer. We do not recommend it, but should you decide to wash your comforter yourself, follow the method described below for washing down pillows.
Washing Down Pillows: You can wash your down pillows, but we do not recommend that you do it at home, or in an agitator machine. Use a front loading commercial washer with regular non-bleach detergent.
Before washing make sure that the fabric is not too old or deteriorated from body oils, or weakened from age. After washing, while the down is wet, you may notice a pungent odor. This is natural with all down products, and will disappear when the down items are completely dry.
Be certain to dry your items very thoroughly so they don't mildew.
It will take about 3 hours to dry 2 pillows, perhaps much longer for a down comforter, using a large commercial dryer on medium heat. Commercial dryers can get very hot and burn your down comforter or pillows, so take them out and fluff regularly when drying and check for overheating. Make sure the comforter or pillows have plenty of room to toss and fluff as they dry. Put a tennis ball or two, in a clean white sock, in with your comforter or pillows to help separate and fluff the down clusters as they dry.
Using a pillow protector, and washing it often, is a good way to help preserve the life of your down pillow.
Storage: Always store your down comforter in a breathable cotton storage bag. Never store your down comforter in plastic or vacuum pack. Make sure your down bedding is kept in a dry place when storing. Mildew can ruin a down comforter or pillow, so make sure your items are completely dry before storing. When taking your comforter out of storage, shake it out and allow up to 48 hours for your down comforter to attain its maximum loft.
