Down jacket: how to straighten the down after washing, how to wash, so as not to roll

The down jacket has strayed into lumps - such a situation can often be encountered after cleaning your favorite warm thing. It is useful to find out in what ways you can straighten a wardrobe item and how to care for it so that defects do not appear.

Why did the down get lost in the down jacket after washing

Natural down is considered the best insulation for the winter period. Even in the most severe frosts, it provides reliable protection from cold and wind. But from time to time, the down jacket has to be washed, and the filler after this procedure often gets lost in lumps. Not only the appearance of the clothes suffers, but also its properties, since the fluff is unevenly distributed, the jacket heats up much worse than before washing.

The down inside the jacket gets lost in lumps due to getting wet

You can list several reasons due to which lumps form inside the down jacket:

1. Non-compliance with the recommended care and cleaning conditions. The down becomes lumpy when processed in too hot water, after spinning at high speeds or after improper drying of the jacket.
2. Use of unsuitable detergent. If the powder or gel is selected incorrectly, then during the rinsing process they will not be completely washed out of the filler. The fluff will stick together in lumps, and it will be very difficult to fluff it later.
3. Drying clothes vertically. If you dry the washed down jacket in an upright position on a hanger, then the wet down under the influence of gravity will go down and collect in lumps in the lower part of the cells of the jacket.
4. Poor product quality. In good down jackets, the filler inside is usually treated with a special impregnation that prevents the formation of lumps. If there is no such impregnation inside the product, then the very first wash will lead to the thing losing its presentable appearance.

If the label indicates that it is impossible to wash outerwear, then you should not break this rule, if dirt appears, it is better to take the thing to a good dry cleaner.

How to straighten down in a down jacket after washing

If an unpleasant situation has already occurred, and a thick jacket after washing has become thin, then this does not mean that the product will have to be thrown away. Lumps of fluff inside a winter garment can be fluffed, there are several ways that allow you to restore the beauty and comfort of your clothes.

A rolled-up winter jacket can be returned to a decent look

How to fluff a down jacket after washing with balls

Outerwear and other stuffed items in an automatic machine are often washed using balls - special, designed for washing, or ordinary tennis balls. As the drum rotates, the balls roll inside the machine and fluff up the clothes, preventing the filler from gathering into lumps.

You can use the balls after washing. They do it as follows:

• a completely dry down jacket is loaded into the washing machine;
• put 3-4 tennis or special balls into the drum;
• set the spin mode, you need to set no more than 400 revolutions;
• turn on the machine and wait for the balls to properly process the jacket in a dry drum.

At the end of the dry spin, the jacket is removed from the drum and shaken properly in different directions in order to further distribute the fluff inside and fluff up the remaining lumps. Only clean balls can be used for whipping jackets in a typewriter, it is also important to load an absolutely dry item into the drum. If the product is even slightly damp, the method will not work, and lumps will remain.

If the spin program is very short, then after the procedure the result may be unsatisfactory, in which case the spin must be repeated.

How to beat a down jacket after washing with a carpet beater

A simple and quick way to remove lumps in a down jacket is to use a regular carpet beater. The winter jacket is tidied up as follows:

• lay out the jacket on a bed or sofa, the surface should be flat but soft;
• cover the item with an old bath towel or sheet on top;
• for 5-7 minutes, with neat but strong blows, beat the down jacket over the entire area, trying to work it out as evenly as possible.

You can break dense lumps with a beater, rolling pin or even a hanger.

After finishing the beating, the jacket is shaken well and check if there are any lumps left inside. If there are any, the procedure is repeated again. It is convenient to use a beater, since it not only allows you to break the lumps of down, but also at the same time thickens the down inside the jacket.

How to distribute down in a down jacket after washing by temperature difference

It is most convenient to wash the jacket in frosty weather, in which case the cold air outside the window will help break the lumps inside it. The method suggests putting the product in order as follows:

• wash the down jacket in a typewriter using the usual method;
• remove the jacket from the drum, spread it with your hands and hang it on a hanger when wet;
• take the product in this form on an open balcony in frost and hang it on a hook or cabinet door for 2-3 hours.

After the time has elapsed, the jacket is brought back into the room and left to thaw for an hour. Then you need to properly beat the down in a down jacket with your hands, turn the thing inside out and again take it out on a hanger onto a cold balcony.

You need to repeat the procedure in stages until the down jacket dries to the end. The advantage of the method lies in the fact that lumps of wet fluff inside are frozen out, blown by cold air and naturally fluffed up. Accordingly, by the time of complete drying, no lumps remain inside the down jacket.

Drying alternately in the room and in the cold helps to fluff the filler

How to break up the down in a down jacket after washing with a hair dryer

If immediately after machine washing it becomes noticeable that lumps of down have formed inside the down jacket, it is not necessary to wait until it dries completely in order to crush these lumps. You can use a hairdryer almost immediately according to this algorithm:

• a wet washed product is hung up to dry naturally in a warm room on a hanger for 3-4 hours;
• then the jacket with lumps inside is removed from the hanger, shaken properly and turned inside out;
• the wet down jacket is laid out on a firm horizontal surface and all areas with dense lumps of down are blown with a hairdryer.

A video on how to fluff a down jacket after washing recommends probing a winter jacket with your fingers in order to pay special attention to exactly those places where the filler has gotten off into dense lumps.It is better to use cold or at least warm air during this procedure; it is not recommended to turn on hot air.

After processing with a hairdryer, the down jacket needs to be shaken again and beaten with your hands. At the same time, the fluff will be distributed as evenly as possible, and there will be no trace of lumps.

How to steam out the fluff in a jacket after washing

Another way to tidy up your jacket and remove any lumps that have formed is with a garment steamer. Down jacket processing in this case looks very simple:

• the dry product is hung on a hanger;
• using the device, the entire surface of the jacket is treated.

Hot steam effectively helps to restore the down jacket after washing in the washing machine. During processing, it is necessary to additionally straighten the filler with your fingers.

Cope with lumps with a steamer or steam iron

If you don't have a steamer at hand, you can use a regular iron with a steam function. In this case, the algorithm will look a little different:

• the dry product is laid out on a flat sofa or bed with the wrong side up;
• a thick sheet or blanket is placed on top of the jacket, and then the clothes are properly knocked out with a rolling pin or a special carpet beater to crush the lumps a little;
• the iron on the minimum heat is switched to the steam supply mode and once ironed the product directly through the blanket or sheet;
• wait until the fabric has completely cooled, or process the jacket again with a rolling pin or beater.

If necessary, the whole algorithm is repeated anew to break the downy lumps to the end.

How to whip the fluff in a jacket after washing with a vacuum cleaner

You can restore a down jacket after washing if you have a vacuum cleaner with reversible air blowing at home. Use the technique in this way:

• the washed and completely dried down jacket is folded into a vacuum or ordinary dense plastic bag;
• turn on the vacuum cleaner in normal mode and draw out air from the package as much as possible so that the jacket inside is properly compressed;
• after that, the vacuum cleaner is switched to reverse mode and the air is forced back into the bag, but so that it does not burst from excessive inflation.

You need to repeat the procedure several times in a row, dry lumps of fluff under air pressure will lose their density and fluff. At the end, the jacket will remain well shaken and break the remaining lumps by hand or with a beater.

A reversible vacuum cleaner helps against loose fluff.

How to restore a down jacket after hand washing

One of the easiest ways to remove the clumps inside a winter jacket is to disassemble them by hand. The procedure looks like this:

• the dried product is removed from the hanger and shaken properly, part of the fallen fluff will straighten out from simple shaking;
• the jacket is again hung on the shoulders and carefully felt with your hands from the collar to the very bottom;
• the detected lumps are properly kneaded and smoothed with fingers, trying to evenly distribute inside the stitched cell;
• at the end of the procedure, the jacket is shaken again to consolidate the result.

The effectiveness of this method is high - if desired, you can completely sort out all the lumps. But you have to spend a lot of time on putting your clothes in order.

How to wash a down jacket so that the fluff does not roll

It is almost impossible to completely prevent the down jacket from rolling. But it is quite realistic to clean and wash clothes so that the filler inside rolls less, and you had to straighten it less often:

1. Before washing, it is necessary to carefully study the labels on the clothes, this will allow you to understand at what temperature and in what spin mode to wash the product.
2. If the tag claims that the down jacket is intended only for dry cleaning, then you should not violate the recommendation - the thing must be taken to dry cleaning.
3. It is necessary to wash winter jackets and down coats at low speeds, in the process it is advisable to immediately put special balls in the drum, they will prevent the down from sticking together.
4. For laundry, it is best to purchase a liquid detergent made for sensitive fabrics. Standard powder is not easily washed out of the down fill when rinsing and provokes the formation of lumps.
5. After washing the product, it is better to immediately run the machine in the additional rinse mode, this will allow you to more reliably remove the detergent particles from the filler.
6. It is best to dry a thing in a horizontal position, spreading it out on a special dryer.

If you wash the product according to the rules, the fluff will roll off less

In principle, it is recommended to wash down jackets as rarely as possible. It is much better to regularly inspect them for local contamination and, if necessary, clean off the dirt pointwise with a damp sponge.

Conclusion

The down jacket has got lost in lumps - such a problem often appears after washing, but you can deal with the situation in several ways at once. And if you follow the rules for caring for clothes recommended by the manufacturer, then the downy lumps in the jacket will roll off less often.