How to Clean and Maintain Different Duvet Types

Most people don’t know the duvet can be cleaned. In fact, washing the duvet is not as difficult as you imagined. Let us share the ways to wash different duvets and how to store them.

Cotton quilt

Cotton is the most traditional quilt component. The quilt is made of natural cotton fibre. It is thicker and is a commonly used quilt in winter. The cotton quilt cannot be washed with water. Washing with water will cause the cotton to clump, which is difficult to restore to its original shape, and its functionality will decline. Therefore, the correct way to clean is to bask it in the sun and lightly pat the quilt to remove the dust and maintain the bulkiness of the cotton, thereby maintaining its functionality to keep warm.

The cotton in the quilt has a strong moisture absorption ability, so you need to pay attention to moisture problems when storing it. In addition, it is not recommended to put heavy stuff above the quilt when storing, because excessive squeezing will make the cotton compact and lose its heat storage capacity.

Down duvet

The inner core of the duvet is made by animals down, mostly from geese or ducks. Down has higher warmth retention ability than cotton and other plant fibres. The three-dimensional structure of the down stores a lot of air, which can retain the heat emitted by humans and effectively keep the user warm. The quilt itself is also lighter.

The duvet can be washed in a machine or water, but it also needs to be cleaned in a gentle mode with neutral detergent, because acidic or alkaline detergents will damage the down fibre itself. After washing, it can be dried in a ventilated place and avoid exposure to the sun. If you want to clean it thoroughly, you can consider sending it to a dry cleaning every 5-7 months.

In order to maintain the permeability of the duvet, it is necessary to avoid using plastic or fibre duvet cover, so as to prevent the inner core of the duvet from being damp and mouldy and causing a peculiar smell. It should also be stored in a dry place.

Silk duvet

Silk duvet is another kind of animal protein fibre. It’s soft and permeable at the same time, which can be used during all seasons. So, silk is a premium material for producing duvet. Additionally, the production process of silk duvet does not contain any chemical materials or pesticides, so pure silk duvet with good quality is a natural and environmentally friendly product.

Silk duvets are difficult to clean. Like cotton quilts, they cannot be washed with water because they will clump and also cannot be exposed to the sun, which will make the fibres brittle. So, they can only be placed in a cool place for ventilation. For storage, in order not to deform the silk, the silk quilt cannot be squeezed in a vacuum and should not be pressed with heavy objects.

Wool duvet

The curling characteristic of wool makes the wool duvet contain a large amount of air, and slow down the heat transfer rate, so it can prevent the intrusion of cold air and able to maintain a high degree of warmth as well as being the most fire-resistant quilt.

Anyone who has woollen clothes would know that wool is not recommended to be washed, so if you wish to wash the wool duvet, you need to take it for dry cleaning. If you want to keep the duvet clean, you dry the duvet regularly in the evening or early morning for 1-2 hours for dehumidification and bactericidal effect. For storage, you need to put insect repellent items at the same time to prevent the wool from being infested.

Fibre quilt

A fibre quilt is actually made of man-made fibre. The advantage is that the maintenance is simpler than other animal and plant fibres. In addition to the condition that it is less likely to grow mould, it has a high elasticity so it will not shrink and the price is relatively low. However, it can only last for 2-3 years which is a much shorter lifespan than other well-maintained quilts. Since the chemical fibre is a plastic-type, the air permeability of the quilt is relatively poor.

Cleaning fibre quilt is simpler than other types of quilts. It can be washed directly by the washing machine at low speed or washed by hands with weak alkaline detergent to clean it more thoroughly. However, it is not recommended to hang it up during drying as the cohesion between fibres is not strong. If we hung it up, it may cause uneven thickness and lose its warmth retaining ability.

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HKDecoman, now going global as Deco-Man, is a Hong Kong-based renovation platform which provides professional consultancy services and pioneers in the development of A.I. homeowner-engineer matching. We aim at educating the public about the art of home renovation and have our eyes on transforming the traditional renovation industry, bringing standardisation, transparency, convenience and automation to the business.