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Just like any other piece of bedding, pillows need to be washed. Pillowcases go a long way toward keeping your pillows free of build-up and allergens, but they can only protect pillows for so long. Automatic Trimming Machine
Over time, sweat and oils from your skin make their way through the fibers of your pillowcase and through the outer shell of your pillow to the filling inside.
It’s good hygiene practice to wash your pillows once or twice a year—and it will help them last longer, too.
Different fillings—like down, down alternative, or foam—need different washing methods, so we asked down expert Jack Sukalac, owner of All About Down, and Christian Alexander, CEO at Nest Bedding, for advice.
Spot cleaning a pillow shouldn’t take more than 30 minutes, plus drying time, unless the stain needs to soak overnight. You can spot clean pillows as often as needed in between deeper cleanings.
Washing a foam pillow cover (since the actual filling can't usually be washed) should take a single wash cycle, plus air-drying time. It can take a few hours to wash down and down-alternative pillows in the washer and dryer, and with down especially, you’ll need to monitor it while it’s in the dryer.
For small stains, try spot cleaning in between major washings or before you put your pillow in the washer. Spot cleaning the cover is also the only way to clean most foam pillows without removing the fill.
Follow the instructions for whatever stain remover you choose. But generally you’ll want to spray or saturate the stain directly, pinch the fabric on either side of the stain, and rub the fabric sides together to push the spot treatment into the stain.
Leave the treated stain to soak for several minutes—or overnight for dried, old stains—and then wet a clean rag to blot and rinse the soiled area.
In our guide to cleaning coffee stains, we recommend using warm water instead of cold to rinse because it does a better job of loosening grime. You can also just put non-foam pillows and foam pillow covers into the washing machine once the stain remover has soaked in.
Some textile experts we’ve interviewed say you can wash shredded foam pillows (but not single-piece foam) with the stuffing inside, but manufacturers almost unilaterally say not to do it. Washing the whole pillow could affect your ability to return it or make a warranty claim.
Washing a foam pillow could change a pillow’s loft, damage shredded or single-piece foam, cause mold to grow if it’s not dried properly, or possibly even harm your washer and dryer if the shredded fill escapes. Single-piece foam fillings are easy to remove, but for shredded foam pillows you’ll want to unzip the cover and empty the contents into a big container until the cover is washed and dried. This can stir up a lot of dust and fluff, so do it outside or somewhere it’s easy to contain the mess, like a bathtub.
Once the filling is emptied, Alexander says you should wash the cover on cold and leave it to air-dry (foam pillow covers usually aren’t cotton, so we think this is playing it safe to avoid possible heat damage). He recommends doing this no more than once a year.
Down alternative pillows are less precious to wash than down, and you can just follow the care label instructions. But Sukalac’s advice for cleaning down pillows works well for both.
Sukalac says you always want to protect the oils on the down feathers inside your pillow. If the down gets wet it can become sticky and start to stink (one obvious indicator that it’s time to wash it). Eventually it will lose its loft and leave you with a flat-as-a-pancake pillow. Wash it in cold or warm water on the gentle cycle, and don’t add too much detergent—soap residue can build up on the down, just like dirt and sweat do.
It’s important to thoroughly rinse and spin the pillow to make sure the soap is fully removed, but it’s hard to know whether the down filling inside is free of soap. For an additional rinse, Sukalac suggests running a second, quick wash or rinse cycle without soap. “If you do a quick wash with no soap, just [to] try and extract all the soap out, you’re helping.”
Soap and dirt aren’t the only ways to damage a pillow’s stuffing. Sukalac says drying your pillows on high heat for a long time is a surefire way to bake the down inside, stripping it of oils and permanently damaging it. High heat is also unkind to down alternative stuffing, which is usually made of polyester and can warp or even melt if it’s left too long at high temperatures.
High heat is the best way to kill dust mites, bed bugs, and other pathogens, though, so Sukalac says he runs the dryer on hot for the first 20 minutes only. “Then I kick it down to medium or low to do all the rest of the drying,” he says. He takes pillows out of the dryer every 20 minutes to shake out clusters and make sure the fill is evenly drying and redistributing. “Extracting the water is really difficult,” he says. “You’ve really got to take [the pillow] out and beat it up and manually unclump it.” Don’t remove the pillow until it is completely dry.
We know pillow protectors are not always the most comfortable for sleeping, but Alexander recommends using them (with a pillowcase on top) so you don’t have to wash pillows as often. To keep your foam pillows fluffed, “Knead your pillow like a loaf of bread once a week to let the shredded foam inside open up.” Or put it in the dryer for 10 minutes on no heat.
Sukalac also recommends using the dryer for down or down alternative pillows. “When I sell somebody a new pillow,” he says, “I tell them once every three, four weeks, put it in the dryer for an hour on regular heat to evaporate out moisture, perspiration that has collected.” Your pillow will stay fluffier for longer this way. And if you have allergies, Sukalac recommends putting your pillow in the dryer on high heat for 20 minutes to help kill off dust mites.
Jackie Reeve is a senior staff writer covering bedding, organization, and home goods at Wirecutter since 2015. Previously she was a school librarian, and she’s been a quilter for about 15 years. Her quilt patterns and her other written work have appeared in various publications. She moderates Wirecutter’s staff book club and makes her bed every morning.
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