Billie G

Bear- I have washed & dried pillows as well as down comforters, for years. Also down vests & jackets.
I just wash on cool water, regular soap, could use woolite, if you have it on hand, Do an extra spin cycle. Put in dryer, w/ at least 2 tennis balls, or an old clean tennis shoe. The balls beat the living crap out of the feathers & helps them re fluff. I have hung items on the clothes line to dry than put in dryer just to fluff. If you don't fluff, all the feathers clump in a lump, and refuse to distribute.

Good luck

gramma nancy

I had ours dry cleaned at a "natural" dry cleaner. No odor and wonderfully fluffy.

I have a front loading washing machine and I don't know if I could even wash pillows in it. Long ago, I successfully washed foam pillows in a top-loader and was able to soak the pillows, agitate them a bit, then soak them again. I can't figure out a way to make sure they are fully soaked in a front-loader.

oldtnquiltinglady

I just change my feather pillow covers periodically. I have never washed mine. But when I do put the feathers into a new cover, I put the pillow in my dryer and fluff it thoroughly. I have noticed no bad smell, even though the pillow was really funky before I put the new cover on. I don't care for the pillow ticking that can be found nowadays at different fabric stores--I just use a good grade of whatever I can find in my stash--the closer woven it is the better. No foam or heavy sticky feather pillows for me. The older and softer, the better.

petpainter

I wash mine all the time, too. The extra rinse/spin cycle does help speed the drying.

Wanabee Quiltin

I wash my down pillows at home. Put in dryer with tennis balls to fluff up Works great.

NikkiLu

Don't know if they still do this or not. But, many years ago I was given some already old feather pillows by an old family member. An ad in our local paper was from an outfit that would clean your feather pillows and put on new pillow ticks. I brought in about 6 pillows and it was an old school bus parked next to a dry cleaner's building. It was a man and his wife - they traveled around the country doing this. They had a machine in the bus that took the feathers out of the pillow and cleaned them through a wire/fan thingy and then "blew" the feathers back into new ticks. No water was involved. Seems like they charged about $10 per pillow and I had the "deluxe" flowered covers put on - instead of the standard blue striped ticks. I picked them up a few days later at the cleaners, all put in the plastic cleaner's bags. I think that out of the 6 pillows that I brought in, I went home with 5 as some feathers had deteriated I have not seen any ad where they ever came back to our town. I think that they were retired people just traveling around the country. You might call your local cleaners and ask them if that service is available near you.

madamekelly

Grandma used to put two new tennis balls in the dryer with the pillows to fluff them as they dried. It makes some noise, but the pillows came out fluffy. While the pillows are wet, they really smell, but once they are dry, they are fine. Do not use a dryer sheet, it will gum up the feathers.

bearisgray

Thank you for the responses.

In the meantime, I set them out in the sun for a few hours, and that seemed to help a bit.

Funny - when I brought these home, DH really turned up his nose at them. Now, he grabs them.

AnnaF

I always wash my down pillows. I have never had a problem with doing them at home..I wash with hot water and when they are done I pop them into the dryer with a couple tennis balls and they do the fluffing for me. It take several restarts to get them dry but lately I partially dry them using my dryer and when they are all plumped up I set them on my drying rack and they finish drying naturally,

bearisgray

For those that wash your pillows at home - what do you use? Do ./ Will you recommend a particular brand of cleaner?

I was looking on the internet and did see seversl brands of " down wash."