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How to properly wash a down jacket with tennis balls
Washing down jackets with tennis balls is an interesting and simple solution to the problem of matted down. Often, after home cleaning in a typewriter, the filler turns into a thin dense layer with lumps, as a result, the jacket loses its attractive appearance and stops warming. Balls allow you to avoid this.
You can find special balls for washing in stores. They look like round hedgehogs because they are covered with thorns. But they can be successfully replaced with ordinary tennis balls. However, it is important to observe several subtleties here: we are talking about all the nuances of washing down jackets with tennis balls.
How to prepare tennis balls for washing your down jacket
You will need three or four pieces for a good wash. Most often, the balls are painted in different colors, so they need preliminary processing so that after washing they do not get a spotty thing of an unexpected shade.
What to do:
Dip the balls in boiling water for a few minutes.
Treat them with bleach, wait until the color disappears, and rinse thoroughly.
Alternatively, you can stock up on special sheets that protect things from shedding during washing: manufacturers assure that these miracle sheets allow you to wash white and colored things together, and nothing will happen to them. But this experiment is at your own peril and risk.
How to replace tennis balls when washing, because not everyone has them at home? You can climb into the children’s toy box and find small rubber balls there. Also, balls that are bought for dogs are suitable for washing. The main thing is that they are small in size – they fit in the palm of your hand.
Washing with tennis balls
The effect of washing with balls is based on their curious behavior in the washing machine. As the drum rotates, the balls bounce off the walls and hit the loaded laundry, knocking dirt out of it. In the case of down jackets, they prevent the lining from caking, preserve its uniformity. When rinsing, the balls help to quickly and efficiently wash out the powder.
To start washing, you need to put a down jacket in the machine and throw three tennis balls to it. It is best to use a low-foaming liquid detergent rather than powder. The powder can leave white streaks on the jacket. The choice of detergents is now very large, you can even find one designed specifically for down jackets.
Otherwise, everything happens as usual:
temperature no more than 30 degrees;
delicate mode or hand wash, ideally for down products;
all zippers, buttons and buttons must be fastened, fur parts removed, if possible;
carefully check the seams for gaps – everything must be carefully sewn up;
rinsing should be gentle, the number of revolutions – 400-600. The rinse is repeated several times. At the same time, you do not need to get the balls, they will continue to beat the fluff even during spinning.
If you rinse the down jacket just once, the fluff of the filler may stick together. The jacket will become less bulky, it will warm up much worse, and the filler will crumple in the cells.
When washing with tennis balls, it is important not to clog the entire area of the drum with the laundry so that they can move around. Together with the down jacket, you should not put any other things in the machine.
How to dry a down jacket after washing with tennis balls
Ideally – on a hanger, carefully straightening the thing. The down jacket should be shaken every two hours so that the wet filler begins to straighten out. You can even use a vacuum cleaner or carpet beater. With a beater, you need to gently tap the jacket when it dries slightly, and the vacuum cleaner should be walked from the inside when the thing becomes completely dry.
Well, if the down jacket is still crumpled, then tennis balls will also help. Send the jacket to the washing machine and spin in the “spin” mode, put three balls in the drum. They will help break down the filler and restore volume and heat-saving properties to the down jacket.
Also good to know: how to clean suede
Editorial staff of Wday.ru, Olga Nesmelova