Be careful! Washing your down jacket like this will cause it to explode!

Down jacket = explosive pack? Down jacket can actually explode?

The cold wind blows, and winter comes to us coldly. Turn on your phone, and your family sends you text messages to show their care, asking you to put on a warm down jacket, and your heart feels warm, and your mother no longer has to worry about me catching a cold - until N days later, you have to wash the down jacket.

Who would have thought that just washing a small down jacket would cause such an explosion? Looking at the wreckage of the washing machine in the picture, I can't help but sigh that washing clothes has become a dangerous job these days.

So, why doesn’t this happen when we wash other clothes, but down jackets turn into “explosive” in the washing machine?

After checking, there are currently three widely circulated explanations.

Image source: Pixabay

1. Cavity expansion theory

In order to be windproof, waterproof and anti-down, the outer shell and lining fabrics of down jackets are made denser, and some are even glued. This greatly enhances the airtightness of down jackets, and even if you don't put them in the washing machine, you can just grab them and remove the bubbles.

When water wets the fabric, the water molecules will block the gaps between the fibers under the action of surface tension, so that the clothes can wrap most of the gas like a balloon. When the washing machine is dehydrating, the centrifugal inertia force during high-speed rotation causes the clothes to be compressed to both sides of the drum. However, the gaps in the high-density fabric are blocked by water molecules. At this time, the down jacket is like a squeezed balloon and can easily explode.

2. Water absorption and weight gain theory

As the name implies, down jackets are mostly filled with animal hair, which is highly absorbent. When a down jacket is put into a washing machine for washing, it will absorb a lot of water to form water clumps. Due to the closed design of the outer shell of the down jacket, the water permeability is poor. When dehydrating, the weight distribution is uneven, causing the center of gravity to shift to one side, causing the inner drum to hit the outer wall, water to flow out, forming a short circuit, and causing the washing machine to explode. However, this situation mostly occurs in old-fashioned pulsator washing machines, because the spin drying process of those washing machines is relatively "violent", and the ability of the drum itself to maintain balance is not strong, which is why the inner drum hits the outer wall.

3. Static Electricity Accumulation Theory

Down jackets are usually made of wear-resistant nylon fabric. Under high-speed rotation and friction, the gas inside the down jacket cannot be released, and the volume of air becomes larger and larger. Static electricity will continue to be generated between the fabric, the drum wall of the washing machine and the down under high-speed rotation and friction. When the static electricity accumulates to a certain level, the washing machine will explode. (However, Junjun is skeptical about this statement, because static electricity is generally generated between dry insulators, and it is easy to generate static electricity when the surfaces of objects rub against each other. When washing down jackets, the down jackets are not in a dry state, and the surface of the object has been moistened by water, so it is not easy to generate static electricity.) However, the editor would like to mention here that once the dry down rubs against the fabric to generate static electricity, it is dangerous...

This is also the reason why some people try to avoid direct contact with gas pumps and gas tanks when wearing down jackets.

Method 01

Use a new washing machine

In fact, many drum washing machines now have the function of washing down jackets. They are generally designed with automatic repair balance function and low speed mode. Using such washing machines, the speed can be controlled to avoid the explosion of down jackets caused by high-speed rotation. Moreover, these drum washing machines have a tumbling process during washing - which can exhaust some of the air in the down jackets. When dehydrating, there is only a small amount of air in the down jackets. Therefore, the process of washing down jackets in this way is very safe.

(ps: Choose the correct way to wash your down jacket, there is no safety risk in washing)

Method 02

Take it to a dry cleaner

In general, most down jackets can be dry cleaned, and some can only be dry cleaned. Dry cleaning using the extraction principle will not cause the above three situations. Since you can trouble others, why bother yourself?

However, because down jackets are generally worn for a long time before being washed, there will be more stains on them, and most of them are water-soluble stains formed by dust deposition. Therefore, washing with water is the best way to achieve a higher degree of cleanliness, and the down in down jackets is also more suitable for water washing.

Method 03

Lazy man, go wash your hands

In fact, hand washing is the safest way to wash down jackets, which causes the least damage.

References:

1. B station "Washing down jackets will cause explosions? Professional answer from textile chemical engineers"

2. Station B: "Why do down jackets explode?"

3. Sina News: "Down jacket explosions have occurred in many places across the country..."

4. Zhihu

Contributors: Southwest University Popular Science Space Station, Chongqing Physics Society, Beibei District Science and Technology Association

Audit expert: Wang Biao

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