Attention! If you wash your down jacket like this again, it may be ruined! See here for the correct cleaning method!

The spring season ushers in the new year's warmth and flowers, and the cleaning and storage of winter warm clothing is also an important task at this time.

Winter clothing has excellent warmth retention properties, and the price per piece is generally higher;

Proper cleaning and storage of winter clothing will help maintain the clothing's good thermal insulation performance and aesthetic appearance, extend the clothing's service life, and fully utilize its functions again when the next winter comes.

Next, let’s talk about how to wash and store our most common winter clothes, such as down jackets, wool coats, and sweaters.

01

Don't dry-clean your down jacket

Down jackets are the preferred clothing category for many people to keep warm in winter. The excellent cold-proof performance of down jackets mainly comes from the special structure of its filling - down.

Down is a mixture of "feather" and "down", and the down content is a key factor in measuring the warmth retention of down jackets. Down, also known as down flowers, has a three-dimensional flower-like structure, consisting of a down core and many tiny down fibers radiating out, like a small dandelion.

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The fibers on the velvet clusters are hollow and contain still air.

A large amount of air can be locked between the down fibers and between the down clusters, and this static air provides excellent warmth retention performance.

Down jackets are generally made of dense, windproof and waterproof fabrics. The down is filled between the fabric and the lining. The down is fluffy and resilient, and it fixes a large amount of static air, making the thermal resistance of the down jacket very high, achieving excellent warmth-keeping effect.

The special material composition and structural characteristics of down jackets determine that there are many things to pay attention to when washing down jackets.

Be sure to read the washing label carefully before washing your down jacket. The washing label of a down jacket will usually clearly state “do not dry clean”.

Because the principle of dry cleaning of clothes is to use organic chemical solvents to treat clothes and remove stains on clothes. The solvents used contain no or very little water. It is a "dry in and dry out" washing method.

However, the main component of down is protein, and the most commonly used dry cleaning agent, tetrachloroethylene, will damage the protein component of down.

The strong degreasing effect on down can also cause the down to feel and compact, making the down hard, losing its fluffiness, and damaging its thermal insulation performance.

At the same time, the fabrics of many down jackets are treated with a waterproof coating process, and dry cleaning agents will partially dissolve certain chemical compositions of the coating, causing damage to the fabric of the down jacket.

02

Wash down jackets with water like this

Down jackets are suitable for washing.

When washing, some people throw down jackets directly into the washing machine, which may cause the washing machine to "explode".

The reason why a down jacket explodes when being washed in a washing machine is mainly because the wet down gathers into clumps during the process. The high-speed spin drying will cause the air that originally existed in the down jacket to gather in a short time and fill the space between the fabric and the lining.

When these gases accumulate to a certain level in a small space, they will break through the outer layer of fabric and explode.

Many washing machines now have special down jacket cleaning functions, but long-term repeated high-speed rotation and stirring in the washing machine will still damage the structure of the down clusters, causing a decrease in warmth retention.

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So how should down jackets be washed to achieve the purpose of cleaning without damaging the structure of the down, and at the same time be safe and efficient?

It is generally recommended to gently hand wash down jackets . The main purpose of gentle hand washing is to minimize damage to the down structure.

Choose a neutral detergent or a special detergent for down jackets , add water and wait for the detergent to dissolve, then soak the down jacket thoroughly and wash it.

Dirty areas on the surface of the fabric can be gently cleaned with a small soft brush (light brushing is not recommended for coated fabrics as it will damage the coating).

After washing the down jacket, gently squeeze out the water and hang it in a ventilated place to dry, avoiding exposure to the sun.

During the drying process, you can gently pull the clumped down to make it loose, so as to fully dry it and prevent it from being in a damp state for a long time and causing mildew.

After the down jacket is thoroughly dried, gently pat it to restore its fluffy state.

Down jackets should be hung and stored in a clean and dry place to maintain their good fluffiness.

It is not recommended to use vacuum storage bags for compression storage . Vacuum compression will cause squeezing between the tufts, which may break the structure of the tufts and cause wrinkles in the fabric that are difficult to restore.

During the entire winter of using down jackets, it is recommended to reduce the number of times the down jackets are washed as much as possible. For dirty areas, local cleaning can be used to maintain the warmth retention performance of the down jacket as much as possible.

03

Don't wash wool coats.

Woolen coats are also common winter warm clothing, generally made of pure wool, pure cashmere, or a blend of wool, cashmere and chemical fibers.

Wool fibers have a special surface structure. Under a microscope, you can see that the surface of the wool fibers is covered with scales.

The scales have a thorny characteristic, with the base of the scales attached to the hair shaft and the tip of the scales extending out of the surface of the hair shaft and pointing to the tip of the hair.

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The scale structure of wool causes a large friction factor between fibers. When washed with water, especially hot water or alkaline water, the scale tissue expands and opens.

If you rub or stir it at this time, the adjacent scales will become entangled and restrain each other.

At the macro level, it manifests itself as the fabric shrinking in length and becoming thicker, which is called "shrinkage" or "felting" in textile terms. Wool clothing that is severely felted is difficult to restore to its original state.

Wool sweaters also have this "trouble", so wool coats and sweaters are best sent to a professional laundry for dry cleaning, but do not wash them too frequently to reduce the damage caused by dry cleaning agents to the wool fibers.

04

Cashmere sweaters and sweaters can be washed like this

Compared to wool, the fiber scales of goat cashmere are arranged more loosely, in a ring-like pattern, and close to the hair shaft. The "directional friction effect" is weaker and it is less likely to shrink.

The characteristics of this fiber surface also make cashmere clothing softer and less prickly to wear, and it is often warmer.

You can choose to hand-wash cashmere clothing by choosing a cashmere-specific detergent and using it correctly according to the instructions. Use cold water and gently squeeze and knead to wash, avoid rubbing vigorously, and lay flat in a cool and ventilated place to dry after squeezing dry.

If consumers do not know how to clean the cashmere, they can also choose to send it to a dry cleaner for dry cleaning. It is also recommended not to dry clean it too frequently to avoid damaging the cashmere fibers.

When storing wool and cashmere clothing, you should pay attention to preventing moth and mildew . To prevent moth, you can put moth balls in the closet. In humid areas, special attention should be paid to ventilation and dryness. During this period, you can take out the clothes several times to dry and ventilate.

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Nowadays, many sweaters are not made of animal fibers, but chemical fibers such as polyester or acrylic. Textile technology has given sweaters made of these chemical fibers similar characteristics to wool or cashmere sweaters in appearance and feel.

It is also relatively simple to clean and maintain. It is recommended to put it in a laundry bag and put it in the washing machine and use conventional cleaning methods.

It is best to lay the sweater flat to dry to prevent the sweater from increasing its own weight when wet and causing it to stretch and deform; when storing, fold the sweater and place it flat in the closet.

References:

[1] Wan Fangkai. Clothing companies should carefully choose the “dry cleaning” of clothing[J]. China Fiber Inspection, 2016(02):54-55.DOI:10.14162/j.cnki.11-4772/t.2016.02.010.

Author: Song Lidan, Consulting Engineer, Industrial Research Department, China Textile Construction Planning Institute

Reviewer: Zhang Jie, Chief Engineer of China Textile Construction Planning Institute

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