Duvets

A good duvet service can add to profits

A duvet service can be extremely popular and boost profits but it must be handled with expertise, using a suitable machine and purpose-designed washing and drying processes.
In general, duvets should be laundered rather than drycleaned, as this offers the best chance of completely removing soiling and staining, which is usually from bodily fluids, food and drink.
Drycleaning also carries a risk that the seams will burst and fill the cage with feathers and that it will not dry the duvet properly. If the owner drives home with a poorly dried duvet, it could emit solvent fumes and lead to accidents.
The washer-extractor should have a cage capacity of at least 220litres. Loading, judged visually, should be based on a half-full cage with dry duvets. Any higher loading will restrict the mechanical action and affect the result.
The wash cycle should include a pre-wash at 38C for five minutes to soften the proteins in blood, urine and perspiration and some food-based stains, so that they are removed by the vigorous mechanical action in the main wash.
The main wash should run for eight minutes and typically be dosed with 15g detergent per duvet. Three rinses at high dip will remove all detergent and soiling. The process should finish with an extraction stage at the highest speed that runs for at least eight minutes and some duvets will need a nine-minute spin. Drying is a vital part of the laundering process but this is often the weak point in a duvet service. As a result, the filling can become lumpy through a loss of "loft" or it can be damaged and flattened, reducing the thermal properties.
The cleaner should offer to clean the cover as well as the duvet, as staining will be most visible on the cover and include stains that cannot be removed by domestic laundering.
As with duvets, covers should generally be laundered but the cleaners can use the same stain removal agents to pre-treat the marks as they would for drycleaning.

Feather filled duvet begins to smell
Fault: After washing and drying this duvet looked perfect but the customer returned it after a few days and complained that a musty smell had developed.

Cause: The wash process was fine and probably left no odour other than a "just washed" fragrance. However the drying cycle had not removed all moisture from the feathers. This trace of moisture has combined with the feathers' protein and natural oils to form an ideal breeding ground for a fungus. Low temperature washing is unlikely to kill or remove all the fungal spores and these continue to breed and develop so a smell develops and gets gradually worse.

Responsibility: The cleaner should take responsibility for the slight under-drying.

Rectification: Re-washing the duvet will solve the problem in virtually all cases. Occasionally a fungicidal additive will be needed. This can be obtained from the detergent supplier.

Bloodstain leaves a ring and a tear

Fault: The duvet's owner removed most of this bloodstain but left a brown ring, which even weak bleach would not take out. The cleaner washed the duvet but the stain remained and a small hole had appeared in the stained area.
Cause: Blood contains haemoglobin, a complex organic molecule that includes iron. The brown ring is residual iron oxide (rust). Applying bleach causes further oxidation and can intensify the mark rather than removing it. The iron accelerates the degradation of the cotton near the mark leading to a weak spot. This has resulted in the tear.
Responsibility: The owner is to blame for the mark and the weakened fabric that led to the tear but the cleaner can remove the mark with the right reagent.?
Rectification: Spot the brown mark carefully with rust remover then flush thoroughly with water. If there is any doubt that all the rust remover has been flushed away, then re-wash the duvet. If this is not possible then neutralise it with a little ammonia. The tear is best mended professionally and the owner should put the duvet into a new cover.

Feathers still clump together after cleaning
Fault: This feather-filled duvet was lumpy after it had been washed and dried. The owner was not happy but followed the cleaner's advice to take it home and give it a good shake. She returned and reported that there had been no improvement even when the duvet was back in its smart cover.
Cause: A good lift and drop action during drying is essential for duvets to break-up the clumps of feathers that have formed.
In this case, either the dryer was too small to allow the duvet to move correctly or it was overloaded.
Responsibility: The blame here lies with the cleaner. The duvet was not tumbled correctly.

Rectification: The duvet needs to be re-washed and then dried making sure that there is enough room in the dryer to allow it to move around with a clear lift and drop action that will break-up any clumps.

Duvet cover fabric turns to shreds
Fault: This duvet cover was professionally laundered but the fabric gave way and the shredded all down one side. The cleaner was not sure whether the cover was weak or the fault lay with the process.
Cause: Duvet fabrics are made to be durable and withstand to washing and tumble drying. However some fabrics may weaken if they are exposed to bright lights over a long period and this is what has happened here.
Responsibility: This duvet cover has been in use for a long time and it has effectively worn out. The cleaner should not be sharing the blame here unless there is a history of bursts and tears on other duvet covers going through the system.
Rectification: None is possible. The cover is ruined.

Coloured duvets start to look faded
Fault: The cleaner regularly laundered these duvet covers for a small local hotel but noted that the original brown shade had progressively faded.
Cause: The fading is due, at least in part, to the use of a detergent containing optical brightening agents (OBAs). The OBA bonds to the cotton fibres and reacts with the (normally invisible) portion of natural daylight to create brilliant white light. This will make a white fabric look brighter but the light will dilute colours making them look faded.
Responsibility: The blame here lies with the cleaner as using the correct detergent is a craft skill.
Rectification: Unfortunately OBA damage to colour cannot be reversed. Re-washing does not work.

Holes appear on drycleaned throw
Fault: After drycleaning, this padded bed throw had round holes in one area. Only the warp threads had been affected and a skein of weft threads remained on each hole.
Cause: These holes have been caused from a splash of an oxidising agent, which has slowly rotted the cotton warp but left the polyester weft undamaged. The damage would not have been visible before cleaning but the mechanical action and flushing in the solvent wash has removed the damaged threads, revealing the holes. Polyester has good chemical resistance so has not been affected.
Responsibility: The blame here is most likely to lie with the user. The splash is probably from a domestic toilet cleaner or ceramic tile cleaner.
Rectification: None.

Duvet filling hardens and shrinks
Fault: A fibre-filled duvet reacted strangely to washing and drying as the filling seemed to harden and shrink.

Cause: A tuft of filling was removed and brought slowly into a gas flame. It burnt with an orange flame, leaving a black ash without any hard bead and an after-smell of burning hair.
These symptoms indicate that the filling was natural wool, which is still used occasionally. A wool-filled duvet is one of the few types that must be drycleaned.
Responsibility: As the duvet was unlabelled, the cleaner took responsibility for the result in this instance.
Rectification: None is possible.