Care of silk filled duvets

Silk is a natural fibre, and washing with anything other than water will cause it to lose some of its natural properties.

Silk is naturally hypoallergenic, and care is taken during the preparation of the silk for our duvets that no chemicals are used, ensuring that the natural properties are not compromised in any way. Although this is not of primary importance for many users it does mean that all users will enjoy the natural healthy benefits that silk provides.

The correct way to clean silk filled duvets is to sun cure them i.e. to air them in the sun a few times a year. This has the effect of cleaning and purifying the silk floss, and under normal circumstances no other cleaning will ever be required.

Our silk filled duvets are not intended for use in circumstances where frequent cleaning might be necessary, but we appreciate that occasionally it might be necessary to clean a duvet in its entirety.

It is now generally accepted that no item containing silk should be cleaned with any form of chemical cleaner (such as those used in dry cleaning processes), as the chemicals will cause some hardening of the silk, thus reducing its softness. Additionally, although dry cleaning fluids evaporate readily at low temperatures it is impossible to ensure that traces of cleaning chemicals do not remain on a cleaned article, even after thorough airing. The surface area of silk within even a lightweight duvet is immense, and it will be inevitable that some traces of cleaning chemicals will be retained on the surface of the silk fibres.

It is also becoming recognised that even dry cleaning of duvets with other natural fillings is not an ideally safe way of cleaning them, and professional wet cleaning is now becoming more common, and there are increasing numbers of machines designed for this purpose being installed at cleaners in the UK and Europe. Other new cleaning processes are now also becoming available which are suitable for the total cleaning of our silk duvets providing the correct settings are used, which is why professional cleaning is necessary. Biological detergents should not be used under any circumstances. It is not recommended that any duvet be washed in a domestic machine or even in a laundrette in a machine with large drum, and such washing would nullify the guarantee on our own duvets.

Therefore we recommend that total cleaning of a silk filled duvet is only used as a last resort, and that wherever possible it is avoided.

Our current advice with regard to the professional cleaning of Mandarina silk filled duvets is as follows

Mandarina silk filled duvets can be professionally cleaned by the following processes:

a)     Johnsons cleaners Green Earth cleaning.

b)    Aquatex washing is recommended if available.

c)     Otherwise professional washing in a high capacity machine (minimum 18kg capacity, preferably minimum 30kg capacity) if possible using a specialist silk washing agent. Biological detergents should not be used under any circumstances.

Maximum wash temperature 30°C, gentle wash cycle (as silk). Maximum spin speed 400 rpm.

Excess water can be squeezed from the product before drying flat. Gentle tumble drying can be performed on 10 minute cycle at maximum 40°C after drying in order to restore the loft of the silk floss.

Regardless of the cleaning process used, we recommend that after cleaning the duvet is aired in the sun for about 2 hours to remove any residual chemicals / cleaning agents that remain in the duvet.