How To Wash Polyester Blanket

Blankets are among the top bedding items that lose their freshness easily, and that is because they have direct contact with our skin which means all the things coming out from our skin go directly over them. 

In as much as you remember to clean up your body every single day (i’m hoping you do), your blanket needs a bit of revival too, in order to keep it fresh and usable. 

But how do you do it? How do you wash a polyester blanket?

In the rest of this article, you’ll learn the best practices to follow in order to successfully wash a polyester blanket. 

How often should you wash a polyester blanket?

Your polyester blankets will lose freshness pretty quickly, as a result, make sure to wash them at least once in a week. Blankets (in general) lose freshness quickly because they’re constantly magnetted to our bodies: at night time or all the time like during winter, and so end up absorbing all the oils, sweat and substances that come out from our bodies or collected on them. Because of this, blankets need to be cleaned often to prevent the accumulation of pathogens to a level that can cause terrible sickness. 

How to wash a polyester blanket

Treat stains on your blanket

Prior to performing any cleaning operations on your blanket, first check to see if stains are on it. If yes, treat them using the appropriate technique before putting the blanket in the dryer to prevent the stain from setting-in permanently. 

There are many different ways to treat different kinds of stains that accumulate on our blankets, from coffee to lipstick, make up to grease. 

The most basic method that works for fresh stains that are water based is a solution of mild detergent and water. Create the solution and use a soft sponge or brush to work it into the stain area. Allow it to sit for about 10-15 minutes then rinse using warm water. Launder the polyester using the method we’ll be sharing with you below.

If that doesn’t work to get rid of the stain, opt for professional stain removal products. Make sure to go for products targeted at the specific type of stain you have, and make sure to do a little spot test in an inconspicuous area of the blanket to find out how it will react with the product. When performing the spot test, make sure to use the product exactly as instructed on the packaging. 

Most of the time, you wont get any result from the spot test, and that is because polyester is truly built differently! It is highly durable and almost inert to everyday chemicals found in laundry products.

Wash it in the washing machine

Polyester, as a clothing material, is very durable. So durable that in fact, it can be subjected to the rough agitations of the washing machine while being soaked in warm wash conditions and it will still come out in great shape.

Notice that we mentioned warm and not hot? You want to avoid using hot water on polyester as that can cause shrinkage of the fabric with continued practice. 

So now that we’ve got our stains tackled. It’s time for a proper bath. How do you clean a polyester blanket in the washer? 

First things first, the configurations. Set the wash water temperature to warm (to benefit it’s disinfection properties) and the wash cycle to normal. You don’t have to always go with the gentle cycle as we really need the blanket to be disinfected and cleaned properly.

For the detergent to use, opt for a heavy duty detergent, preferably one that has a sanitizer in it. You can also choose to use chlorine bleach to achieve disinfection (on white clothes only) or non-chlorine bleach for items that are colored. 

However, we’ll recommend you use chlorine bleach only once in a month or in two months to limit its derogatory effects from showing up on your fabric. 

When you’re done with the set ups i.e loading in the blanket, loading up the dispensers and adding the necessary products into the washtub, run a complete wash cycle then follow up with another wash cycle without detergent in it. That’s three rinses in the washer to make sure your blanket isn’t coming back to you with sudsy residue on it. 

This is especially crucial if you are the type that is sensitive to detergents which means you can’t handle poorly rinsed items in direct contact with your body.

After you’ve gotten a complete rinse, your polyester is ready to go into the dryer.

How to machine dry polyester blanket

To dry polyester blankets, do the following. 

Take the dryer out from the washer and put it in the dryer. Then run a full cycle using a moderate setting. Avoid high heat because it can set polyester to a new shape. 

After the first cycle is over, remove the blanket from the dryer and check to see if it is dry. Small sized blankets should typically be dried after only one cycle, but bigger and heavier blankets might need a couple more cycles to fully dry out. 

For blankets that have not fully dried, run a few more cycles until they fully dry out. Then take the blanket out from the dryer and lay it out flat on a bed or on a spread out surface to dry completely and eliminate the possibilities of moist spots causing smell. 

Air dry it

Whenever you don’t feel like putting your polyester in the dryer or you simply don’t have a dryer at home due to one reason or the other, you can always make a switch to nature: air dry. 

When you air dry polyester, it may come out a bit hardened than when machine dried, and this is due to the lack of motion when you air dry.

After air drying, make sure to dust the blanket properly before using it. 

Wash it by hand

With polyester blankets, you also have the option to wash them by hand. Simply soak the blankets in cold or warm water and a solution of mild detergent. Let it sit for about 30 minutes or longer depending on the degree of soiling.

Allowing it to sit for 30 minutes or more will boost soil removal by a mile, as all you have to do now is apply little agitation to remove the soiling.

After soaking, scrub and agitate the polyester gently and then rinse properly. 

Put the blanket in the dryer or air dry it as instructed above.

Disinfect from time to time

With any blanket, not just polyester, make sure to make a habit of disinfecting it from time to time, because they’re in direct contact with the body which means they accumulate nasty stuff all the time which can serve as breeding ground for bacteria. 

To disinfect polyester, use chlorine bleach (for white clothes), or the many alternatives mentioned in this article for colored clothes.

Final Thoughts

Washing polyester blankets is very easy. You can do that using the washing machine or by hand. If you’re using the washer, opt for the normal setting using cold water and mild detergent. For sanitization, use chlorine bleach or products specifically targeted at disinfecting clothes. 

For hand washing, soak the blanket in a sudsy solution of water and detergent and let it sit for about 30 minutes or more depending on the degree of soiling collected, and then sponge, scrub or agitate, then rinse and machine or air dry.