I just got a St. Dormeir mattress protector from UPS today. I always wash clothes/sheets before wearing them (even fleece jackets) and so I was wondering if I should wash the St. Dormeir mattress protector before putting it on the bed (since it is washable).
I am a little worried about drying the wet protector since I am not sure when I will know that it will be dry and don’t want to over dry it and ruin the wool. Since wool retains water in its fiber, won’t it be hard to know if it is dry? I don’t want to put it on the bed if it is still a bit wet for obvious reasons.
I’m also worried about washing it since the St. Dormeir protector because it says to use as much water as possible and I have a front loader so I can’t really change the amount of water it uses.
It’s certainly not necessary to wash it before you use it so this would be a preference choice (like you some people feel better washing their bedding before they use it).
The instructions here say to dry it on medium heat and a gentle cycle and remove it as soon as it no longer feels damp to the touch.
In your case “as much as possible” would be the only option you have and I would think it will be fine if you wash it by itself but if you have any concerns about the load capacity of your washer I would call or email St Dormier here and ask them if they think your washer would be OK.
I called up St. Dormeir and they said you definitely wanted it to be fully dry. I was wondering if there was a way to decide if a wool filled cover is actually dry. Does anyone who owns a wool filled protector have experience with this?
How bad would it be to put a non fully dried protector on the bed? Seems like that would lead to mildew/moisture on the mattress which would be worse than having none at all.
We own one (although it’s not the St Dormier and is thicker) and we just take it out of the drier when it no longer feels damp to the touch.
Wool is mold and mildew resistant so this isn’t likely to be an issue even if it is still very slightly damp and as long as it’s no longer obviously damp to the touch then it will be fine and won’t be at risk of felting (which could happen if the wool is still wet) or damage if you sleep on it.
I washed and dried the mattress protector last night and I think I may have ruined it. When drying, I put it on “cottons” which sets it to medium (my dryer has an option of very low/low/medium/med high/high) but there is no “gentle” option. I checked at some point and thought it was dry but there was a spot that was slightly damp and so I put it back in. Yesterday, I talked to someone at St Dormeir on the phone (who may not have known much) and she said I definitely wanted it to be completely dry. I also noticed that the instructions on the protector are different than on the outside of the package - they say to dry on low.
The instructions warned of lots of lint from the terry cloth and there was lots of lint. However, there is a lot of fine particles still coming off the protector (like very fine dirt but it is white - not fibers like lint). It is very fine and very gritty between the fingers. I put the protector over some chairs and shook it a little and there was a bunch of these fine particles all over the hardwood floors under the chairs. I am worried that the medium on my dryer is too hot (since it is less than a year old and gets pretty hot and that I should have used low instead and not left it in to get completely dry). It feels like it is disintegrating a bit. Could this be due to the wool being brittle and breaking up?
Should I call FSF (who I bought it from) or the company to see if it is defective or ruined?
I also don’t want to keep washing/drying it if it is disintegrating because I don’t want it to clog up the washer/dryer with the fine particles. I had to run a load a wet towels in the dryer to get all the particles out of the dryer after the protector was in there.
Should I start a new thread since this is a new problem?
For others that may run into this. I talked to someone at the company who said this residue was normal - that she had heard of this. Unfortunately, she said she was one of the people who has never owned one. She wasn’t sure what caused this but maybe it was the wool. She did say that it eventually goes away but wasn’t sure how many washes it would take. I guess I’ll have to decide if I can live with this residue - I certainly don’t like it.
I’m not sure what may be happening and it’s not something that I’ve seen mentioned before but I would suspect that it’s probably just some fine lint of some type. I would probably wash it a couple more times to see if it stops but if for some reason it doesn’t or you aren’t happy with it then I know that Flobeds will take it back.
I always tell people to dry these on the lowest heat setting of the dryer. Some dryers run hotter than others so its always just the safest way to do it. I also think that unless you can be around to check the protector periodically that drying it till it is bone dry feeling is not always necessary; a little tiny bit of humidity in the fabric is not a bad thing.