Substantially down and down/feather mix bed pillows: how to care for them
The vast majority of consumers have bought into the myth that substantially down and down/feather mix bed pillows “cause allergies”.
This myth has been primarily promoted by the manufacturers of cheap, throw away synthetic and down-alternative pillows.
The very idea that synthetic and down-alternative pillows are promoted as a “healthier” alternative to substantially down and down/ feather mix bed pillows is ironic.
Even laughable.
That’s because the scientific evidence proves, beyond any doubt, that the “average” synthetic and down-alternative pillow harbors up to 8 times more protein allergens – the Der f 1/Der p 1 protein allergens in dust mite feces -- than the “average” substantially down and down/feather mix bed pillow.
(Source:Kemp et al, House dust mite allergen in pillows, British Medical Journal, Volume 313, Page 916, March 1996).
And the reason for this is quite simple: the fabrics used to construct the pillow shells (aka tickings or casings) for synthetic and down-alternative pillows are typically cheap, ultra-thin, low thread count (loosely woven) cotton, polyester or cotton/ polyester blend fabrics.
So dust mites easily penetrate these synthetic and down-alternative pillow shells and grow into large colonies as they feed on the dead skin cells (commonly called dander) sloughed off while you sleep.
Fact is, there is no cause and effect relationship between the cleanest possible down and feathers and allergies.
There is, however, a strong cause and effect relationship between the Der f 1/Der p 1 protein allergens in the dust mite feces that’s currently inside your pillow and allergies.
In other words, these allergic reactions are not caused by the cleanest possible down and/or feathers.
Rather, your allergic reactions are, more likely, the result of either:
- improper pillow care,
- improper pillow construction, or
- both.
Improper pillow care
With proper care, yo can add years of like to your substantially down and down/feather mix bed pillows?
So, what constitutes proper pillow care?
1. Use a zippered pillow protector
Always cover your down and down/feather pillow with a zippered pillow protector at all times.
2. Use a pillow case
Always insert your protector-covered pillow into a pillow case or sham at all times.
Wash protectors and cases regularly
Always wash your machine washable pillow protectors, cases and shams weekly in warm to hot water at least once a week.
3. Rotate
Always rotate your substantially down and down/feather mix bed pillows so that one particular pillow is not overused. You might have a few substantially down and/or down/feather mix pillows on your bed. Some you use, others are primarily decorative. But we’re all creatures of habit, so one or two tend to get overused.
4. Fluff daily
Always fluff up your substantially down and down/feather mix bed pillows on a daily basis. You can also periodically fluff up your pillows by tumbling them in your home dryer for a few minutes – on the “air only” setting – one pillow at a time.
5. Refurbish at least every 1 to 2 years
Always clean and refurbish your substantially down and down/feather mix bed pillows at least once every two years.
Of course, you can drop off your substantially down and/or down/feather mix bed pillows at your local dry cleaner who’ll probably view washing or dry cleaning your pillows as nothing more than a nuisance or you can entrust them to a true quality down and feather pillow specialist such as WHITE KNIGHT pillowCARE.
By the way, at WHITE KNIGHT pillowCARE, we'd never wash or dry clean your substantially down and/or feather mix bed pillows. You can read about that in our Position Papers.
6. Ensure they're dry
Always make sure that every substantially down and/or down/feather mix bed pillow is absolutely dry before you store. Otherwise you could end up with a smelly, moldy, mildewed pillow.
7. Store in breathable bag
Always store your clean substantially down and/or down/feather mix bed pillows in a dry, well-ventilated area in a breathable pillow bag made from cotton or chemically-inert, polypropylene fibers.
8. Avoid plastic or nylon bags
Always store your substantially down and/or down/feather mix bed pillows in a breathable bag, never a plastic or nylon bag. All substantially down and down/feather mix bed pillows must “breathe” and plastic and nylon bag impairs proper air circulation.
9. Avoid compressed storage bags
Never compress a substantially down or down/feather mix bed pillow into one of those
vacuum-out-all-the-air monstrosities such as a Space Bag. You’ll end up destroying the long term resiliency of the down and/or feathers in your pillows.
10. Understand the care labels
Never follow the care label tags attached to down and/or down/feather pillows -- blindly.
In this regard, exercise caution and skepticism. A majority of care labels recommend machine washing or dry cleaning. We advocate neither.
And, yes, we are biased. But for sound practical reasons.
11. Do not wash
Unlike garments sold in the USA, pillow manufacturers are not required to attach a care label to household textiles sold in the USA (Federal Trade Commission regulations). So your pillow may or may not have a care label indicating a “recommended” cleaning method.
And even if it does have a care label, that care label may or may not be technically accurate. (By the way, a care label is not the same as a content label. The care label identifies the manufacturer’s recommended cleaning instructions; the content label identifies the fill in your pillow, such as “minimum 75% goose down”).
Never wash your substantially down or down/feather mix bed pillows in a front or top load home washer or in a commercial washer irrespective of the recommendation on the care label attached to your pillow.
And irrespective of the inaccurate technical “advise” that you'll get from every Helpful Heloise on the internet.
For further information on this matter, please read our Position Paper titled “Cleaning substantially down or down/feather mix bed pillows: 6 reasons not to wash them.”
12. Do not dry clean
Again, unlike garments sold in the USA, pillow manufacturers are not required to attach a care label to household textiles sold in the USA (Federal Trade Commission regulations). So your pillow may or may not have a care label indicating a “recommended” cleaning method.
And even if it does have a care label, that care label may or may not be technically accurate. (By the way, a care label is not the same as a content label. The care label identifies the manufacturer’s recommended cleaning instructions; the content label identifies the fill in your pillow, such as “minimum 75% goose down”).
Never dry clean your substantially down or down/feather mix bed pillows in dry cleaning solvents or fluids such a perchlorethylene (brand name: Dowper), synthetic petroleum (brand name: DF 2000 or EcoSolv) or formaldehyde dibutyl acetal (brand name: Solvon or K4). Even in siloxane (brand name: Green Earth), the most gentle of all the dry cleaning fluids.
For further information on this matter, please read our Position Paper titled “Cleaning substantially down or down/feather mix bed pillows: 6 reasons not to dry clean them.”
13. Do not use fragrance sprays
Never spray fragrances, such as Fabreze, on your pillow shells. These products only temporarily mask the odors.
Here’s what these fragrance sprays don’t do:
- They don’t kill the bacteria in perspiration that cause the odors
- They don’t clean the outer pillow shells
- They don’t kill the bed bugs and bed bug eggs in the interior fill
- They don’t kill the dust mites in the interior fill
- They don’t significantly denature (or deactivate) the protein allergens in the dust mite feces in the interior fill (protein allergens are the primary triggers for allergies and asthma)
- They don’t kill or denature (or deactivate) the bacterial and viral pathogens in your fill
- They don’t de-dust the interior fill
- They don’t sanitize the interior fill.
But they do contain dozens of lung-irritating and potentially carcinogenic chemicals, not only the 2 or 3 chemicals disclosed on the packaging.
Spraying a fragrance on your pillows is like spraying yourself with perfume or cologne to avoid taking a bath or shower.
By the way, if your substantially down or down/feather mix bed pillow had an “odor” when it was initially purchased, it’s more likely than not that the down fill or down/feather mix fill had not been properly cleaned (i.e., washed and dried) in the first place.
USA standards for the cleanliness of down and feathers as well as generally accepted industry standards for calling down and feathers “hypoallergenic” are not as high as you might think they are.
Improper pillow construction
So, what constitutes proper pillow construction?
1. Always make sure that the fabric used to encase your down and/or down/feather mix is a 100% barrier to the transfer of Der p 1/Der f 1 protein in dust mite feces.
Verbal “assurances” from your dry cleaner or “pillow refurbishment” service mean nothing. Nor do written “assurances” on some website.
Instead, make sure the fabric is certified by an independent laboratory such as Airmid Health Group in Dublin, Ireland.
If the fabric used to construct your pillow shells is certified to be a barrier to the transfer of the Der p 1/Der f 1 protein, the dust mites can’t penetrate your pillow shells. If dust mites can’t penetrate your pillow shells, they can’t feed on the dead skin cells in your fill.
If they can’t feed on the dead skin cells in your fill, they can’t excrete dust mite feces inside your pillow.
And if there is no dust mite feces inside your pillow shell, you can’t be exposed to the protein allergens – the triggers for allergies and asthma – in dust mite feces.
In other words, your pillow shells should be able to cut off the dust mites from their food source – the dead skin cells that you slough off as you sleep and embed in your down fill or down/feather mix fill.
It’s important to understand that pore size and thread count should NOT be used as a proxy to predict a fabric’s ability to block the transfer of protein allergens in dust mite feces.
That’s because, contrary to conventional wisdom, the correlation between pore size or thread count and the allergen blocking properties of a fabric is very weak.
2. Always make sure that the two pieces of fabric that constitute your pillow shells are tightly sewn together along the edges by two parallel rows of hand-guided stitching that runs, at least, 12 stitches to the linear inch.
The combination of double stitching and 12 stitches to the linear inch is not only designed to prevent down and/or feather “leakage” but also intended to prevent dust mites from entering your substntially down and down/feather mix bed pillows at weak spots.
Double stitching is much stronger and tighter than single stitching. Double stitching is a sign of superior construction.
3. Always make sure that any esthetically-pleasing piping or cording used in the construction of
your pillow shell does not reduce the strength of the outer seams of your pillow shell.
Many dry cleaners and pillow refurbishment services like to “dress up” their pillow shells (aka tickings or casings) by adding decorative white, gold or silver piping or cording along the edges of their pillow shells.
At WHITE KNIGHT pillowCARE, we do not use piping.
That’s because piping, although esthetically attractive, is functionally useless.
Truth is, it’s more than functionally useless. It could be a negative.
Why?
Because the mere presence of piping reduces the tightness of the “sealed” seam around the edges of the pillow shell that’s created by the tight double stitching. This could lead to leakage of down and/or feather and provide an entry point for dust mites.
4. Always make sure that the down and/or feathers used in the construction of your pillows
meets the highest standards of cleanliness.
There are many terms used by different pillow manufacturers and different “pillow refurbishment” services to describe the cleanliness of the down and feathers they offer: hypoallergenic, super hypoallergenic, truly hypoallergenic, super clean, allergy free, chemical free, and the like.
We could go on and on.
The problem with all these terms is that they are often used loosely and interchangeably - without any proof that down or feathers even meets the minimum accepted standards of cleanliness.
A related problem is that these terms are often used with the intent to confuse and deceive.
At WHITE KNIGHT pillowCARE, we prefer to use the term “the cleanest possible” instead of the scientific sounding but meaningless term “hypoallergenic”.
The term hypoallergenic might be perfect when used to describe a polyester, down-alternative or memory foam pillow, but inappropriate when used to describe the fill in a substantially down or down/feather mix bed pillow – no matter how rigorously and how many times the fill was washed and dried – and no matter what trademarked term they use to describe their “special cleaning process”.
There’s got to be a better way to define the cleanest possible down and feather. And there is.
In order to qualify as the cleanest possible down and feather, the fill must have a Turbidity Value of 500 or more and an Oxygen Number of 1.6 to 3.2 as certified by a laboratory test from an organization such as the International Down and Feather Laboratory (Salt Lake City).
