Author |
Message |
Urgrace
Member
08-19-2000
| Wednesday, June 20, 2007 - 8:58 am
Never owned any clothes washer except top loading Maytags, and never had problems with the three I've owned. First one stayed at the house I sold, so not sure how long it lasted after the first ten years I used it. Second one lasted twenty seven years, and when the spin broke the wooden arm that holds the tub in place, hubby didn't want to repair it so he replaced it and the dryer for no reason. Third one is on third year. I didn't buy the matching dryer, because I hated the Maytag design of the door.
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Texannie
Member
07-16-2001
| Wednesday, June 20, 2007 - 9:17 am
I've never owned any clothes worth spending $1000 on a washer! LOL
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Spygirl
Board Administrator
04-23-2001
| Wednesday, June 20, 2007 - 10:29 am
We bought ours when Sears offered their "Friends and Family" sale. We bought our set for 30% off - it was an incredible deal. We also bought a full sized upright freezer. All three appliances with 5 year maintenance agreements were less than buying the washer and dryer at their "regular" prices. Juju - yeah, we wash an actual down comforter in the washer. It takes a while to dry, but it is sure clean and smells great when it is done!
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Teachmichigan
Member
07-22-2001
| Wednesday, June 20, 2007 - 10:51 am
Did you know that dry cleaners also wash your down comforters? YUP! They aren't allowed to use certain dry cleaning chemicals on something that spends so much time next to your face! (I found this out when I took ours in to be cleaned and had to sign a waiver! Next time - I just washed the darn thing myself! LOL) You can even dry them, if you stick a couple of small tennis balls in with them...just like down pillows. 
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Kstme
Member
08-14-2000
| Wednesday, June 20, 2007 - 5:51 pm
I do our down comforters and pillows in the washer, too. Have done it for years. I dry them for a LONG time and then hang and fluff over the upstairs railing, just to be sure they are dry.
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Juju2bigdog
Member
10-27-2000
| Wednesday, June 20, 2007 - 8:56 pm
Thanks, everybody, I seriously had no idea. Okay, and so you dry them in the dryer too? Huh! Well, I'll be dipped! And thanks for the tennis ball tip, Texannie. I cut something out of a magazine a while back to remind me to look for some plastic ball thingies to put in the dryer because our stuff gets tangled up and dries unevenly. Well, duh! Tennis balls would work just as well. And I JUST saw some at a garage sale too, LOL.
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Landi
Member
07-29-2002
| Wednesday, June 20, 2007 - 9:14 pm
i just wash the cat's tennis balls when i do the laundry and then throw them with the comforters in the dryer. makes the tennis balls nice and fluffy and then cats love 'em right outta the dryer!
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Kstme
Member
08-14-2000
| Thursday, June 21, 2007 - 6:25 am
Juju, that's what I meant...I dry the comforters for a LONG time in the dryer. Take them out after each cycle, shift them around and pack them back in. Tennis balls are GREAT! I hang them only because I want to be absolutely sure they are dry before I put the duvet cover back on. You do need a heavy duty machine to wash them, though.
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Juju2bigdog
Member
10-27-2000
| Thursday, June 21, 2007 - 8:01 am
Thanks, everybody. Neither my washer nor dryer is extra large capacity, so I might not be able to get a king sized down comforter in there, but I have a lightweight one that would probably fit, and I bet I could get the pillows in.
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Dipo
Member
04-23-2002
| Thursday, June 21, 2007 - 8:10 am
Wow, I didn't know cats liked tennis balls, I will have to get some and try it out.
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Mameblanche
Member
08-24-2002
| Thursday, June 21, 2007 - 8:32 am
.
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Mameblanche
Member
08-24-2002
| Thursday, June 21, 2007 - 8:33 am
Ditto Dipo! 
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Landi
Member
07-29-2002
| Thursday, June 21, 2007 - 4:41 pm
uhhh guys, my cat is an almost 18lb. mainecoon. she's like the size of a small dog.
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Juju2bigdog
Member
10-27-2000
| Thursday, June 21, 2007 - 8:58 pm
Okay, so I got brave and decided to wash two of the three down pillows today. There was some room left in the washer, so I got downright foolhardy and decided to wash all three. When I took them out of the washer, I was scared to death. Two of them didn't look too bad, but the third one seemed to have hardly any down in it, and what there was, was about six lumpy handfuls. Ack!!! What have I done? So, I dried them like forever, kept stopping the dryer and breaking up the clumps and punching them up. Man, there were feathers flying everywhere. And then I decided I needed new ticks for two of the pillows, so I called around and both JoAnn Fabrics and Walmart said they carry pillow ticking. So I put the pillows on another 40 minutes of drying and headed out to Walmart, only to find out that the fabric clerks don't know what pillow ticking is. They had ticking-patterned fabric but it was a somewhat loose weave. The point of pillow ticking fabric is that it be VERY tightly woven so that the feathers don't come poking out. Man, was I pissed! So I poked around looking at all the other fabrics to see if they had anything that would do, and lo and behold right next to the ticking-patterned fabric was a bolt of plain white cotton whose label said 100% downproof, so I bought enough for two pillows. So I came home and took the pillows out of the dryer, and by then they were looking like fluffy down pillows. In fact, I almost couldn't tell which pillow had no feathers in it! But now the pillows were so darn fluffy, I had no idea how I was going to get the feathers out of them and into the new ticks. But by golly I was making the new ticks, since I had made a special trip out for the fabric. I even thought of double bagging the feathers. Well, duh! I could put the new tick right over the old one. And that is what I did, and a couple hours later, I have clean, fluffy pillows with new ticks! So, now y'all please don't start any more threads like this one. It has been an awful lot of work.

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Urgrace
Member
08-19-2000
| Friday, June 22, 2007 - 6:22 am
ROTFLMBO!
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Kstme
Member
08-14-2000
| Friday, June 22, 2007 - 6:29 am
OMG! Sorry Juju, but this IS FUNNY! At least you stayed with it and didn't get 'ticked off'! haha 
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Urgrace
Member
08-19-2000
| Friday, June 22, 2007 - 6:50 am
LOL some more! <Hi Kstme!>
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Mameblanche
Member
08-24-2002
| Friday, June 22, 2007 - 1:58 pm
What the blazes is pillow ticking? Is it a typo for tickling. Cuz I wouldn't want ticks or fleas in my pillows. j/k EXCEPT I really don't know what a pillow tick is, I've never heard of it. Is it a slipcover for the pillow?
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Juju2bigdog
Member
10-27-2000
| Friday, June 22, 2007 - 8:06 pm
The tick is the covering on the pillow, the fabric next to the feathers. Oh, you kids just don't know any of these old terms. The fabric itself is called pillow ticking. A mattress also has a tick.
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Mameblanche
Member
08-24-2002
| Friday, June 22, 2007 - 8:26 pm
Ahh, ok. 
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