Does anybody know how to washa down blanket?

I got a little down throw blanket for christmas, and it had tags with washing instructions on it, but my son ripped them off & they are long gone. It has had medicine & milk & various things spilled on it, but I'm afraid to wash it. Can it be washed? I tried doing a search, but I didn't get much. I found places that sell them, but it seems to depend on the blanket, wether it can be washed or not. So I'm not sure if I hould just do it or not. I do have a dryel kit thing I coudl use & just spot clean all the spots, but there are a lot fo spots!
Anybody?

Most down blankets should be dry cleaned. However, you CAN wash them yourself. Wash it on delicate(on warm/cold) and hang dry. DO NOT MACHINE DRY! I used to work in a dry cleaning/laundry Mat and we washed then often, but we would use a front loader (10lbs) instead of a top loader (regular house washer). Hope that helps ya.

I would not wash it in my washing machine only because they get so heavy when they are wet. And they tend to smell. I had a down comforter and left it out to air dry once and it ended up in a down pour. It was never the same afterwards. I hope that someone else has a good idea.

Ive only taken mine to the dry cleaners.

When in doubt, dry clean. But when I worked at Disaster Kleenup, we washed down coats, blankets, ect... all the time. Just on delicate with woolite and threw some tennis balls in the dryer with it to keep it fluffy.

Here are the washing instructions from my son's down coat:

*Machine wash COLD with like colors
*Use only non-chlorine bleach when needed
*Tumble dry separately on MEDIUM cycle with clean tennis shoe
*Extended drying time is necessary due to down fill

hope that helps some. I know tennis balls work for in the dryer too.

umm...when i lived in Germany...EVERY spring the German's would hang their goose down blankets, feather beds etc. out their windows to air em out...i mean these things would hang out the window for days!! ..but i guess it got em somewhat clean...*shrug*

Be careful of the washing machine. I washed a down blanket last year and I had done this before, but this time a corner of it got caught around the agitator and tore it open. It ended up ruining my machine.The feathers got caught inside the machine and burned it up, and needless to say the blanket wasn't much good either.