I have a front loader and then my nice saddle pads take like, four or five days to dry. Any suggestion on speeding this up? I’m sort of terrified to put it in the dryer.
I’ve put them in the dryer on just the air dry function. I do that for a couple hours then put it on a drying rack with a fan blowing on them.
^^ This works for me too, but they are usually dry in 40 minutes or so.
It takes my sheepskin pads 1-2 days to air dry naturally. I never put them in the dryer, even on the fluff cycle. My machine is a top loader and I use the delicate cycle.
This is an old trick my grandmother showed me about getting pretty much anything dried “faster” that you don’t want to put in the dryer. Get clean towels that you don’t mind putting on the floor / bathtub and stepping on. Make a sandwich with folded towel on bottom, sheepskin FLAT and not wrinkled in the middle, and another towel on top. Step on it gently. It presses the water out. If the saddle pad has fabric, you can fold the fabric part. I just wouldn’t fold the sheepskin. If the towels are sopping wet, get another bunch and continue, gently, until the towels no longer absorb water – and the sheepskin is considerably drier. I use this technique to dry all kinds of things quickly. If the item can be rolled, the technique works even better…sort of a jelly roll or towel and wet thing. I also air dried my sheepskin with good success in the dryer, but can understand anyone who doesn’t dare – it’s a spendy luxury! Good luck!
I don’t wash them. 
If they need cleaning I will just spray them with the hose in the dirty areas and hang them over the fence.
But saying this I went to the sheep skin half pad and use white square pads under the sheep skin for easy washing.
I have never had good luck washing full sheep skin pads.
Are they coming out of the washer kind of sopping wet? As in, they leave a trail of puddles as you attempt to haul them over to where you can set them out to dry? Sometimes if you set the dial back to spin/drain or whatever that setting is and give it another chance, it gets the message. Another weird trick is to put something like a tennis shoe or two (I use my Vans) in with the pad. I do that with my little area rugs. I gave up on sheepskin pads, because they kept falling apart (perhaps they were offended by the shoe).
I’ve just ventured into sheepskin ownership myself, and was planning on using the Melp stuff in my regular top load washer and then air drying with a fan in the garage…
Never put them in the dryer, the fleece will ball and pill. I wash them only sparingly with Pepede or Melp. The towel sandwich works great, btw. I run a slicker-type brush ( the kind you brush cats with) around the rolled edge to re-fluff the fleece, and then air dry. Our pads look fabulous until the day they die, in a glorious explosion of chunks and fuzz.
Mine take a day or so to dry thoroughly, but IIRC I’ve always done them on the delicate cycle for the actual washing part and then put them back in for a rinse and spin (never a bad idea to make sure all the soap’s out anyway) on a regular cycle, as the spin is faster and tends to get more water out. So far so good, but then I don’t wash my sheepskin pads often at all … maybe once or twice a year.
I have a Thinline sheepskin pad that takes at least a few days to dry, which is why I think I’ve only washed it once or twice in the entire 4-5 years that I’ve owned it. My Mattes pad, on the other hand, seems to dry pretty quickly. I just wash it, throw it in the dryer on no heat for a few minutes to fluff, and then let it air dry. I’ve tried the extra spin cycle method, too, and that does seem to help.
I squeeze as much water out of it as I can, then I put it on the fluff cycle for 40-50 minutes and let it air dry. Use a boar bristle brush to fluff.
Thanks! The towel idea is a good one. I do use the melp but the spin cycle simply doesn’t seem to actually get the water out. Might be my washer. It’s a little hateful anyway.
