Washing Blankets

[lenapesadie]

I’ve been using a blanket washing service for a while now but the girl that runs the service is cutting back that side of her business and doesn’t do any waterproofing. I’ve washed blankets at home in the past but thought I’d ask COTH for tips and tricks.

What I have to wash: 2 medium turn outs, 3 medium light turn outs, 2 no fill turn out sheets, a couple of liners and some hoods. 3 or 4 fly sheets. They are all relatively clean, meaning not crusted in mud or manure.

Equipment: I am not putting horse laundry in my tiny, delicate machine in the house. I do have an “extra” washing machine. An old, tough top load machine with an agitator that I could conceivably set up for the express purpose of washing blankets. But maybe a hose, a clean muck tub or two and a scrub brush would be good enough without the inconvenience of setting up the machine?

Detergents: I’ve used Rambo’s rug wash stuff previously. I don’t have any on hand so I’ll be ordering anyways. Any other detergent recommendations?

Waterproofing: I’ve used the orange cap camping waterproof spray from Wal Mart before and it does a good enough job but it seems like I have to do two good coats to get acceptable results. Any other products I should try?

I appreciate any ideas, experiences or recommendations!

[athelas]

I take mine to the car wash a few blocks from my house and use the self service bay. I use the soap brush setting and the pressure washer wand before I take them home to wash in my washer

[lenapesadie]

I hadn’t thought of using a self serve car wash!

[athelas]

Yeah! It’s a great way to do saddle pads too. I put everything in a plastic tote (that I store blankets in over the summer) to take home so they don’t drip everywhere.

[Arlomine]

Put the blankets in the wash rack, hang across cross ties…or out side on a fence, hit it with a pressure washer… Not too hard. Just knock stuff off. I use a push broom for scrubbing. Then I put in blanket a tub with a very small amount of blanket wash and let it soak overnight. Light pressure wash to rinse. Air dry.

I have been told repeatedly that washing them in a real washer is to be avoided, it shortens the life of the blanket and in particular the waterproofing. I am not addicted to sparkling clean blankets because they don’t stay that way for longer than 24 hours anyway.

[skipollo]

We wash fly sheets and liners at home, but anything else we take to a 24-hour laundromat at 6am 🥸

Nothing can beat the wash from 60-gallon industrial machines. We pay $8/load so in total we spend maybe $40/year? Two horses, full sets (multiple sheets, medium weights, heavy weights, all with neck rugs). We line dry at home out of the direct sun (hanging from underneath our second story deck).

We use Rambo wash. I think we’ve used the SmartPak version in the past? Or maybe the Leather Therapy version? But always some kind of blanket wash. We used to use regular detergent, and I can’t confirm for sure but it might’ve shortened the life of the waterproofing. We only wash 1x/year.

We use the orange cap spray from WalMart and have decent results with it. I’ve tried some black cap version from Amazon before and noticed no difference between that and the orange cap kind.

[lenapesadie]

Do you think the over night soaking is necessary? I’m imagining a dozen tubs lined up with soaking blankets and I don’t have that many tubs nor am I keen on spreading the task over a couple of weeks lol.

My blankets are really pretty clean but I can see using a pressure washer would rinse out a fair amount of dirt!

[lenapesadie]

Sneaking into a laundromat has appeal!!!

I’ve got plenty of room to line dry so that’s good at least

[LCDR]

I built a hollow horse shaped frame out of PVC pipe, draped the blanket over it, and used a pressure washer, lowest setting, widest spray on both inside and outside, then let them air dry.

Then I splurged and bought an industrial size washer for the tack room, which proved to be a mistake. Blankets get washed once a year. Saddle pads and tack cleaning towels get washed every day. The machine is just too f-ing big to use to wash 2 saddle pads and a few towels every day. And it’s so new and shiny that I hate using it for blankets, so I still pressure wash most of them.

[Scribbler]

I have a sturdy basic top load washer at home and it’s fine for coolers and fleeces and rain sheets. One at a time. Caveat that my barn is not a big mud environment. I send out my really heavy blankets, there’s just two per season if I use them Saddle pads I wash at home.

Laundromats are getting very rare as all the new condos have insuite laundry, the purpose built apartments have laundry rooms, and the houses have laundry in the basement. The existing laundromats tend to be well staffed and offer wash and fold and keep too much of an eye on things to sneak in a horse blanket. I well remember the scary old vacant urban laundromats where that would be entirely possible.
.

[Weezer]

This is genius!!

[beowulf]

This is very close to my personal method. You are right washing shortens the waterproofing of a blanket. Dirt particles get trapped in the weave, interrupting the tensioning which is how blankets are waterproof in the first place.

So I prefer not to do much to ruin that. My blankets are usually only washed once a season if that, but what I do that I think lengthens the longevity of my blankets is if a horse gets them really, really muddy I immediately swap out and hose off with pressurized water. That’s so the dirt never has a chance to work its way into the weave.

The muck tub soak method is also how I wash and clean all my sheepskin saddle pads too. In the summer I will hose off sweaty pads immediately and hang to dry. This keeps them cleaner for longer and I also will hand wash delicates like sheepskin in this manner.

[horsepoor]

I used to do all mine at home myself, but when we moved from a front loader machine back to a top loader with agitator, I started sending them out. But I had two brand new Rambos come back no longer waterproof (after ONE wash, and they weren’t even very dirty!) so I’m considering going back to doing my own, even if we have to buy a washer just for the barn (cheaper than replacing $$$ blankets).

Horseware specifically says not to use a pressure washer so I won’t go that route. I have used the Horseware/Rambo wash stuff and that is my favorite. Some swear by Nikwax, but I did not like it as well. Cold water, front load machine only (the agitator type can damage blankets), then line dry out of the sun (the sun can destroy some fabrics, and I know from experience that it is very hard on horseware lining material). If a blanket is really dirty, I’ll scrub it in the wash rack first to get the chunks off, and I’ll pull off the tail straps to soak if needed.

I pretty much only have 0 to 100g weight turnout blankets (then add liners as needed), so they can be done in a home machine. But the heavier weight stuff might be too much, and require a trip to the laundromat with a big commercial machine.

If a blanket is truly no longer waterproof, I haven’t found anything that will restore it. I’ve used things like Camp-Dry to help kind of bead up and shed the water on the shell and that helps extend the life of the actual waterproofing, but won’t take a true no-longer-waterproof blanket to full waterproof. Just my experience and opinion, living where waterproofing has to be good - the rainy PNW!

[Kyrabee]

I have a laundromat 1/4 mile from my house. There is no signage about not doing horse blanket or pet things and I always spray with a pressure washer before I take them so no major goo attached. I use the super sized washers at the laundromat.

I started saving up 4-6 saddle pads and taking them to the laundromat. They will not come clean in my washer (top load but no agitator). They sparkle after the laundromat. I take some of those bleach cloths and wipe out the washer and take everything home to line dry.

Susan

[Scribbler]

Lots of this is dependent on your facility

I could bring a power washer to the barn but couldn’t fill up the fences drying blankets and I’m not going to take wet blankets home in the car and carry them up 3 flights of stairs to the condo balcony. Or indeed from the laundromat. I could go to the car wash with the truck but not the car, where would the wet blankets go? I couldn’t get away with soaking stuff all over our shared areas. And we typically only have a few weeks where it’s hot enough to dry a blanket in a couple of hours. Otherwise it’s several days.

[SBrentnall]

I wash all my blankets in my large, delicate front-loader, but I put them in comforter bags to stop the straps banging around. I also hose or brush them off first to get rid of the worst of the dirt, and vacuum to remove hair.

[Texarkana]

I used to sneak into the laundry mat when I had an agitator machine.

Now I have a top loading, no agitator, HE machine, so I just wash them at home. I use a small amount of whatever regular laundry detergent I have on cold. Hang dry. They get clean enough.

I have some older Schneiders and Riders International blankets that have lost their waterproofing, but my Horsewear Ireland Amigos and Rambos have been fine. Some of them are 10+ years old and still perfectly waterproof despite my lax care for them.

I’d go bankrupt if I used a professional service. My horses have too many blankets!

[lenapesadie]

@horsepoor

Horseware specifically says not to use a pressure washer so I won’t go that route.

Some years back I washed a couple of Weatherbeeta blankets at home using a pressure washer. They were waterproof before I washed them but not afterwards. Possibly it was a coincidence but I’ve refrained from using the pressure washer on blankets since then. I have some Horseware items so I’ll definitely skip pressure washing them.

I’m tempted to just rinse things off with the hose, swirl around in a muck bucket of clean water plus the detergent and rinse again with hose.

I have plenty of space in the barn to hang them to dry out of the sun where they’ll still get max airflow.

[LCDR]

I have never had a horse blanket washed professionally, and I was wondering about the cost. A quick Google search tells me it is $25. That seems fair, given the time and effort I spend to wash my own. Is the $25 figure pretty accurate?

And as far as pressure washers, there is a wide variation in pressures among them and there is also a selection of nozzles ranging from wide fan to a tiny spot concentration. Without knowing what folks have used, it is hard to condemn all pressure washing of blankets.

[lenapesadie]

I have been paying 15 - 30, depending on size, weight and soil level including pick up and delivery. If the girl was planning on continuing to service my area, I’d stick with it.

You make a fair point about the pressure washing.