I'm going to share with you how we have washed our mattress cover.
You should be careful about the following when you wash the mattress cover...
* never to use hot water. (I think that it causes to shrink your mattress cover.)
* use oxygen bleach. (Washing with chlorine bleach causes to leave bleach smell on your mattress cover.)
* make sure to have at least two people to carry soaked mattress cover as it is extremely heavy.
* dry your mattress cover as fast as possible. (If you take too much time to dry it up, yucky bacteria will grow! Which means the terrible smell stays in it.)
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| Ikea Queen-sized SULTAN HOLMUSTA |
The care instruction reads, "Clean with upholstery shampoo only." In addition, it seems non-washable and non-dry cleaning. However, we were able to clean our mattress cover with water and oxygen bleach without any problem.
We used OxiClean to wash our mattress cover.
1. How to Wash : Place the mattress cover in a bath tab. Turn on the water facet and add OxiClean into the bath. Soak the whole cover in water. Let it sit for an hour. Then, step on it for several minutes. Let the water out of the bath. If you can not remove stains enough, do it again until it becomes clean. We did this step four times.
2. How to Rinse : Fill up the water in bath, and step on the mattress cover. Then, let the water out of the bath. Do it again until water becomes clear. We did this step once.
3. How to Drain Water : Fold the mattress cover in as many as possible. Get on it to remove water. You should remove water as much as possible because it is very heavy due to water. Then hang it on stable pole or something.
I hanged it on our bath room. The mattress cover was still logged. We were very careful not to break the glass.
Adjust the position in order to be taper. In this way, the water comes efficiently out from the mattress cover. Place a bowl underneath the mattress cover.
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| Effective Way to Drain |
If you place the mattress cover like the picture below. I think it takes more time to drain water and your floor will be flood like that.
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| Ineffective Way to Drain |
While draining water, we blew air at the mattress cover by using a fan to evaporate water as fast as possible. After five hours next morning, the water was drained well. :)
3. How to Dry : This is the most important progress. Hang the mattress cover on a stable table. Then, blow air at the mattress cover by using fans. Move fans around the mattress cover every several hours. We dried it up mostly within 24 hours. We were finally able to dry it up in the next 12 hours completely. If you have place to hang it out and outside temperature is high enough, you can dry it outside. (We didn't have enough place to hang it out.) If you want to dry it inside home, you should use fans because this will speed up evaporation. Drying it up as fast as possible is very important to prevent bacteria growth, which causes terrible odor.
I think you can wash your Ikea mattress cover by yourself, I don't guarantee it though. Be careful because if your mattress cover shrinks, your cover will never fit your mattress.
These are my episodes related to our mattress cover.
(3/9/2013) We Took Our Mattress Cover to the Dry Cleaner
(3/18/2013) Terrible Smell
(4/7/2013) Washing the Mattress Cover
thanks for this post. : ). How do you like the Holmsta btw?
ReplyDeleteI like my mattress, which is not too soft or too firm. It's perect for me. :)
DeleteHow hard was it to put the cover back on the mattress?
ReplyDeleteIt was not hard at all to put the cover back on the mattress because I was able to wash it without shrinking it.
DeleteWe followed your instructions and now cannot get our mattress cover back on. If we'd have known it was this difficult we would've never taken it off. We're at the point where we're just going to have to buy a new mattress...
DeleteWe followed your instructions and now cannot get the mattress cover back on. We would've never taken it off if we'd known it would be this difficult to get back on. We're probably going to have to buy a new mattress...
Deletethank you very much for your post!
ReplyDeleteIt is a rule of thumb that one has to regularly clean their mattress to remain hygienic. The job you did was well done, Ringo! Sharing the steps on how you do it will surely guide a lot of people who plan on doing the same. Have you considered getting professionals to help you with such tasks?
ReplyDeleteBrad Wike @ Peerless Restoration
I'm just in the middle of following your instructions - but still very worried about whether I will be able to get the cover back on the mattress - it was extremely difficult to remove!
ReplyDeleteMy husband and I were worried about it too while washing it, and it was very hard for us to do every step. However, removing mattress cover and getting the cover back on the mattress was not hard for us at all. I hope you will get it back on the mattress at last. Good luck!
DeleteI am not sure why you would go through all that trouble when the on my ikea removable mattress cover shows that it is machine washable. No need to go through that bathtub routine. Drying is a different story. But we hung ours on an dryer outside and it was completely dry after one day out in the sun. Plus, the ultra violet rays act as a natural disinfecsnt as it dry. Washed in in the early morning and by bedtime it was ready to put back on the mattress core.
ReplyDeleteYESSSSS it is hard taking off and putting back on but it can be done cause I did it, It took two weeks to dry on two kitchen chair,well putting it back on was crazy so I came up this I put a sheet on that I didn't want on flipped it over you can put it on both sides but your not getting them sheets back anyway put the sheet or sheets on turn the mattress cover inside out stick your hand in and reach for the corner mattress, get someone else to do the other side and puuulll puuulll stop drink some water and puuuull again then zip it that ain't going to be easy either but you made it that far, get a plastic cover and call it a happy day good luck.
ReplyDeleteAwesome, I am tired of running around and really coult find anyone who would clean the cover for me. Most places in Japan, they charge upto 300 USD for cleaning which i quite high just for the cover.
ReplyDeleteJust ordered Oxiclean and will try this method out.
thanks
You are welcome. :)
DeleteI think Japan is now hot enough to dry it up in the strong sun. The mattress cover is extremely heavy when it's still wet, so the step 3 is very important before hanging it out. Good luck!
Did you take off the bottom piece to clean the whole mattress?
ReplyDeleteWhat is the bottom piece? I washed the mattress cover only.
DeleteThank you for sharing. Will try it too.
ReplyDeletecan i drying in dry machine
ReplyDeleteI think it's too big and heavy to put in a dryer.
Deletewhile removing the cover it got tear, how to get one :(
ReplyDeleteIt's easy to take the cover off if you have two people. Unzip it from the end and fold back about 12 inches of the cover to reveal the foam mattress inside. Now here's the trick: Lay the mattress down on the floor and fold the mattress in half lengthwise with the cover still on but unzipped at one end. Now with one person kneeling on the exposed end of the foam mattress to keep it from moving the other person can pull and peel back the cover with much less effort.
ReplyDeleteI had heavy staining on my brand new mattress from my cat peeing on it! I had tried EVERYTHING to clean it...bleach (BAD idea) and other cleaning products (useless).
ReplyDeleteCheers for your posting because we just gave the oxy powder stuff a go. We took the mattress outside, stood it on a large table with plastic beneath it, and used a bowl of hot water with the oxy powder to give it a bit of a 'pre-wash'. We then had plans to take it to the launderette for a cold wash. BUT the pre wash turned out so well (that oxy is powerful stuff!) and I'm so happy with the results...I don't need to take it to the launderette after all.
Seriously...all odour removed and super white clean now.
Thanks for your tips! A massive help :)
We have the same mattress from Ikea and I decided to wash my mattress cover. Can you put it in a huge tumble dryer? or will it ruin the foam? and what did you sleep on when you were drying the cover because you said it took 24 hours?
ReplyDeleteThanks to your post, we now have a clean mattress cover. Our friend's kid wet the bed, but luckily the stain hadn't reached the foam mattress innards. So we simply unzipped the mattress cover and put it in the washing machine. Instead of High Efficiency laundry detergent, we used OxiClean as you suggested. We also sprayed OxiClean on the stain itself. The spin cycle got a lot of the moisture out. We then put it in the dryer on the "air dry" cycle and finished drying it inside the house, laying it out flat over the tops of our dining room chairs. It definitely takes two people to get the mattress cover back on. We turned it inside out first and found that it helped a lot. Now the mattress looks and smells like new. Thanks for your tips!
ReplyDeleteWe had used this Ikea bed in our guest room. Unfortunately, one of our guest's kid wet the bed one night. We put it in the washing machine and instead of using high efficiency detergent, we used OxiClean liquid. We also sprayed the stain with OxiClean before putting it in the washing machine. It cleaned it beautifully. We did put it in the dryer but used the "air dry" cycle. You don't want to use heat or else you'll never get the cover back on.
ReplyDeleteGetting the cover back on is definitely a two-person task! We turned it inside out first, and found that it helped a lot.
Our mattress now looks and smells like new. Thank you for posting this!
Alas, I have thrown out one already due to shrinking after wash. Now, I am trying one more time with your kind direction. Hope it works. Otherwise, I am gonna cry like a baby.
ReplyDeleteWashed mine at local laundromat. Large side industrial machine and used oxy cleaner. Not 100% white but a lot better. Mattress fell apart putting cover back on. It's no longer fitting properly, mattress is uneven now.
ReplyDeleteHi, I just wanted to say this was very helpful, and your English is perfect; I think it’s an incredible idea to start a blog to practice English! :)
ReplyDeleteHello, I also would like to comment over all the points mentioned in this blog. I agree with essence of few point but somewhere I found myself on other place. I hope, there might little opinion of others as well.
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Thanks so much for the suggestion. Worked very well for my beer stained ikea hamarvik mattress. I was in a kill or cure situation and these instructions helped. Below are a few observations that might help further:
ReplyDelete- getting the mattress cover off was surprisingly easy.
- don’t over use the oxygen/vanish oxy power etc. I found my stains were removed relatively quickly and I spent the rest of the time washing out the cleaning powder.
- I did mine in the bath and it was easy to manipulate the cover.
- mine had a memory foam top and that soaked up a lot of water so be prepared for the weight.
- when putting the over back on... ROLL YOUR MATTRESS. I’ve read a lot of comments about it being difficult to put back on. Simply roll the mattress and use some string. Put the cover over the rolled mattress and cut the string. Mine slid into place with ease.
Very happy with the result. Thanks again for the instructions.