How to Wash Pillows (and Which Ones You Cannot)
Most synthetic and feather pillows can go in the washing machine. Memory foam and latex cannot. Wash 2 at a time, use less detergent than feels right, add a rinse, and dry them far longer than you think is necessary.
Check the label first, then wash 2 pillows together at 40°C to 60°C on a longer cycle with an extra rinse. Use about 50% of your normal dose. The failure mode is not dirt — it is detergent trapped in the filling and a core that never fully dries.
Can you put pillows in the washing machine?
Most of them, yes. A pillow is a bag of fibre, and if the fibre tolerates water then the pillow does. The care label is the arbiter, usually sewn into the side seam rather than the end, which is why people assume there isn't one.
| Filling | Machine washable | The catch |
|---|---|---|
| Polyester and hollowfibre | Yes | Clumps if under-dried. Cheapest to replace |
| Down and feather | Usually | Needs a gentle cycle and hours of drying |
| Microfibre | Yes | Dry on low — high heat can melt the fibre |
| Memory foam | No | Agitation tears the foam structure apart |
| Latex | No | Crumbles when wet and worked |
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Memory foam and latex cannot be washed, only maintained: vacuum the surface, spot-clean with a barely damp cloth, air them somewhere dry, and use a washable protector. When one starts to smell, it has reached the end of its life rather than the end of a wash cycle.
Why should you wash 2 pillows at a time?
Balance. A single soaked pillow is a heavy, saturated lump that slams to one side of the drum the moment the spin begins. Most machines detect the imbalance, slow down, redistribute and try again — and many give up, leaving you with a pillow far too wet to dry properly.
2 pillows sit opposite each other and behave. They also give each other something to press against, which is how any load in a washing machine gets clean.
How much detergent should you use on a pillow?
Roughly 50% of what you would use for the same weight of clothing, and this is the instruction people get wrong most often.
A pillow is thick and densely packed. Water moves through it slowly and out of it slowly, so detergent that would rinse cleanly from a shirt stays in the core. Trapped detergent is why a freshly washed pillow can come back stiff, faintly grey, or smelling of nothing pleasant within a fortnight.
Should you add an extra rinse when washing a pillow?
Yes. It is the single most useful button on the machine for this load, and the one time it earns the extra 15 minutes. If your machine has no extra rinse option, run a second short cycle with no detergent at all.
Down and feather are protein. A biological detergent breaks down protein, so an enzyme detergent — ours included — is the wrong product for a down pillow. Use a dedicated down or wool wash for those, and keep the biological detergent for the synthetic ones.
What temperature should you wash a pillow at?
60°C for polyester and hollowfibre, if the label allows it — this is bedding that sits against your face every night, and it is one of the few loads where the higher temperature earns its place. 30°C to 40°C on a gentle cycle for down and feather.
Use a slow spin: a hard spin compacts the filling into the corners.
How do you dry a pillow properly?
Slowly, thoroughly, and for longer than seems reasonable. A pillow that feels dry on the outside can hold a damp core for days, and a damp core is where musty smells begin.
- Tumble dry on low heat. High heat melts synthetic fibre and cooks feather.
- Add 2 or 3 clean tennis balls or dryer balls to break up clumps as they form.
- Stop every 30 minutes, take the pillow out, and knead it back into shape by hand.
- Expect 2 to 3 hours for down, less for synthetic. Air drying alone rarely finishes the job.
- Before it goes back on the bed, press the centre firmly. Any coolness or weight means it is still damp.
Down clumps exactly as a down jacket does, and recovers the same way.
Nobody ruins a pillow in the wash. They ruin it in the drying.
How often should you wash a pillow?
Every 3 to 6 months, which is more often than most people manage. The pillowcase is a weekly job and does most of the work; the pillow accumulates what gets through — body oil, mostly, the same soil that yellows a collar.
And a limitation worth stating plainly: washing does not restore a pillow that has lost its structure. If it stays folded when you fold it in half, or if it has flattened to the point where you double it under your head at night, the filling has broken down. A wash will make it clean. It will not make it a pillow again.
For a synthetic pillow, this is an ordinary bedding wash and Element sheets do the ordinary job — 1 sheet in the empty drum before the pillows, at 60°C, with an extra rinse.
For down and feather, we would rather you didn't use them. Our sheets are biological and down is protein, so a dedicated down wash is the right product. That caveat applies to every biological detergent, not only ours.
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Written and fact-checked by the Element for Men editorial team. General guidance only — always follow the care label on the garment.
