Don't Let Your Dog Blanket Ruin Your Washing Machine

Your dog can bring so much happiness into your life. However, they can also bring messes and a lot of fur to your house. One of the areas where you will find a lot of their fur is on blankets, whether it be their blankets or your blankets. Many people will suggest you take the blankets to a laundromat to wash them, but when you do your bedding regularly, this may not be something that is so easy for you to fit into your busy schedule. Therefore, you will want to learn how you can wash your dog's bedding, as well your own that has their fur on it, without causing issues in your washer.

Wash a blanket on its own

You want to wash a blanket by itself so you don't end up with fur in the cracks and crevices of your clothing. You also want to be sure you don't put too much weight in your washer. Keep in mind that blankets get heavier when they are wet. Putting more weight in the washer than that of a heavy blanket can cause problems with your washer.

Learn how fur can affect your washing machine

When you wash blankets in your washer that have dog fur all over them, you do want to take some extra steps to make sure the fur doesn't cause issues for your washer. If you don't take certain steps, then the fur will clump together when it gets wet and goes through the cycles on your washer. It can then get trapped under the agitator and stick to the sidewalls where it will get on your next load of laundry.

The rest of the fur will go to your washing machine's drain pump. This is where the water goes when it leaves your washing machine. There is a filter to stop debris from getting into your home's plumbing and the pump. Excessive amounts of fur will gather in the drain pump filter, and not cleaning it out can leave you with the need for repairs. You can find online tutorial videos that teach you how to clean it, or you can have a repair technician show you how.

Steps you want to take to protect the washing machine from fur

You can protect your washing machine by using a lint roller or the sticky side of duct tape to remove the fur off of the blanket before you put it in the washer. This prevents the fur from ever getting in the washer.

For small blankets, you can put them in a pillowcase with a zipper and wash the blanket in the pillowcase. Then you can hang the blanket on a clothing line to dry and hit it with the end of a broomstick after it is dry to remove the fur. You may not want to do this with the blanket on your bed since it won't be as clean, but it will be fine to wash your dog's personal blanket this way.

You can purchase a special pet hair removal tool for just this purpose. You throw the tool into the washer with the blanket, and it will cause the fur to stick to it. You just remove it with the blanket after the blanket has finished washing.

If your washer has problems after you wash your dog blanket, contact an appliance repair service such as A OK Appliance Service.