Somebody in your house is the reason you're reading about a wool duvet that goes in the washing machine. It might be a small child who still has the odd wet night, a dog who sleeps on top of the covers, or whoever wakes up sneezing from a feather allergy. Wool and washing machines don't usually get on, and you need them to. Woolroom, the Rutland wool bedding company that sells direct, has an answer for you. The Woolroom Deluxe Washable Wool Duvet in Medium is 350gsm of traceable British wool quilted into an organic cotton percale cover, with the wool treated so it survives a 40-degree wool cycle at home. It's the middle weight of the washable range and the all-rounder for a heated bedroom. Get into bed under it and the cotton feels cool against your skin for a moment, then warms through as the wool takes up your heat.
Before you order, look at its plainer twin. The Woolroom Classic Wool Duvet in Medium has the same 350gsm of the same wool, sleeps just as warm and costs less, and the one thing it can't do is go in your machine, because it's dry clean only. So buy the Classic, unless your house is one of the ones above. If it's the weight you're unsure about, the washable range also comes lighter, heavier and in two parts. The Woolroom Deluxe Washable Light drops to 200gsm and is my pick for hot sleepers and night sweats. The Woolroom Deluxe Washable Warm goes up to 500gsm, though it sleeps nearer a 10 tog than its label says, so it suits a heated room and comes up short in a cold one. The Woolroom Deluxe Washable 3-in-1 All Season is this Medium and the Light joined by poppers, and those can come undone in the night.
Who the machine wash is worth paying for
The wash pays its way wherever bedding gets dirty faster than wool can air itself fresh. A child's bed is the obvious one. One parent bought it for their small children and loves it, and another bought a single for a little boy moving into his first big bed, with the nappy-free nights in mind. Both want a duvet that can go straight in the machine on a bad morning, and that's what this is for.
Pets come next. One owner has a Labrador on the bed, washes the duvet regularly and keeps a protector over it as well. The cat sleeps on my bed every night and I'm not sorry, so I'm the last person to tell you to shut the dog out of the bedroom. Buy the duvet that copes with the dog instead.
Then allergies. Several owners came to wool after finding out that feathers set them off, and Woolroom says its duvets carry the Allergy UK Seal of Approval. Washing the bedding at home is the practical step I'd take in an allergy house, so this is a case where I'd pay for the wash without a second thought.
Two smaller groups finish the list. If you won't sleep under anything that hasn't been through your own machine, a dry-clean-only duvet would drive you up the wall, so pay for this one. And if your bed takes an emperor duvet, this range comes that big, at 290 x 235cm (about 114 x 93 inches), where the Classic stops at super king.
If none of that is you, Woolroom argues my case for me. Its own care guide calls wool self-cleaning and says it "rarely needs to be washed in a machine". Hang it in the air now and then, keep a washable cover on it, and buy the Classic.
How the wool is made safe for a washing machine
Each wool fibre is covered in tiny scales, and in warm water with a bit of agitation those scales lock together. That's felting, and it's why an ordinary wool duvet comes out of a machine smaller, lumpy and stiff. Woolroom gets round it by "treating the wool fibers with an aqueous chlorine solution to remove the scales off the wool fiber", which is the maker's own description. After that bath the wool is double-rinsed, and Woolroom says what's left is less chlorine than you'd find in tap water. Its bedding is certified to OEKO-TEX Standard 100, a check for harmful substances in finished textiles.
So the washable wool is a treated wool, and the treatment is the whole reason the wash works. If chlorine bothers you, the Classic's wool has no chlorine bath at all, and Woolroom's Organic range uses a mineral bath instead. As for where it comes from, the wool is British and you can trace it back to its farm, but the duvet itself is stitched together in the EU. That caught out a few owners who had assumed the making was British too, so it's worth knowing before the parcel arrives.
Washing it at home: wool cycle, slow spin, washing line
Yes, it goes in your own machine, and the rules are short. Use the wool or delicate cycle at 40 degrees with a wool detergent, keep the spin under 800rpm, and hang it out to dry. Never tumble dry it, because Woolroom wants it dried naturally so the filling isn't disturbed. Don't vacuum-pack it when it's stored away, and there's no need to wash it the day it arrives, because it has already been cleaned before it's sent.
Owners who've washed theirs are pleased with what comes out. One admits to being nervous the first time and found it "perfect once dried", another says it came back "without losing any shape", and another, who has bought three Woolroom duvets, says it washes and line-dries really well.
The size of your drum decides how easy all this is. An owner with a single says it goes into an ordinary machine, but one owner of a king realised after buying that theirs might need the big machines at a launderette. Measure your drum before you pay for a wash you can't do at home. If it won't fit, a dry cleaner can take it, as long as you tell them it's "wool wash only", which is Woolroom's own instruction.
Pick a day you'd trust to dry a load of sheets outside. A wet wool duvet is heavy, so spread it across two lines or a sturdy airer so the weight sits evenly, and let it dry right through before it goes back on the bed. New, it has a faint woolly smell at most, owners say, and several can't smell anything; put it back on the bed damp and you'll find out what wet wool smells like.
Getting it back in the cover is the fiddly part
Every wash ends with a duvet cover to wrestle, and this duvet makes you work for it. There are no corner ties, which one parent missed because the earlier non-washable Deluxe had them. It also comes up larger than its label for several owners. One owner puts their double at about 215 x 205cm (roughly 85 x 81 inches) against the 200 x 200cm it's sold as, and another has to peg it in place to stop it folding over inside the cover.
Buy covers with a little room in them, or check yours against those measurements before you order. One owner who found covers a struggle skips them altogether and sleeps under the bare duvet with a top sheet, which is one way to halve the job.
The Medium is the weight for a heated bedroom
If a synthetic duvet leaves you waking up clammy, wool is the fix, and Woolroom is where I'd buy it. In a bedroom with the radiators on, the Medium is the weight I'd give most people, and Woolroom puts it at the equivalent of 7 to 10 tog. It lies flatter than a hollowfibre duvet, more like a substantial blanket than anything puffy, and it stays put when you turn over. It isn't pressed flat against you, though: one owner says it stands up just enough to leave a warm space around you instead of sitting heavily on you.
The warmth splits owners both ways, which is what a middle weight does. A few hot sleepers found it too warm even in spring, others wanted more in deep winter, and one found it simply wasn't warm enough in the middle of January. Couples who run at different temperatures get on well under it: one owner who gets hot and has a partner who feels the cold bought it as the compromise and calls it the answer. If night sweats are why you're here, buy the Light instead. Wool keeps you drier but won't stop a flush, so keep the bedroom cool as well.
Most owners find the cover quiet when they turn over, but not all of them. A few hear a faint rustle, and one sent it back over a squishing sound, saying the Classic range had been softer and silent by comparison. If you're bothered by noise in bed, that's one more nudge towards the Classic.
What to buy instead
For most homes, buy the Woolroom Classic Wool Duvet in Medium: the same wool, the same weight and the same warmth, with airing in place of washing, at a lower price. One owner of this washable duvet said much the same, that next time they'd buy the Classic because it's "loads cheaper". Keep the Deluxe Washable for the child's bed, the dog's side of the bed and the allergy house.
If the Medium is the wrong weight, stay washable and go lighter or heavier. Hot sleepers and anyone with night sweats should buy the Woolroom Deluxe Washable Light. If you feel the cold even with the heating on, buy the Woolroom Deluxe Washable Warm, and keep the bedroom heated, because it comes up short in a cold one.
