So I asked myself this question recently. I have a nice Ikea Sultan king Sized bed but I had a lodger sleeping on it for about 4 months over a very hot summer and I didn’t feel too inclined to sleep on it after that without being able to wash it.
The instructions on the Ikea Sultan Huglo mattress cover say ‘Clean with uphostery shampoo only’. Well for a start with I don’t have any upholstery shampoo. Secondly I felt it needed a bit more than just a surface clean and thirdly I think they just put this to protect themselves.
I searched on the internet to see what the consensus was but there was not a lot of information about washing my mattress cover. I did find one person who said they they had put a similar Ikea mattress cover in the wash and it had come out OK. So I bit the bullet and decided I would wash it.
Now as I say, I have a king sized bed and the mattress cover was quite large and I figured that it would not actually fit in my washing machine so what I did was to wash the Ikea mattress cover in the bath. I dumped it in there and turned the shower on to soak the whole cover. Once I had done that I ran the bath water and put a bit of washing powder in. I kept turning it round in the tepid/warm water until i figured it was cleaner than it would have got with the upholstery shampoo.
Once I had drained the worst of the water off, I hang it over my outdoor clothes dryer to dry. Now given that I live in a place where the temperature at that time was about 40 degrees Celsius, it dried within a few hours. However, if you live somewhere cooler, be prepared to wait somewhat longer!
So, in conclusion, I think that you can wash your Ikea mattress cover if you do it carefully and don’t stick it on a hot wash or put it through the dryer. No guarantees though!
Thanks very much for this! I have the same mattress with the same problem and now I’ll try washing mine too 🙂
No problem John, it does seem like this is a common question!
Trying in a washing machine today
Trying in a washing machine today
Didn’t work too small
Goes to bath tub
Should i use a cold water ??!!
I used warm water but definitely not hot!
Hi, How did you cover it again? it seems like a very difficult job to cover it. Can I cover it back without tearing it?
I’m not sure what you mean Anne, the cover zips on and off the mattress.
Ok so I put the matress cover in the washer at the laundry Matt on warm and then put it in a drier with low heat for 3 hours (allot of quarters lol) and I took it home and it was fine except the zipper was hard as hell too put back on
Ha ha yes I can imagine that would take a lot of quarters! But I expect the washers and dryers at the laundromat are bigger so that sounds like a good call. Maybe try some WD40 or similar on the zip? (although obviously while trying not to get it on the cover as you don’t want to have to wash it again!!)
I bought my Ikea mattress and mattress cover so long ago, that I’m not sure what kind they are/what name they have. But, today I washed the cover – unzipped the two sides apart – in separate machines on delicate or gentle, cold, and light. Came out fine (first time I’d ever washed it!). Just fine. I would not put it in the dryer. What I did was hang it, then set a fan on it, and then just put it in the sun. I’m very pleased!