How to care for a mink blanket

A mink blanket is a raised-pile polyester knit, not a woven cotton blanket, and the two do not respond to the same laundry routine. Wash it like cotton — hot water, high spin, tumble heat — and the pile flattens and mats within a season. Wash it correctly and it holds its loft for years.

Washing

Water temperature. Cold to lukewarm, not hot. Heat is what causes polyester pile to flatten and lose loft permanently — this is the single most common way a good blanket is ruined in its first wash.

Detergent. A mild liquid detergent in a normal dose. Skip fabric softener — it coats the pile fibres and is what makes a blanket go stiff and matted over repeated washes, which is the opposite of what softener is sold to do.

Cycle. Gentle or delicate, not a full agitation cycle. A double-ply blanket is heavy when wet; an oversized front-load machine handles it better than a compact top-load, and a commercial machine is often the practical answer for anything above 5 kg.

Frequency. Less often than you’d wash a sheet. A mink blanket sits on top of the bedding, not against skin, so airing it out between uses covers most of what a wash would do, and washing only when actually needed extends its life.

Drying

Air dry is safer. Lay flat or hang over two lines rather than one, so the weight doesn’t stretch the knit at a single fold point.

If tumble drying, use low heat only, and stop while it’s still slightly damp rather than running a full dry cycle — the same heat rule that applies to washing applies here, and it’s the step people skip.

Never wring or twist to remove water. Press between towels instead.

Storage

Store dry, folded loosely rather than compressed, ideally in a breathable bag rather than sealed plastic — trapped moisture in a sealed bag is how a stored blanket picks up a musty smell over an off-season.

If it’s already gone stiff

A blanket washed with softener or dried on high heat can sometimes be partially recovered: one wash with no detergent at all and a cool tumble on no-heat/air-fluff can loosen the fibres back up. It won’t fully undo matting, which is why prevention is the real answer.

What this means for a bulk buyer

If you’re specifying blankets for a hotel, hostel, or any setting with frequent institutional washing, this is exactly why ply construction matters more than weight alone — a double-ply blanket tolerates repeated commercial washing far better than a single ply at the same weight, because it’s the construction, not the softener you use, that determines how many wash cycles it survives.

See the full range with weight, ply and bed size or ask us a specific care question — a good number of “faulty blanket” complaints turn out to be a washing routine issue, not a manufacturing one, and we’d rather tell you that up front.