Cleaning a Fabric Sofa

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Soldato
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We bought a corner fabric sofa (with removable covers) from DFS a year or two ago.

Is it safe to wash the covers in a washing machine or do they need to be taken to a professional (Dry cleaners?)

I've rang DFS and I know they've got no Axe to grind but the lady said they shouldn't be washed in washing machine due to the chemicals in most washing powders damaging the fire resistant material aspect of the fabric.

Any light on this? Is it possible to wash in a washing machine some way (lower temp and a special detergent)? Or do we need to take them to a dry cleaners...?
 
I was told the same thing by another company; I think there are regulations in place which mean companies have to impregnate the fabrics with fire-retardant properties.

A washing machine may remove these mystical properties and mean that your once slow-burning sofa could go up in flames very quickly if there was a fire.
 
Do they not have washing instructions on the inside of the covers? My Ikea sofa has them, fine in a washing machine 40 degrees, inside out, no tumble dry.

Surely the fire retardedness is in the cushion parts?
 
I have a dfs sofa and they have a kind of rubbery feeling coating on the inside, when I have have spilt stuff on it I have used my friends Vax with hand tool and it worked well, do this ask your own risk though :)
 
Our cat decided to do a massive cat wee in the middle of our two sofa cushion seats. We washed them in the machine, didn't give it a second thought. They turned out fine although I can't comment on the fire retardant aspect mentioned above, I would check for any washing labels and if you're happy to risk it try a low temperature and a mild detergent as you said.
 
Depends on the colour. We learnt the hard way many years ago when we put a cream sofa cover into the washing machine and the dye ran.

Now it's dry clean only and that is as good as near as dammit. Although new covers are about £500 so not the end of the world on a 5 year old £3k sofa
 
We need to wash ours but I'm worried that the cushions will then be mismatched and look cleaner than the arms and other parts that aren't removable...so I think I'm going to get a professional cleaner in and pay the £50 for them to do the entire sofa to keep it looking uniform.
 
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