I've been washing down items for more than three decades. Do use special down soap, not the products made for de-scenting hunting gear (even if the label says to do so). Don't use woolite or lingerie soaps, they can gum up down, destroying the natural loft. You can buy down soaps from camping stores and by mail order from Cuddledown. Use only small quantities of the soap (less than a tablespoon, probably more like a teaspoon or two, max.) Here's the drill: Inspect the item very carefully for tiny rips and tears that can leak down. Make repairs as necessary; if you're resewing or patching use tiny stitches, and use oodles of them. Pre-spot any really stained areas with a small amount of the down soap. Rub it in, let it set, then rinse and repeat. In the worst cases, you may be able to push the down aside enough to use stronger pre-treaters, but must work to keep them away from the down and rinse well before going on. I usually err on the conservative side since additional dirt will be washed away, but weakened fabric or too-harsh treatment of the down can do more damage than a small stain. Remove any detachable hoods. Childrens clothes probably dont have draw strings, but on adult items secure the draw strings in way that doesn't draw in the item. Assemble a mixed lot of down things of about the total bulk of an adult's jacket. (Except of course for comforters and sleeping bags, which are larger. These can be done singley, even in the smaller European 5K machines, but present other challenges.) Put the items in the machine and run a cold, or barely warm fill, short or no agitation, rinse and spin cycle, with no detergent. The purpose of this cycle is to force the air out of the down item using the machine's power. If the items look squashed,"drowned rat" is my usual description, you have suceeded. Now, begin another cycle with warm water and a small amount of the down detergent. Do NOT use regular detergent and do NOT use any fabric softener. This is the actual washing cycle. This should should be a gentle action, relatively short wash, high water level cycle. It's perfectly OK to have a normal spin, in fact it will make getting the tiems dry easier. Move the stuff to the dryer and dry on low for about 45 min to an hour. I use plastic rings made of nylon (like Nylabone dog toys) to help get the down broken up but I don't use them for the first half hour or so to limit wear on the fabric. I prefer to remove the items from the dryer at this point and give them a couple of hours outdoors on a sunny breezy day, followed by a final period of drying in the dryer with the Nylabone rings. It can take several hours of dryer time, so don;t be surprised. At each change over I feel the item carefully to locate any hidden pockets of wet down and nudge them apart. The items are dry when they feel and look dry, puffy and lightweight. But if you are going to store them for the season I would hang them in an airy place for an additional couple of days just to make sure all the moisture is out. Down stuff stored with even a trace of moisture will be ghastly when you get it out again. Better safe than sorry on that. If you have a "down emergency" in either the washer or dryer, stop the machine and collect all the loose down and sew it and the leaking item into an amply-sized cloth packet and continue on with the process. For a child's jacket you would need a pillowcase, larger items need larger encasements. Afterwards you can find the hole(s), restuff the down and close things up tidily. Unless forced by an unexpected event, don't start a down cleaning project unless you will have time to carry it through with no delays. Wet down items (or worse yet, wet feather items like pillows)can get irremediably vile in less than a day if the drying process is not substantially completed. Molly~

@patann - All Free can have enzymes; check the label and call the company. The All Free Small & Mighty does not, but I think the basic All Free might. When I called the company, they wanted the UPC/SKU number on the bottle so they could give me a correct answer. Bio-Kleen makes a powder detergent, safe for 'he' washers, that has no enzymes. It is the one that is not 'premium'. Bio-Kleen liquid has no enzymes. Woolite Darks has no enzymes. If you have (or can use someone's) an old-fashioned top-loader (water hog), you can use Orvus paste or even baby shampoo for the wool blankets. The pH of Orvus, a livestock shampoo and perfect for protein fibers like silk and wool (and no OBAs), will be better for wool than the alkaline base of most laundry detergents.

Like others, just wanted to give everyone thanks for the ideas and to show my experience (based on everyone’s suggestions). Was always afraid of cleaning my HD’s as they appear so shear. Even though my HD Silhouettes have been up for just over 20 years now, I have been hesitant to professionally clean due to costs (over $1000 dollars estimated-was told it was this or spend over $6000 to replace). Given inspiration by this thread, I decided to do it myself and wanted to “payback” the thread with my experience. Given the cost of professional cleaning, I decided to DIY since it I messed up, I would replace with something else that was not so delicate (called HD and they would not sell “replacement” fabric so would have to replace all units). I could not use the bathtub method as many of my shades are too large (7ft W x 5ft L). Also, did not want to use sheets on the ground or swimming pool method as I did not wish to risk tearing/delaminating the shade vanes and it would have been tough to get to the center of the shades to clean and rinse. I did purchase then returned a cheap $39 inflatable pool but decided it was not worth the effort. Bissel was an option but some said it was messy and I didn’t want to risk dripping onto white/beige carpet if using when shades were still hung. Instead, I hung the shades up on a pergola in my backyard with some bungie cords and 1” nylon webbing with plastic buckles I bought on Amazon for $7. I rinsed the shades (first with the vanes in an open position, then again on each side with the vanes closed) to get rid of as much grime as I could using a variable spray garden nozzle (started with flat spray, and increased to a jet spray). I then sprayed each side (vanes closed) with about 1/2 ounce Dawn (as degreasing detergent) mixed with 1:2 Oxyclean/water in a spray bottle. This was followed by a thorough rinse on each side using the garden hose on jet spray to get rid of all the remaining grime and stains (started from the top, working out from the middle to ”eject” the dirt out to the sides). I followed up by using a leaf blower to dry the Silhouettes so I could immediately hang them back up. I already had a cheap one that I use to blow excess water out of molding/crevices and grill work when I clean my cars but a SunJoe electric leaf blower can be purchased on Amazon for as little as $19. Again, I started blow drying from the top, working my way out from the middle to the sides to expel all the water (and get any excess water out of the headrail and bottom rail). I found that this worked best first with the vanes closed, then a light going over with the vanes in the open position. Because the material (at least of the standard Silhouettes) is some form of polyester, the material dried very quickly, with no puckering nor delamination. A couple of observations. First, much to my surprise, the polyester material (at least on the standard) Silhouettes is not as delicate as I first thought. I can’t speak for any other brand or material, but the Hunter Douglas standard ones are very resilient, just don’t poke the shear material! You can be quite vigorous with the water pressure, much more so than I thought, to thoroughly clean and rinse the shades. They are a quality product (at least the ones I bought over 20 years ago, and the price I guess reflects that). Secondly, I would recommend leaving them in a “down” position with the vanes in an open position once you hang them back up to ensure they thoroughly dry. They will not pucker so you don’t need to roll them up as one person suggested as this may lead to the headrail components remaining wet and the shades not completely drying. From removal to reinstallation, I got it down to about 20 minutes per shade (had a lot of practice, lots of shades, lol). For those that were asking for photos: Before (right side before cleaning), after cleaning (on left) of two adjacent shades, left side started even worse than right side (see second photo) since left side window opens. After is back to original color #128 misty almond: Another before photo of the left side (pretty gross!) Hanging from pergola before cleaning: After cleaning: Variable spray hose attachment: Spray mixture and bottle: Summary: about $35 worth of equipment used (plus the cost of soap and water) vs. over $1000. Can’t imagine that the +$1000 method would have significantly better results. Anyway, sorry for the long post. Hope it helps someone, YMMV.

Here are the rest of the loads that I measured. Light Blue load: 1 flannel shirt, 9 athletic shirts, 1 dress shirt, 5 pairs underwear, 1 pair of pants, 1 pair of shorts Wash 2 rinses Wash .793 gallons, spun out 2.1 gals total 2.9 gallons Rinse 1 2.1 gallons, spun out 2.3 gallons total 4.4 gallons Rinse 2 2.1 gallons, spun out 2.6 gallons total 4.7 gallons TOTAL 12 gallons Red load: 6 athletic shirts, 1 flannel shirt, 2 pairs underwear, 2 bath towels, 1 hand towel, 2 washcloths, 1 table cloth, 2 place mats Wash, 2 rinses Wash 2.6 gallons, spun out 0.793 gallons total 3.3 gallons Rinse 1 3.1 gallons, spun out 1.3 gallons total 4.4 gallons Rinse 2 3.1 gallons, spun out 2.6 gallons total 5.7 gallons TOTAL 13.4 gallons Light Grey load: 6 pairs underwear, 4 shirts, 12 pairs grey socks Wash, 3 rinses, water+ Wash 1.8 gallons, spun out 1.5 gallons total 3.3 gallons. Rinse 1 2.9 gallons, spun out 1.8 gallons total 4.7 gallons Rinse 2 3.1 gallons, spun out 1.8 gallons total 4.9 gallons Rinse 3 2.9 gallons, spun out 1.8 gallons total 4.7 gallons TOTAL 17.6 gallons White Load: 2 dress shirts, 3 athletic shirts, 7 undershirts, 9 pairs of socks, 9 pairs tighty whities. Prewash, wash, 3 rinses, water + Prewash 1.3 gallons, spun out 1.05 gallons total 2.3 gallons Wash 2.1 gallons, spun out 1.8 gallons total 3.9 gallons Rinse 1 2.6 gallons, spun out 2.3 gallons total 4.9 gallons Rinse 2 2.6 gallons, spun out 2.6. gallons spun total 5.2 gallons Rinse 3 2.6 gallons, spun out 3.4 gallons total of 6 gallons TOTAL 22.3 gallons