Fleece liner too heavy for the washing machine...?

Gullfaks

Gullfaks

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Hi!
I sewed my own fleece liners for my guinea pigs, which is working perfectly - until it needs to be washed. Its a liner consisting of fleece top and bottom, with two layers of cotton towels in the middle, 140x70 cm.

To avoid plugging of the machine of hay etc. I use washing bags around the liner when washing them. The issue is that the fleece liner rolls up as a ball, and when its completely soaked and machine spins it at the end, its way too heavy for the machine to spin without risking breaking the machine or having it jumping on the floor.

Anyone else that faced the same challenge and found a solution? :)

I could of course cut the liner into smaller pieces, or layer the cage with liners and towels every time - but thats what I wanted to avoid when I made the liners in the first place... ;)
 
Hello isn’t it a pain ! It might be too large for the machine to cope - could you cut it into two and layer it ? I’ve had that issue if I put too much in the liner ( all little fleece pads etc) or you could stop the machine after rinse and just flatten the liner out ? Good luck anyway
 
I had this problem when I had one fleece liner for my 2x5 c and c cage. I ended up cutting it in two and having them as two separate liners. I find it washes a lot better when you have smaller size fleece liners too!
 
Yes I had this problem too both using a washbag and with using larger cage liners- now I just shake then brush down the fleece very thoroughly with a rubber curry comb intended for horse grooming to get all the fur and hay off, and I also use two 3x2 liners (70cm × 100cm) to cover my 5x2 cage area rather than one big one! 2 smaller liners, or 1 liner plus the underlayer, balance much better in the machine :)
 
Thanks for your suggestions!
I think I will have to cut in in maybe 3 pieces in the end to make sure not the break the washing machine... 😉
 
We have a 150X70 liner but it just has a wadding layer with waterproof layer either side, it may be the towels that are making it heavy, cutting it up will help I’m sure!
 
Here is a suggestion... if you make any more use human incontinence pads .. they are fab sewn between two layers of fleece and are not to heavy for the machine... but having 2 smaller ones would help!
 
artcasper said:
Here is a suggestion... if you make any more use human incontinence pads .. they are fab sewn between two layers of fleece and are not to heavy for the machine... but having 2 smaller ones would help!
Click to expand...

Thanks for the suggestion! Do you use only one incontinence pad as the layer between, is that enough for absorption? And would you know which fabric the pad is made of? :)
I checked in IKEA for mattress protection sheets, and thought about using those, but they contain 50/50 cotton and polyester, and I thought that 100% cotton or similar would be the best.
 
It’s the cotton towels that are the problem, they get so heavy when wet. Can you Unser them and replace with polyester batting/wadding. It doesn’t hold water like towels and dries very fast, but wicks away the pee from the fleece top layer very well in my experience. it’s also very quick drying and light too
Smaller liners are also lots easier to handle
 
Bill & Ted said:
It’s the cotton towels that are the problem, they get so heavy when wet. Can you Unser them and replace with polyester batting/wadding. It doesn’t hold water like towels and dries very fast, but wicks away the pee from the fleece top layer very well in my experience. it’s also very quick drying and light too
Smaller liners are also lots easier to handle
Click to expand...
Yes, I think I have to do something like this :) The polyester wadding - if I have fleece above and below - does the pee just go straight through and ends up below the liner then? Must use a lot of newspaper below? ;)
 
Gullfaks said:
Yes, I think I have to do something like this :) The polyester wadding - if I have fleece above and below - does the pee just go straight through and ends up below the liner then? Must use a lot of newspaper below? ;)
Click to expand...
We put puppy pads under the high traffic areas and to be honest I only change them out once every 5 days with the full cage clean and they hardly have any patches of pee, we use small pee pads on top and they do really help! When I make my own liners I have used waterproof matress protector around a piece of wadding and it works great!
 
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