Five frequently asked questions about how to clean vertical blinds (without ruining them)

I’m pretty sure we’re all familiar with the concept of being too afraid to ask a question we really need the answer to because we’re worried it’s going to sound stupid.

If you’re anything like me, this is apt to result in a tendency to find out for yourself via trial and expensive error whether or not your idea was in fact plain stupid or actually genius, and frankly, if your stupid-to-genius ratio is any higher than mine, you should probably have your own TV show.

Anyway, as a window blinds company, we get a lot of fairly specific questions about how to clean vertical blinds, these being one of the most popular and common blind types for all sorts of applications.

These questions tend to be divided into two categories, being:

• “How do you clean vertical blinds/can I clean my vertical blinds with x-y-z?”

And on the flipside:

• “I tried to clean my vertical blinds like this/using x-y-z/with a flamethrower and some caustic soda but it went the way of the pear, is there anything I can do to fix this or am I sleeping in the spare room for the next month?”

With this in mind, this blog post is going to tackle five frequently asked questions about how to clean vertical blinds without ruining them based on the most common (and terrible) ideas we get asked about on the regular.

Read on to find out if you can wash vertical blinds in your washing machine, and if vertical blinds can be dried with a hairdryer, among other things.

Can you wash vertical blinds in the washing machine?

Perhaps the most common thing we get asked by customers looking for a shortcut on how to clean vertical blinds is whether or not you can wash them in the washing machine. The answer to this depends on the fabric your vertical blinds are made of, with some types of vertical blinds being machine washable with care and others being apt to discolour, warp, or disintegrate at the very mention of the word “Zanussi.”

For some pointers on finding out if your own vertical blinds will survive a machine wash and instructions on how to do it if so, check out this blog post to learn how to wash vertical blinds in a washing machine.

Can you dry vertical blinds in a tumble dryer?

Can you dry vertical blinds in a tumble dryer? That’s a hard “no.” Tumble-drying vertical blinds, even on the lowest heat setting, is highly likely to cause them to shrink and fray.

Can you steam clean vertical blinds?

Can vertical blinds be steam cleaned? Yes, if you’re hired or bought a steam cleaner that has a range of heat settings, one of which is “moderately warm.” However, if your steam cleaner has two heat settings only which consist of “scald” and “off” respectively, the answer to this is no.

Even if your steam cleaner does have what you consider to be a low enough heat setting to spruce up your vertical blinds without damaging them, you do need to proceed with caution as it is easy to get things wrong.

Check out this more detailed blog post with step-by-step instructions on how to steam clean vertical blinds without damaging them.

Can you dry vertical blinds with a hairdryer?

If you’re the short-cutting type or worried about your blinds developing water spots as they dry, you might be wondering if you can dry vertical blinds with a hairdryer.

If you’re careful and use a hairdryer with a cool setting, you can speed up the drying process by passing the hairdryer over each louvre in turn a few times, keeping the hairdryer moving and not hovering over any individual spot. Avoid plastic parts or any glued areas, as they may melt.

Can you wash vertical blinds in the dishwasher?

Finally, can you put vertical blinds in the dishwasher? Let’s go with “no.”

Dishwasher water is much too hot for the fabric of vertical blinds and is apt to cause them to warp, fray, and discolour, and if the top and bottom pockets of the louvres are glued rather than sewn or welded, this is likely to melt too.

Only wash vertical blinds in the dishwasher if you’ve been looking for an excuse to buy new ones.

Do you have a less-frequently-asked question about how to clean vertical blinds? Am interested. Add a comment and I’ll try and find out the answer for you, complete with pics or video evidence if it’s interesting enough!