How Do I Get Rid of the Smell in My Brand New Wool Blanket?

Question: All I can say is that this thing stinks. I can’t believe how bad it smells. I bought a brand new wool blanket and it arrived a few days ago. I’ve had it resting on the couch in it’s plastic container and I’ve been sitting here smelling it ever since. It’s not even opened yet. I’ve read that people have washed theirs, hung them on the clothesline for weeks on end, used Febreze on them and a few other things. Random folks have had random results. Mine smells like a mix between gasoline, oil, kerosene and turpentine. I’ve heard that others have had theirs smell like moth balls. I don’t think mine smells like that at all. It actually smells like it was sitting in the back seat of some old Army Jeep for the last 75 years. And the Army Jeep had a gas leak. And the Jeep was upside down. And the gas was leaking on the blanket. What is this stuff anyway? Is it the fire retardant?

I really don’t want to wash this blanket. I’ve seen the mess wool makes of a washing machine and my opinion is that washing causes too much wool to be lost to the washer. I don’t want to give up that much product. Dry clean?

Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks!

Answer: I actually just purchased two more wool blankets myself and I managed to get the gas and oil smell out of them pretty nicely by hanging them on the clothesline for a few days. They smell fine now. The trick is to not get them wet after that because for some reason, the wetness brings out the stink again.

I’ve heard that the more these blankets are aired out, the more the smell dissipates. It also depends on what type of fire retardant the company used on your particular blanket. Some smells worse than others. Mine smelled pretty bad, but once the air got to it, within a month things smelled much better.

If nothing seems to work for you, you can bring the blanket to the dry cleaners. That’s supposed to really do the trick. I wonder though, if the odor really is the fire retardant, isn’t removing the smell also removing the retardant? That’s just me thinking out loud.

So yeah, those are your options. Your washing machine, which I don’t recommend. The dry cleaners, which I really don’t think you need. Or the sun and clothesline, which is the best route to take. Just make sure the blanket gets lots of sun on both sides and the inside. Flip it over after a day or two. It’s the sun that eliminates the chemical smell. Let me know what happens.