Cheryl is CEO and President of AllergyStore.com. She has been helping people with allergies, asthma, COPD and MCS since 1998. She has also owned and operated an air duct cleaning company, mold remediation company as well as the local Aquathin water purification distributorship. If you have a question about the indoor environment and how to improve it, Chery Krause is the person to talk to.
If you have dust mite allergies, you must have a zippered dust mite cover for your mattress, pillow, and boxspring.
Purchasing all of these at once can be expensive. The good news is that a good dust mite cover should last for years, through numerous washings. It is an investment in your health.
Looking at all the choices available on-line and in the big box stores can be overwhelming. What cover works best? What cover is most comfortable? What cover is the cheapest? These are all things to consider.
However, don’t be penny-wise and pound foolish. The most inexpensive covers on the market today are made from materials such as vinyl and polypropelene. It might be tempting to spend less than $20 on a dust mite proof vinyl cover for your queen bed but are you getting your money’s worth?
If a $20 vinyl cover is so hot and uncomfortable that you take it off the bed, you didn’t save any money. If you have to put a mattress pad to cover up the feel of the vinyl, you probably haven’t saved money either, because that pad must now be washed every 7 days in 140 degree water or cooler water and De-Mite. So, you saved money on the cover but end up spending it in either energy costs (to heat the additional water) or laundry additive costs (to buy the De-Mite)
So, for about $25 you think you will get the polypropelyene. Most allergy bedding places refer to this fabric as SMS – for spun down, melted, spun down – which describes how the three layers of polypro are created. It is a bit more durable than vinyl and is not as prone to rips and tears from the bed frames. It will provide dust mite allergy protection cheap, but are you saving money?
The SMS will be more comfortable than vinyl. Instead of the feel of sleeping on a plastic bag, it will be more like the feel of a paper sheet. So, once again if you have to cover it with a pad to disguise the feel, you haven’t saved money. You are going to spend that money and more on the washing of the pad. Also, when it comes time to wash the zippered dust mite cover you must use some sort of additive (like De-Mite) because you can’t wash SMS in hot water. SMS is cold water wash only, other wise it will fall apart. If your cheap dust mite cover falls apart in the wash, you haven’t saved any money.
Vinyl and SMS are cheap dust mite covers, but they are best left for the boxspring. Since you don’t lay directly on the boxspring, comfort is not a factor.
Another category of fabric to consider if you want a cheap dust mite cover is the coated fabrics. These dust mite covers are manufactured by taking a generic fabric (usually you will see cotton/polyester blends or all polyester) and with a heat process, laminating that fabric to a 1 milimeter thick urethane membrane. It is the membrane coating that makes the fabric dust mite proof. The membrane side of the fabric faces down, towards the mattress, and the fabric side faces up, towards the sleeper. This makes the cover much more comfortable than the vinyl or SMS. Because the fabric isn’t anything special, and urethane is a relatively inexpensive material, these types of fabrics are not terribly expensive. However, you have to wash them carefully to keep the membrane from separating from the fabric. This means that you cannot use hot water, so a cooler temp and De-Mite must be used. You have to factor that cost in when figuring if the coated fabric is really saving you money. Another downside to the dust mite proof covers made from coated fabrics is that the urethane tends to make the cover warm. This might not be a problem for you, but if you or anyone with whom you sleep is a “hot” sleeper, the urethane can make them sweat. So if you buy a coated fabric and take it off the bed because it makes you sweat, then it isn’t a cheap dust mite cover, because you wasted your money.
The most popular dust mite covers are made with what is called “microweave” technology. This means that the weave of the fabric is so tight, the dust mite allergen cannot get through. You will see everyone claims that their cover is the best and their pore size is the smallest. As long as the pore size is under 8 microns, you will have protection. The smaller the pore size, the more expensive it is to make the fabric, so the higher the costs. So, a “cheaper” microweave with a 3 or 4 micron pore size really is a cheaper dust mite cover compared to the 2 micron fabrics.
In the long run, the cheapest dust mite cover might not be the one that costs the least the day you buy it, but it might be the one that costs the least over time.
Until next time
Cheryl Krause – AllergyStore.com