How to Stop Pet Hair Clogging Your Washing Machine
Pet hair doesn't dissolve. Whatever goes into the drum has to come out somewhere — on your clothes, down the drain, or caught in the machine's own filter — and if you wash dog bedding regularly, a lot of it ends up in that last category. The fix is almost entirely upstream: take the bulk off before the load goes in, cut how much clings during the wash, and clean the drain filter on a schedule instead of when the machine starts complaining.
None of that requires a plumber. Most of it doesn't require buying anything.
First, Find Out Whether You Even Have a Filter
This trips people up, because the answer depends on your machine type.
Front-loaders almost always have a drain pump filter — a small hatch, usually behind a panel at the bottom front of the machine, hiding a screw-in filter and a short drain hose. This is where hair, coins, and hair ties accumulate. It's designed to be opened by you, and on most machines the manual says to check it monthly.
Top-loaders frequently have no user-serviceable filter at all. Hair goes out with the wastewater, or it collects around the agitator and in the drum's outer tub where you can't reach it. If you have a top-loader and you're looking for a filter door, you may not have one — check the manual before you start prying at panels.
Either way, the manual for your specific model is the authority here. Location, removal procedure, and whether the machine needs to be drained first all vary by manufacturer.
The Signs It's Already Clogged
- The cycle takes noticeably longer, or stops with water still standing in the drum
- A drain or pump error code you hadn't seen before
- Water draining slowly, or the machine straining audibly during the spin
- A musty smell that survives a cleaning cycle
- Clothes coming out wetter than they used to at the same spin speed
A matted plug of hair in the filter or pump housing restricts flow, and everything downstream of that gets worse.
Step 1 — Get the Hair Off Before the Wash (Free, Biggest Lever)
This is the step that does the most work, and it costs nothing.
Take the dog bed cover or blanket outside and shake it hard. Then run something over it — a rubber-edged tool, a damp rubber glove, a hair remover, whatever you have. What comes off in ninety seconds on the porch is hair that never enters your plumbing.
For badly furred items, a zip-up mesh laundry bag helps: it contains the shed hair inside the bag rather than releasing it into the drum, and you shake the bag out into the bin afterwards. Cheap, reusable, surprisingly effective for crate liners and small pet blankets.
Wash pet bedding as its own load, too. Mixing it with clothes just redistributes hair onto everything else, and then you're picking it off shirts instead.
Step 2 — Reduce What Clings During the Wash
Some hair releases from fabric in the wash and some doesn't, and static is a big part of which. Fabric that holds a charge holds fur; fabric that doesn't, lets it go.
This is the narrow, honest role for detergent. Our Pet Laundry Detergent Sheets ($15.98, 30 sheets covering up to 60 loads) include static-reducing additives specifically to loosen pet hair's grip on fabric so more of it releases into the water and, later, the lint filter. The enzyme side of the formula — a protease — breaks down the proteins in urine, drool, and body oil, which is the actual source of the smell that clings to dog bedding. It's fragrance-free and dye-free, with no chlorine bleach or optical brighteners, which matters for fabric your pet lies on daily.
One sheet for a normal load, two for something large or heavily soiled. Drop it straight into the drum, not the detergent tray — the sheet needs water contact to dissolve, and the dispenser drawer won't reliably give it that. Works in HE front-loaders and standard top-loaders, cold or warm.
Be clear-eyed about what this changes, though: switching detergent will not unclog a filter that's already blocked, and it won't substitute for step 1. It reduces how much hair makes the trip. It doesn't eliminate the trip.
Step 3 — Clean the Drain Filter on a Schedule
If you have a front-loader and you wash pet bedding weekly, monthly is a sensible cadence — more often than the general advice, because your machine is handling more fibre than the manual's author assumed.
The general shape of it, with your manual open beside you:
- Power off and unplug the machine.
- Put a shallow tray and old towels down. There will be water, usually more than you expect.
- Open the access panel and, if there's a small drain hose, use it to empty the standing water first.
- Unscrew the filter, pull it out, and clear the hair and debris off it under a running tap.
- Reach into the filter housing and clear anything left inside — this is where the mat usually is.
- Screw it back in firmly and close up.
If you find a solid felted plug the first time, that's normal for a pet household and a good argument for putting a monthly reminder in your phone.
Step 4 — Send the Rest to the Lint Screen
Whatever hair survives the wash ends up either on the fabric or in the dryer. The dryer's lint screen is the one place in this whole chain that's designed to collect fibre and is trivially easy to empty, so it's the right destination.
Tumbling helps get it there. Wool dryer balls knock loosened fur off the fabric and the lanolin cuts static, so more of it rides the airflow to the screen instead of staying on the blanket. Clean the screen between loads — a screen that's already matted has nowhere to put the next load's hair.
When It's Not a Hair Problem
If you've cleaned the filter and the machine still drains slowly, stop troubleshooting hair. A kinked or blocked drain hose, a standpipe partially obstructed further down, or a failing pump all produce the same symptoms. Grinding or rattling from the pump area after the filter is clean is a service call, not a maintenance task.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: How often should I clean my washer's drain filter if I wash pet bedding?
A: Monthly is a reasonable default for a pet household, versus the every-few-months advice you'll see for general use. Your manual's interval is the floor, not the target — you're putting more fibre through the machine than it assumes.
Q: My top-loader doesn't have a filter door. Where is the hair going?
A: Mostly out with the wastewater, with some collecting around the agitator and in the outer tub. Many top-loaders have no accessible filter by design. Focus on removing hair before the load goes in, and run an empty hot cycle with a washer cleaner periodically.
Q: Will putting pet bedding in a mesh laundry bag actually help?
A: For heavily furred items, yes — it keeps the shed hair inside the bag instead of circulating through the drum. Use a bag large enough that the item still moves around; a tightly stuffed bag won't get properly clean.
Q: Can pet hair actually damage a washing machine?
A: A single clogged filter is a maintenance issue, not damage. Left for a long time, restricted drainage makes the pump work harder than it was designed to, and matted fibre can reach the pump itself. Clearing the filter regularly avoids the whole question.