I purchased this when I found my old pillow covered in black mold. I have never had that happen before. I am not sure what caused it, from when I was sick and had a super high fever or the night after night of going to bed with wet long hair. When I put my new pillow on my bed I knew I needed it protected. I was worried about using a water proof protector because it wouldn't be soft, or it would be loud.

The day the arrived I washed them in the washer per the directions and no fabric softener, I air dried them and put them on my pillow that night. I never even know its there. But i know its protecting my pillow I can sleep with ease again knowing I won't be removing my pillow case to find my pillow covered in black mold.

We also have cats who sleep in the bed, I don't let them sleep on the pillows but they get walked on. So far no issues with that happening.

I also purchased the king size we use larger pillows and had no issues fitting the pillow into the case. I checked my measurements on my pillow and then the pillow case. It fits better than the pillow case does.

These pillows are not quiet!!! Think about taking a pair of hiking pants, rain pants, or rain jacket. Think about rubbing the material against itself. That is exactly how these pillow protectors sound under my pillow case. I have microfiber pillow cases. I also toss and turn throughout the night... a lot. So my pillows make a lot of noise all night long.

As previous reviewers have stated, the pillow does tend to hold on to air when zipped shut. When you lay your head down, it is like a balloon, slowly deflating. In order to prevent that, I actually leave the pillow protector unzipped half way. I have never had bed bugs, I have a brand new bed, and I didn't buy this for those reasons. So leaving the pillow protector unzipped slightly, is a good workaround for the airtightness it creates.

I did give it a star for working as a good waterproofer. It does well keeping drool or sweat from soaking into your pillow. I gave it a star for that. I did heed the packaging advice, and I didn't not wash it upon receiving it. It recommends spot cleaning it regularly and only rarely washing it. I think it helps keep the waterproof layer from deteriorating away. Airing it out did fine in making it feel fresh upon first usage. There were no strange smells attached to the protector.

I purchased these for cushions that came with a sofa, not for bed pillows. The down feathers were poking through the cotton liners AND the upholstery. They were stabbing me with their quills, showing their white through the royal blue upholstery, and emptying the pillows themselves of the down when I had to pull each one out. The sofa was beautiful, but after a few months with this new sofa, there were feathers all over the room.
I covered the inside cotton liners with these and put them back in the zippered upholstery. They are working magnificently. The quills and feathers are staying in the pillow and we aren't being stabbed any more. In addition, the feather pillows, which completely lost their shape when we leaned into them without these, now retain their shape and support. If we spill anything on them, I can wash the covers without worrying about the pillow underneath.
I decided to leave the zipper open about an inch so some air could escape, otherwise the pillow would feel hard.
I'm very happy with this item.

This has to be part of an all-encompassing combination of products in order to truly get the job done - don't know where the dang critters came from but since we travel pretty frequently - I suspect we brought some back with us from a travel weekend. Very unwelcome and very frustrating to deal with. This seemed to be the most cost-efficient set of products with good reviews so we purchased pillow enclosures, mattress enclosure AND box spring enclosures, combined with repeated and thorough vaccuuming of the mattress itself, floor, bed frame, surrounding furniture, etc - multiple times over the course of several weeks. New sheets and washing them in hot water and clorox every 3 days for a while. The Sleep Defense System was easy enough to get in place and seems like it should work as it should - assuming we don't still have residual critters roaming the room. Happily, that seems to finally be the case - we're no longer seeing any bedbugs or waking up itching.

I bought two sets of these to cover the four regular pillows on my bed due to a carpet beetle problem I was having (the little bastards had set up shop in some of the items I was storing under the bed). The covers are a really nice material, very smooth and soft. You could certainly sleep directly on these and be very comfortable, but I chose to cover them with my regular pillow covers just for style reasons.

The pillows don't make any extra noise with these covers on them, which is nice, and a pretty common problem with covers like these.

The only thing that bugs me about them, and it still isn't that big a deal, is that there's excess air trapped inside, pretty much no matter what you do. It certainly adds some extra cushion, which isn't a bad thing, but I find it a little annoying. Still, I've read A LOT of reviews about these kinds of covers in preparation for buying them, and this is a really common issue. It doesn't bother me enough to take them off, and I would still buy them again or recommend them to others.

The pillowcases overall are really great quality, sewn well, and seem to be a very durable material. The outside is the soft, smooth material, and the inside seems to be some kind of thicker, non-porous material to keep anything inside from getting out. That's actually probably part of the air-trapping issue.

In general I loved them, and I haven't been stung by carpet beetles since I got the whole system. I also bought the mattress cover and box spring cover from these guys at the same time. Really great company and I would definitely recommend them!