Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

We wanted a heavy wool blanket to store in the trunk for emergencies, but this turned out not to be the one for us. There were two issues for us that were dealbreakers: 1)chemical smell. We followed the recommendations of others and immediately began washing the blanket in cold water and tumble drying on low/air. The chemical smell did not change much after two washes, and it was disturbing enough that we did not feel safe keeping it. 2)shedding. The blanket shed enough lint during two runs through the dryer to nearly fill a 3 gallon bucket. On the second run through our high-efficiency front loader washer, the blanket actually shed enough to clog the washing machine's front filter and cause a small amount of water leakage. We've had our washing machine for over a year and have washed all kinds of things in it, but this is the first thing that has shed enough to clog the filter. After we cleaned out the washing machine, we thought about taking the blanket to a laundromat to do another couple rounds of washing to see if the chemical smell would go away, but ultimately concluded that this is not how any blanket should behave. Some other details for people who are considering buying this blanket: 1) I don't think the kinds of problems we had are necessarily specific to this brand.These kinds of issues seem common in reviews for pretty much any low-ish cost 80% wool blend military style blanket. Some people seem not to mind or notice the smell, but if you are at all sensitive to chemicals, you might not like it. 2)The heavy weight listed in the product description is accurate. I weighed it before washing and it came in at 4.2 pounds on our scale.