Washing a hammock?

I have two hammocks: a smallish nylon hammock (for camping) and a largish cotton one (for the rest of the time) and I got a question the other day that I hadn't considered: how do you wash it? Is nylon machine washible? Will either one shrink? How can I keep the strings from tangling in the wash? (they're both brazillian hammocks and have strings occupying the last few feet of their length) and if machine washing is out of the question, what do I do then?

-Aduro

Hand wash. Put some warm water in a bucket, sink, bath tub, you can even fill your washing machine part way with water and then TURN it off. Aggitate the hammock by hand. Use light laundry detergent or gentle laundry detergent.
Nylon will form a bucket, of sorts, so take care in not spilling lots of water on the floor..
Rinse well and hang out to dry.

Or hang the hammock outside and rinse/wash/rinse while it hangs. Let it dry outside, the breeze and sun will dry it quickly.

The cotton hammock may not be colorfast? Test a small area before wetting the whole hammock and the colors run everywhere.
If its not heavily soiled, just airing them out in the sun does a lot for freshening them up.
Of course being cotton, limit the exposure. A couple hours should do the trick.

Good info. Thanks Gargoyle

Awesome. I like that there's alwas someone with an answer on HF. Thanks.

-Aduro