When water and soap could not remove the stubborn stain on your favorite clothes or the fabric itself does not sit well with water, it is the best time to explore dry cleaning services. If this is the first time you’d hire professional dry cleaners, you might wonder how dry cleaning works, how long does dry cleaning take, and how effective is dry cleaning. To verify that you are making the right choice in dry cleaning services, you must know the answers to these questions and some basic facts about them.
What Is Dry Cleaning?
Dry cleaning, as the name suggests, is cleaning the clothes without water. It involves a cleaning process typically used for delicate clothes that your regular washing machine cannot handle.
Is it really “dry?” Well, not really. The clothes and fabrics are immersed in a liquid solvent to clean. But since there is no actual water involved, it has been deemed as “dry.”
How Does Dry Cleaning Work?
Dry cleaning works by putting the clothes inside a specific machine and, using a unique liquid solvent, cleaning the delicate material. After the cleaning process, the cleaners will do a post-spotting to check if all stains were removed and pressed.
What Are The Chemicals Used in Dry Cleaning?
The chemicals used in dry cleaning have evolved. Historically, people used ammonia then switched to gasoline and kerosene. Since gas and kerosene are highly flammable, cleaners started using perchloroethylene or “perc” in the 1930s. Perc is a chlorinated solvent that is proven effective in cleaning hardly-stained clothes. Up to today, many cleaners still use Perc today.
However, Perc is a toxic substance that is hazardous to people’s health and the environment. Long-term exposure to Perc is linked to kidney and liver damage and cancer, while minimal exposure can cause skin irritation, respiratory irritation, drowsiness, nausea, dizziness, and headache.
Once the United States Environmental Protection Agency noticed these harmful effects on the environment and people exposed to the chemicals, they began regulating Perc. They encouraged businesses to use safe and environmentally friendly cleaning solvents.
How Long Does Dry Cleaning Take?
Though this still depends on the material and how dirty the clothes are, an average cleaning time takes around three to four hours.
How Effective Is Dry Cleaning?
Dry cleaning services offer deep and thorough cleaning of clothes that you wouldn’t get from the usual cycle with the washing machine. Its process is gentle enough to protect the clothes being cleaned and prevents damage and shrinking of delicate fabrics. When compared to the usual washing at home, the spin drum’s spin is milder, thus maintaining the integrity of the materials. Furthermore, the finished appearance of dry-cleaned clothes makes them look new, crisp, and fresh.
Things To Remember Before Hiring Dry Cleaning Services
- Do not insist on removing the stains on your own. If you failed once, do not attempt to remove it again, no matter how tempting. Why? Because you can make it worse by pushing the stain deeper into the fabric and make it much more difficult to remove. The worst-case scenario is that they can no longer remove the stain.
- Remind the cleaners with the labels to ensure that the clothes are adequately handled. As you know, fabric varies, and certain clothes require a certain amount of care.
- Directly point out the stains to the cleaners. If the stains are scattered in the clothing, make sure you inform the cleaners where these are located to ensure all are properly treated.
What To Expect When You Drop Off Your Clothes
- Tagging and Inspecting of Clothes: This is the first step any dry cleaning service takes. Proper tagging ensures proper identification of the item. After tagging, the cleaner will inspect the item for any loose buttons, zippers, or tears. If there are, of course, cleaners wouldn’t want to take the blame for this in the end.
- Pre-treatment of Clothes: Before putting the items in the machine, the cleaner will look for the stains and pre-treat them for easier removal.
- Dry Cleaning Process: Clothes are placed inside the machine with an effective solvent to clean.
- Post-Spotting of Clothes: This is a quality check. The cleaners will look over the clothes again for any lingering stains.
- Finishing Touches: This then includes folding, pressing, and packaging.
If you are looking for laundry services in Durango but are quite hesitant in having your delicate clothes cleaned, look no further than Kelly’s Dry Cleaners. We are committed to providing Green Earth Cleaning in Durango. We only use non-toxic cleaning solutions that provide more thorough cleaning for your clothes yet protecting our environment and health. With us, you’ll find a wide array of laundry services like no other. Come and visit us, and we’ll take care of your dirty laundry.
