Originally posted -Feb 01, 2013
Since I opened my coin laundry, and especially since I started writing for PlanetLaundry, I notice that the Laundry Doctor receives quite of bit of e-mail – from laundry owners and laundry “doers” alike – asking my advice on everything from business management strategies to stain removal tips.
So, I decided to answer a few of the more recent queries via this column. Below are some common questions that all store owners are bound to hear at some point – either from their self-service or drop-off customers:
Wedding Bells
I just got married this past fall. I took my wedding dress to a professional cleaner to have it cleaned before storing it as a keepsake (for a future daughter perhaps). I was shocked to get the bill, which was well over $100! While I understand that wedding dresses are best left to the pros, why is it so expensive to clean a wedding dress?
First, congratulations to you on your wedding! There are several issues surrounding wedding dresses and other “fancy” dresses. They stem from how these dresses are constructed and decorated. First, the dresses are often made of very delicate fabrics, such as silk, satin, chiffon and crepe. Second, the dresses are often embellished with sequins, seed pearls and fine embroidery. No wedding dress or “fancy” dress is made to be worn more than one or two times. The construction and embellishment will not stand up to any mechanical laundering in a machine. Neither will they tolerate treatment with drycleaning chemicals, which can discolor or even melt the fabrics and embellishments. As professionals, we hand wash these types of garments, often soaking them for extended periods if they are stained, and air drying them between washings. (Sometimes multiple hand washings are required if the stains are severe.) Between the hand washing to protect the embellishments and the air drying, the process is very labor-intensive.
If you want to take the time to try cleaning a fancy dress yourself, you can use enzymatic cleaners like Wisk and a color-safe, oxygenated bleach like OxiClean or hydrogen peroxide to spot clean and a steamer to hand steam. Still, considering what you paid for the dress, and adding its value as an heirloom, it really is in your best interest to have a professional cleaner wash and box it to optimize the level of cleanliness and preservation, extending its life and ensuring that it is fresh and beautiful for that future (daughter’s?) wedding.
Prevent Premature Pilling
I have a beautiful wool sweater my wife gave me some years ago as a birthday present. I wear it often, and while its colors and shape are still fine, it is beginning to “pill.” What causes this and is there anything I can do about it?
Pilling occurs naturally on any garment through normal wear. Generally, the tighter the weave, the longer garments will last without pilling. Pilling occurs when the ends of the fibers loosen and rub against each other. Eventually the fibers will ball up and create a “pill.”
Pilling can be amplified in the washing machine by laundering certain items together. For example, if you wash knitted socks with woven dish towels, the towels can rub against the socks and cause the socks to pill. So, the first tip for preventing pilling is to wash fabrics with similar finishes together. For instance, wash those socks with knitted sweaters or T-shirts. If you have to wash fabrics with unlike finishes together, place one type – the knits, for example – in a woven mesh bag. Put as few items in the bag at one time as possible – use multiple bags if necessary – because even in the bags, the garments will agitate against each other.
Even when you are careful with how you wash, pilling will occur through wear. For example, if you have an outer garment and an inner garment rubbing together, pilling will occur.
You can purchase a shaving device that will shave the pills from the garment, or you can use an abrasive, pumice-like block to rub over and remove the pills. Still, over time, these kinds of treatments will thin and wear down the fabric. Your best bet to extend the life of your sweater is to gently remove the pills with a shaver or stone, then just be aware of what other fabrics you wear with the sweater, and always launder with care.
‘Dryclean Only’
What exactly is drycleaning? Why do I have to dryclean some of my clothes?
Awesome question! First, let’s look at the history of drycleaning. In 1825 in France, a gentleman by the name of Jean-Baptiste Jolley accidentally spilled spirits of turpentine on white linen. He discovered that when the spill had evaporated, the area that was exposed to the turpentine was cleaner and whiter than the rest of the fabric. The science of drycleaning was born.
Basically, drycleaning is a process. It is only one of many processes that a professional cleaner uses, even though we tend to call professional cleaners “drycleaners.” Until shortly after World War II, the cleaning chemicals were much harsher than they are today. They were also flammable, which made it very dangerous to dryclean. Today, most drycleaning is done with perchloroethylene, known in the industry as “perc,” which is a petroleum-based solvent that is not flammable and does not leave as much residue in garments as its predecessors did. Like any petroleum solvent, perc is not particularly environmentally friendly.
In recent years, there has been a trend toward “green” drycleaning, which is also referred to as “organic” drycleaning. These terms are misnomers. First, drycleaning isn’t really “dry.” It is only dry in that solvents, rather than water, are used to do the cleaning. “Green” or “organic” drycleaners use one of two techniques. The first employs hydrocarbons, invented by Exxon, which are essentially refined petroleum solvents that leave less of a residue, and are easier to recapture in an extractor than perc. Some of the most common perc alternatives are SolvonK4 and GreenEarth.
Another form of “green” or “organic” drycleaning involves freezing the garments with carbon dioxide. Very few professional cleaners have adopted this latter version, because the equipment is very expensive to purchase, and the cleaning process itself isn’t as effective as those using perc or hydrocarbons.
However, since 1972, a new process is more widely accepted. While referred to as “drycleaning” it is actually wet cleaning – not to be confused with washing. This process is truly more environmentally friendly, and many professional cleaners have adopted this method to clean garments labeled “dryclean only.” This process entails the use of a specially designed frontloading washer in which the drum does not fully rotate. It employs a special set of chemicals that work in sequence to wash, re-size and revitalize the garment. This process almost always renders garments slightly wrinkled, so it requires more finishing (steaming and/or pressing) of garments, but it truly is a more “green” process and can be used on about 90 percent of the garments that are labeled “dryclean only.”
If you really want to preserve the look and quality of garments labeled “dryclean only,” it is best to let a professional cleaner do the job.
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