When Processing Natural Fibers, It’s Critical That Temperatures Remain Below 80 Degrees
Temperature is a key component within the overall cleaning process. And one of the most important temperature thresholds with regard to cleaning is 80 degrees.
What’s so important about 80 degrees?
It’s the temperature at which many natural, animal fibers begin to change their shapes.
For instance, leather cleaners will never raise the temperature inside their leather cleaning machines above the 80-degree mark. For that matter, professional cleaners who wetclean any kind of natural fibers – such as wool or silk – won’t raise the water temperature inside the drums of their wetcleaning machines above 80 degrees.
Again, the reason for this is because 80 is the magic number – it’s the temperature at which the natural fibers in those garments will begin to alter in shape and appearance.
Many homeowners likely were introduced to this garment-care fact through the use of Woolite, which is a popular laundry detergent with a long history. This product dates back to 1951, with its introduction as the first gentle, hand-wash detergent – specially formulated to protect wool, silks, nylons and other delicate fabrics from shrinking, stretching and fading.
In essence, Woolite ushered in the beginning of the wetcleaning revolution. The product, which is effective in cold water, is a concentrated conditioner and cleaner that enables consumers to wash and care for their wool and other natural-fiber garments themselves, rather than taking these delicate items to a professional drycleaner.
What’s the key to successfully using this product? Again, never go above 80 degrees. Per the instructions on each bottle of Woolite, hand-wash the garments in cold water – and let them air-dry.
The lesson here is that finer natural fabrics – such as cashmere, silk and wool – can be cleaned and will turn out perfectly, as long as you never apply heat to them. Again, 80 degrees is the key temperature to never exceed when washing these types of fabrics.
Along these same lines, the drycleaning industry has begun to use new technology called moisture-sensing drying, which was developed a few years ago. And, in fact, this moisture sensor technology can even be found on some of today’s vended laundry machines, as manufacturers try to add more energy efficiency to their dryers.
The interesting aspect of moisture-sensing drying is that the scientists developing this technology found out that it’s OK to actually put some heat into those natural fabrics in order to get out some of the moisture. The key to safely drying such items, they discovered, is to leave the last 20 percent of moisture in the garment.
What’s happening is called evapotranspiration. This is a cooling event – basically, it’s what our bodies do when we perspire. Our bodies are trying to cool themselves, so they give off moisture to naturally cool down our body temperature.
This is what’s happening with those fabrics. We can safely dry them up to the point of having 20 percent retained moisture. Then, we can cut the heat inside of a dryer, which is what moisture-sensing dryers do. They will slowly reduce the heat inside the dryer until there is no heat left inside the drum, and they’re basically air-drying the last portion of it.
Drycleaners first developed this technology so that they could wetclean and dry garments. However, for those of us in the laundry industry who are doing wash-dry-fold, it provides a great lesson with regard to working with garments made from natural fibers. Don’t be afraid to hang these items and let them air-dry if need be.
The key is to never place them into a situation where the temperature will rise above 80 degrees – that’s the magic number when it comes to processing any kind of natural or animal-based fabric.
