The Modern Dry Cleaning: Understanding What Happens To Your Clothes

Clothes’ washing is an important activity in any household. In the old days, the women used to manage all the clothes’ washing issues manually. After the advent of the clothes washing machine, the cleaning of clothing has become less laborious. In most households today both partners are working and hence husbands too share all the responsibilities including clothes cleaning. These washing machines have come as a boon to the modern nuclear families. But there are some dresses and materials such as wedding dress or upholstery cleaning that cannot be washed in a washing machine. Also when the dress is subjected to obstinate stains, it cannot be removed by a washing machine wash. For such occasions you have to knock the doors of dry cleaners.

What is dry cleaning?

At home we tend to wash our clothes using detergents and water in our washing machines. Sometimes we may also wash them manually. But the dry cleaners clean the clothes without water, hence the name dry cleaning. They use special solvents in the cleaning process. With the advancement of technology modern, effective and cloth friendly solvents have been invented. Add to that sophisticated dry cleaning machines that are now used for the cleaning of the fabrics and you have near perfect cleaning.

In the earlier days, petrol and kerosene were used as solvents. But with the advancement of science in the chemical field, many synthetic solvents had been developed. But it was still not safe to handle such synthetic solvents, both for the users and the clothes.

But the present day dry cleaners use perchlorethylene, which is nicknamed as "perc". This solvent is quite safe for the handlers, very effective, takes much less time in removing the dirt and the stains compared to its predecessors. Perc is now universally accepted as the right solvent for the dry cleaning machine.

The dry cleaning machine

The dry cleaning machine is not much different fin make rom your washing machine, which you use at your home. But it is much larger. A large dry cleaning machine can hold up to 45 kgs of clothing. The clothing is placed in rotating perforated drums. The solvent is allowed to pass through and around the clothing removing the dirt and the stains from the clothing. There is in-built provision for recycling the solvent. The solvent that comes out after the washing passes through filters, where the solvent is cleaned for circulation afresh. Unlike the domestic washing machine, the dry cleaning machine does not require any pumps for forcing out the dirty water through the drain after each wash. So, you can say that the dry cleaning machine is economical as well as eco friendly. It does not waste water and releases very small quantity of the solvent into the environment.

Precautions that dry cleaners follow

Prior to putting the clothing inside the dry cleaning machine, the dry cleaning sheet is examined for the stains. Some stains can be quite obstinate and may not be removed in normal cleaning cycle. Special attention is given to such clothes. Such clothes are minutely examined after the wash. If the stains persist, then the clothes are again cleaned using stronger solvents directly at the stain spot.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Alice James is the professional offering cleaning services in Chicago who also likes to write interesting articles and blogs, helping people understand the industry and make the right decisions when it comes to hiring someone for the cleaning services. She recommends Cameo Cleaners for the best cleaning services.