How The Dry-Cleaning Process Really Works

There are many laundries across the nation which, in conjunction with fluff & fold activities, also offer drop off dry cleaning services. When asked about it, most laundry attendants in those laundries simply can not tell their customers what the difference between laundry and the dry cleaning process is, and why they should pay more for it. The News felt that it was about time someone explained exactly how dry cleaning is different from doing laundry.

Yes, there is a difference and yet the two are kind of the same. In our industry we call what they do dry cleaning. What we do in our industry is called wet wash in the dry cleaning business, and here is why.

The main reason what they do is called dry cleaning is that the process uses something other than water to clean the clothes. Almost all form of washing use some kind of a solvent. In the case of doing one’s laundry, water is the solvent used. The water is made into a better solvent by being heated.

While there are some new formulas and fluids in use today, the solvent being used in most working dry cleaning plants in America is perchloroethylene. “Perc” is the short name it is usually known by. Most dry cleaners could not spell it correctly if they tried. Yet, about ninety percent of all modern cleaning plants use perc as their solvent of choice.

What needs to be emphasized is that stuff is listed as a possible carcinogen capable of creating cancer in living cells. Although they’ve tried for years prove that, they can’t. That is why it is listed as a possible carcinogen. It is also expensive as hell.

The fact that this solvent is rated by various government agencies as a possible carcinogen limits the way it can be handled. It’s overall high costs are part of the reason dry cleaning will be completely changed in the next few years and replaced by some sort of mixture of green dry cleaning.

In the modern dry cleaning process, clothing is placed in huge, very expensive and elaborate machines. These machines are larger because they perform a multiple purposes. They clean the garments, they spin them out and dry them, while recovering, filtering and storing the liquid solvent which has been removed from the clothing.

In these huge cleaning machines, -garments are soaked and washed in cleaning solvent, which is very expensive. They spin dry the clothing to extract the bulk of the liquid. Then while drying, the heat will evaporate the remaining solvent from the garments and recover it by exhausting the perc laden air over cooling coils. The cooling contact returns the solvent to a liquid state. The liquid goes back into a storage tank for reuse doing other loads. This is all done in the same machine.

The solvent itself is regenerated and is cleaned in two ways. First it is filtered to remove particulates and then it is evaporated by heat in the drying process, then recovered and returned to liquid by making contact against the cooling coils.

We know that the laundering will begin with clothing at about two percent of moisture by weight. At the end of the process the dryers will return the load to about that same two percent. After the water extraction (spin) cycle clothes come out of a washer with considerably higher water weights. There are a number of variables, such as speed of the spin.

In laundry drying, any moisture left in a garment will simply blow up the dryer stack and return to nature,

However, in the cleaning process, even a two percent perchloroethylene loss, because it costs much more than water, is too expensive a waste to allow. The aim of the cleaning machine is to recover virtually 100% of the solvent used in each machine cycle.  

As in laundry, cleaners struggle to keep colors from mixing and running together. That is why the individual garments in each order are individually tagged. The garments from all orders are combined in loads, based on colors. First, white garments are done with other whites. Then they do colors then, finally, darker garments are done with dark loads.

In addition to those costly cleaning machines, dry cleaners also have special machines to do garment finishing. There are presses, spotting boards, sleeve forms, puffers, air formers, steam boilers, bag stands and other equipment designed to handle each garment efficiently. They also use a variety of chemicals, bone and brushes in the spotting process.       

Like the laundry owner, dry cleaners try to do things using as little labor as possible. Less labor means more profit.

When laundry owners investigate offering dry cleaning, there are basic steps to follow:

               1. Check your lease to see if it will allow you to offer the service. Plus you will need space to hang customer orders.

               2. It’s hard to find a willing dry cleaner. Most are not willing to take on extra work for a lower price than they usually charge.

               3. Make sure the cleaner has a reputation for quality work. You, not he, will face your customers when things are done wrong.

               4. Make sure the cleaner’s prices match your customer economic profile. It isn’t good to be over priced for the area.

               5.           Transporting garments to and from is one of the bigger considerations in starting up a cleaning service. Who will do that, you or the dry cleaner?

When all is said and done, doing drop off dry cleaning can be a very profitable addition to your laundry services. It doesn’t really cost that much more than just doing fluff & fold.

By expanding to offer cleaning, you make your laundry more of a one stop service for all things clothing related. If you’re already paying attendants, it probably won’t cost a dime more in labor to offer the service. All you will need is a paperwork system to keep track of orders, a container for the incoming bundles, and enough hanging space for the returning finished garments.

You may choose to have attendants write up each order, tag each garment, assemble and bag the complete order. Sounds kind of complicated, but is simple and easy. You will earn more income per order than you will doing laundry orders.

 

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