Quote:
Originally Posted by redforever
When you take your shirt in to a dry cleaner, they are basically washed.
The only shirts that usually get "dry cleaned" are those containing fabrics that don't do well with washing...in other words, they might shrink, they might not hold their color, etc.
Those types of fabrics are rayon, wool, some silk etc.
And those shirts will not be "dry cleaned" for anywhere close to $3 a shirt. You will be looking at double the price or there abouts for true "dry cleaning" of your shirts.
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Wet washing and wet washing technology can be just as sophisticated and produce an eco-friendly, non chemical or gas based solution. Their sophisticated drums and computer controlled machinery as well as spin out extract rate can match dry cleaning in many cases and handle synthetic fabric and wools. The cost of machinery can be on par with a "dry cleaning machine".
Super delicates should be hand treated to truly minimize fabric damage in a bath with careful agitation. Either garments need proper pre-spotting before hitting the wash or dry cleaning machine.
Then you typically need a collar and cuff machine that is well maintained, cleaned and a shirt pressing machine. The best are non contact, steam cabinets then tensioners that use steam and air to dry. Many times hand pressing a shirt or using contact machinery can very quickly ruin the fibres. A lot of dry cleaning machines are aged and use pads to press and aren't calibrated. They burn the fabric and crush the fibres. You can see it whenever you see a shiny pair of pants or suit. If you look close the canvas pieces that make up the construct have actually been melted.
The fact is dry cleaning or wet washing is used to remove stains or soil damage at a cost to the garment. To sanitize or deodorize clothing high pressure steam 180 degrees F plus will get rid of the smell and deodorize.
I think that using price to evaluate a cleaner is fine in the absence of information, however, knowing about the equipment, techniques and how to reduce damage to the garment is key. How many people would walk into a cleaner and just ask for a high test steam press on a perfectly clean shirt? Keeps it brand new for a long time. This is the value in having a good cleaner is your clothing continues to look and perform as new for as many wears as possible.
Anyways, I think technique and equipment is the key. There is a wet washing dry cleaner in Avenida that has some impressive equipment.
, wow, that is hard to believe.
