The Oak Hill Dry Cleaner Guide to Dry Cleaning
All You Wanted to Know or Not Know about Dry Cleaning But Were Afraid or Just Didn’t Think to Ask
Meet Dry Cleaning…
It is late winter, or early spring of 2020. I am a definitively non-dry cleaning person just rolling up my sleeves as I begin to operate a dry cleaning business.
Yes, a bit of a conundrum.
After all, I was the person who would look at a care label before buying anything to see if it indicated “dry clean only.” If so, it would be promptly returned to the rack. I didn’t want to dry clean. Full stop. End of sentence.
Why? I was sure it was a toxic process. I didn’t like the plastic sleeves dry cleaning used to protect garments. I didn’t want to pay for cleaning if I could take care of things myself. Oh, I was so righteously certain I was in the right.
Guess what? I was wrong. (I KNOW, cue the shocked expression!)
What I discovered in 2020 was that dry cleaning is nothing like I had believed. At least, not the dry cleaning at Oak Hill. I knew the term “eco-friendly” had been used on the Facebook profile and some printed information about the business, but just what did it mean? What was dry cleaning, anyway, and how could it possibly be earth-friendly?
I decided to find out. I began by simply asking Travis.
“Well, it’s not really dry,” was the first thing he said.
“Explain,” I persisted.
“It’s solvent,” he answered.
“So,” I sighed, “explain this to me as if I were an eight-year-old looking for an answer.”
At that, he screwed up his face, shrugged a little, and said he could show me how the machine worked instead of trying to explain. So, we went through the various parts and processes, and I still didn’t quite get the difference between dry cleaning (which uses a wet solvent) and washing in a traditional laundry machine.
Time to Google.
Uncovering the Basics
Here’s what I discovered - in the most basic terms:
Home laundry uses water in a washing machine. The water is the “solvent” that does the cleaning by dissolving and removing stains.
Your washing machine uses detergent, water, agitation, and spinning to clean items.
Stain treatments at home should be done before laundering and again (if a spot is stubborn) before drying. Stain and spot removal is a huge part of BOTH satisfactory laundry and dry cleaning.
The three most common forms of staining come from fat/oil, tannins (think wine or coffee), and protein (such as blood or dairy).
Detergents or laundry soap address the different types of stains in a standard washing machine.
Not all garments can be safely exposed to water, drum agitation (the activity inside the washing machine), or detergent.
Okay, we were getting somewhere.
Not everything should or could be laundered at home or in a laundromat.
One brief article (at How Stuff Works) summed it up nicely: “Many types of fabric, however, do not handle water very well. For example, wool and water just don't mix. There are also many types of stains that water is not particularly good at removing.”
And it is here that dry cleaning comes to the rescue.
A Brief History of Dry Cleaning
Naturally, finding out the basics opened the wormhole that is the interwebs and led me first to learn about the history of dry cleaning.
We can blame the French, apparently.
Well, first the Romans (who used a mixture of lye, ammonia, and clay – a type known as fuller’s earth – to soak up grease and stains from fabric). Then came Napoleon who obsessed about hygiene and felt that you should be clean from head to toe, including your garments. He implemented the use of camphere (i.e. turpentine) soaks to clean clothes.
The process Napoleon used was known as “degraisseur,” or “degreaser.”
By the 1820s, Americans were getting into the action, and our Thomas Jennings invented dry scouring, which used an unknown mixture of solvents to clean clothes that would be harmed by traditional wet washing.
Then it was back across the Atlantic to France, where the first official dry cleaning company in the world appeared in Paris in 1840. Jolly Bellin used kerosene to clean items that couldn’t be washed in soap and water. Yikes!
Scotland entered the fray in 1869 by offering the world the first dry-cleaning machine and the first use of benzene for removing stains. Next came drying machines to be paired with dry cleaning systems, and by the late 1950s the first full “dry to dry” cleaning machines were in use. The solvent vapors were vented and the garments emerged cleaned and dried.
Along the way, detergents used for standard washing processes were invented, regular household dryers appeared, ironing became something of a thing, and garment care labels began to be used to prevent owners or cleaners from ruining items.
We also went to outer space where laundry and dry cleaning were eliminated. How? Astronauts on the ISS (International Space Station) wear things until they cannot stand them any longer and then these things are transferred to a container cargo ship that is released and burnt up upon re-entry into the atmosphere. That’s one way to do laundry.
What I saw in that brief history was plain – a lot of harmful chemicals were used as a way of not destroying delicate or otherwise uncleanable items.
Please, Answer the Question!
Was dry cleaning still that bad? After all, didn’t Travis tell me our machine used solvents? Should I still be avoiding dry clean only items?
The answers in order are: Maybe. Yes. No.
I still needed the official answer though. Just what is dry cleaning?
It can sound really (and that should read REALLY) off-putting to those of us concerned with the environment. Why? Because dry cleaning uses “chemical solvents” to eliminate stains or to remove grease or dirt.
Chemical solvents…that doesn’t sound promising.
Here’s the thing, though. There are chemical solvents, and then there are chemical solvents, and the two are not always the same.
The bad one, the one to drop like it’s hot, is perchloroethylene or “perc.” You would know it by the distinctive odor it gives off. It is an iconic smell associated with dry cleaning businesses. It should be a smell that has gone extinct, but it sadly exists.
As the EPA explains: “cleaning fluids used by most drycleaners are chlorinated solvents. Different types have been used in the United States, and some are still used for spot cleaning. Perchloroethylene (PERC, or PCE) has been the solvent of choice since the 1960s. These solvents are denser than water, which means they sink instead of float. When released to the ground in quantity, they contaminate the soil and groundwater for a long time. The contamination can last tens to hundreds of years. The vapors from these solvents can also intrude into buildings. Where are the Risks Drycleaning solvents can threaten human health mainly by contaminating indoor air or drinking water…The amount of solvent found in indoor air or drinking water does not have to be large to be harmful.”
The good one, the loveable, huggable one is our very own SOLVONK4. It is a halogen-free dry-cleaning solvent. It has no VOCs (volatile organic compounds), it is bio-based, and is the only dry cleaning solvent with USDA Bio-Preferred status.
It leaves items clean, scent-free, hygienic, and with very little to no static. It can deodorize stinky clothes that may have been improperly dry cleaned in the past and prevent items from taking on grey or other unwanted hues.
It works in a special Class III-A dry cleaning machine with vacuum distillation (which is what we use at Oak Hill). Installing the proper system for “K4” (the industry nickname for the SOLVONK4 product) also means using its partner products - CLIPK4 and PRENETTK4 – automatically in the various cleaning processes.
The first is a concentrated, bio-based detergent and the second is a general spot and soil remover. It too is bio-based and free of all the harmful agents that even traditional consumer products deliver into standard laundry machines.
At last, I understood the issue. Dry cleaning is not actually “dry,” but instead avoids the use of water. Our system relies on a non-toxic solvent that works as good, and often better, than harmful Perc and other chlorine-based formulas. It eliminates stains, odors, and static while allowing traditionally challenging materials like silk, wool, cashmere, and so on, to get all cleaned up.
If used correctly, it can preserve the colors, textures, and life span of any item while also keeping it clean and free of stains or odors.
The “At Home” Myths
As I began to investigate dry cleaning, I saw more “how to do your dry cleaning at home” articles than technical pieces explaining any pros or cons of the process.
Now I knew what a bunch of hooey those articles were.
Sure, you can follow the words of wisdom offered by a lot of “experts” in housekeeping, but the reality is that introducing that costly cashmere to a “gentle water bath” is going to change its texture and weave. It won’t immediately turn to felt, but it won’t retain that wonderful soft hand that led you to buy it in the first place.
Silk and water? That equals a new rag for the scrap basket.
But the biggest lie I discovered in the pieces written by the DIY dry cleaning crowd was that the garments look just as they would when leaving a dry cleaner. That is just not true, nor is it possible.
Why not?
Because dry cleaning means more than just tossing things into the machine.
It’s Not Just Cleaning the Thing
If you looked around at the various Google answers to “what is dry cleaning,” you’d rake through the muck and find many articles giving a basic step-by-step list of processes. This doesn’t yield much in a technical way, but as someone with a few years of experience under their belt, I can say that the steps most of these articles itemize are accurate. They typically include:
Tagging – You’ll see that anything we handle has a little blue or green tag somewhere on its person. This lets us know which pathway it will follow through the shop and to whom it belongs.
Inspection – Before we do anything, an item is looked over for damage (rips, fallen hems, etc.). We also check pockets to prevent a horror show in the dry cleaning or wet cleaning process. Think pens, hard candies, and pieces of paper…these can all bleed, dissolve, and otherwise ruin clothing. They can also destroy the machine.
Spot and Stain Treatment – Though our dry cleaning system includes a general spot and stain remover, we always inspect for stains and use pre-treatments. You can get our spot removal guide for free (“Don’t Panic: Oak Hill Dry Cleaner’s Ultimate Guide to Stain Removal”) to help us with the worst issues or let us address them with our professional formulas.
Sorting – Just like regular laundry must be sorted by lights and darks, potential “color bleeder” items, and materials, so too does dry cleaning.
Cleaning – Loads are tossed into the machine (which looks like a home laundry machine mated with a small submarine) and specific cycles are used. These are designed by experts to use the right sort of agitation, spin speeds, and more. The machine introduces the solvent and other agents. These are used in the cycle and then the machine is drained, the solvent is filtered and distilled to be reused in later cycles, a rinse cycle in more solvent occurs, and then the items are spun and dried.
Post Spotting – If spots remain, more treatments are used, including wet washing (if safe and possible), more spot treatments, and even steam.
Finishing – Here’s where all of those “oh, skip the dry cleaner, you can get the same results at home” folks get it super-duper-boy-are-you-off-the-mark-wrong! To say that any at-home cleaning can match the scientifically designed methods of a dry cleaning system is incredibly erroneous. Then there are the steps in finishing that get garments ready to wear.
A Bit More about Finishing
To say that you can use an iron to get the same finishing as a dry cleaner is plainly false. The “finishing” of a garment at a dry cleaner means that the item is made to look as if it were new – or as close to new as possible.
It means the entire garment is reviewed for missing buttons or small repairs.
It means it is steamed and pressed. The standard home iron is just a small, scalding hot plate of metal. While it might have advanced steam features, it cannot compare with the two layers of steam and vacuum that professionals use.
If you visit the shop, you see those bright red, oversized, ironing board-looking things. You’ll see a huge white box with a glass door, and that obnoxious steaming machine that holds pairs of pants. These are all tools in Travis’ trade, and that home iron will never get seams realigned, pleats into place, or any garment looking like those machines.
You also cannot put a price on the skillset of someone long in the business. I’ve watched as Travis fearlessly presses dresses with price tags in the four digits or shirts that go for a few hundred dollars. He’s taken precious heirlooms and cleaned them and brought them back to life with a few knowing presses on one of those red boards. With steam and time, he often restores sweaters that people have sadly shrunk or harmed after trying those DIY at-home dry cleaning tips.
Finishing a garment is a huge part of the benefit and price tag of dry cleaning.
In Conclusion
There you have it. That’s the long and short of dry cleaning. It is not dry, it is not possible at home, and you can find some providers who don’t offer the same benefits as others. You’ll always want to look for an authentically “eco-friendly” option.
At Oak Hill Dry Cleaners, we go beyond the use of greener solvents as a way of being earth-friendly. We recycle all the plastic covers, provide reusable counter bags if you prefer, and are even partnered with Seaman Paper on the development of a recyclable option (coming sometime this year). We are one of the first in the country to do so!
We also installed the Miele Professional Wet Cleaning system in 2021. This is a top-of-the-line option for those who do not want dry cleaning. It uses wet cleaning, i.e. water and detergents. The difference between this system and your home or laundromat systems is enormous. Our Miele’s drums are designed with unique engineering. They use different types of agitation, adjustable temperatures, and spinning modes, and work exclusively with Kreussler’s eco-friendly formulations to bring garments back to life, and remove stains, all while keeping items safe from harm.
You now know all the answers about dry cleaning fundamentals. You can visit our website to learn even more about our different blogs and articles. In the coming months, we’ll introduce some spot-treating courses and laundry guides to help you keep your clothing in top condition.
You can sign up for updates, too, as we’ve got a lot of exciting things coming in 2024.