During dry cleaning garments are immersed in a liquid solvent; the absence of water is why the process is called ‘dry’ cleaning. Garments are assessed prior to being dry cleaning and pre-treated using appropriate solvents and techniques to remove stains. After this they are placed in a dry cleaning machine. This serves to remove the solvents used during pre-treatment and then uses solvents and soaps within the dry cleaning process to dissolve stains, such as grease. Garments are inspected after cleaning to determine whether they require further treatment. Once we are satisfied with the results we press the garments by hand.
Drycleaning isn’t dry at all. It is called “drycleaning” because mostly solvents are used in place of water. Water is considered “wet”. However, it is even more confusing when you consider that most drycleaners consider wetcleaning a form of drycleaning. Wet cleaning uses water as a solvent and very special equipment that controls the chemicals and agitation. Many ‘dryclean only’ items can be cleaned in this manner. If you were to look through the front window of one of today’s drycleaning machines, it looks like a large front loading washing machine, and the clothes appear to get very wet. They get “wet” by drycleaning solvent. Drycleaning solvents remove oily stains with out shrinking mast fabrics. All drycleaning machines (because of EPA regulations) are now cleaned and dried in the same machine. It is not possible to open a machine mid-cycle (such as to drip dry). There is always heat and agitation during the cleaning process.