Dry Cleaning Explained

Dry cleaning is the process of machine washing clothing with dry cleaning solvent. Dry cleaning solvents are clear liquids that look like water but have very different properties since most are hydrocarbons.

Maybe this will help clear things up: WATER = WET and DRY CLEANING SOLVENT = DRY

However DRYCLEANERS use more than just dry cleaning to ensure your garments are cleaned.

The first, and my favorite, are spotting boards which are used to work on specific stains that require additional love and care. Every spotting board has a few vacuum heads, a workspace, and a steam and air gun to ‘blow out’ stains (thats what we call it in the biz).

We also use lots and lots of wet, or water based, cleaning methods. If it were up to me we’d only use wet cleaning. For example almost all household garments and laundered shirts are only cleaned with water. This is where dry cleaning gets its name since water is wet and dry cleaning solvent is dry.

Dry cleaning is also commonly thought to be some kind of cleaning with powders, I guess cause they’re actually ‘dry’? However that is not the case. Most powders are used to restore and whiten garments.

Hope this helps! Happy cleaning -Z

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