Is there a future for dry cleaning?

[mattl]

When I wore suits to work I always dry cleaned them. I never thought too much about the process, but they always came back fresh and well pressed.  I spent a lot  of money on them, $300-400 each in 1990, all custom tailored for proper fit. If I tossed them in the wash I'd worry about the padding shifting and the lining  getting damaged. Most are wool, light weight to heavier. I am good at ironing and steaming but would never attempt a suit.

 

Luckily I'm the same size or a bit thinner than I was then so I can still wear them. They may look a little  dated but they were classic then  and still are. Weddings and funerals are the only use they get today, but they still go to the dry cleaners from time to time.

 

[launderess]

Many years ago now Consumer Reports tested wet cleaning. Their results and advice was the process worked well enough on sweaters and such but not constructed woolen garments such as suit jackets, trousers, skirts...

 

[stan]

Brad

I can try to answer your questions but I doubt it will change your disgust of the process. LOL
Yes your clothes would be cleaned with everyone else’s!
Loads are separated sort of the same way you’d separate laundry loads
(but not exactly) one would not clean a white wedding dress with a red angora sweater!
The solvent isn’t stagnate! It’s not like water that can grow mold. Nothing can grow or live in it.
When machine is running, there’s a pump that is continuously pumping solvent (that has a percentage of detergent added to the tank it draws from) through a set of filters (shown below) into the drum where the clothes are tumbling then back through filters ect
When cycle is complete the drum spins and solvent goes back into the working tank from which it came. During dry cycle the heat/air causes the solvent remaining in fabrics to vaporize and turn back into a liquid (like distilling water) thats captured and turned into pure solvent and is piped back to either the machines working tank or into the machines second tank. There’s few reasons to rinse..you’d be rinsing with solvent!
It is, and always has been the dry cleaners job to capture as much solvent as possible as the stuff ain’t cheap to order. I’m sure that todays modern equipment dose a much better job than then when I was working in the industry.
At the time I left the profession OSHA was trying to issue new permissible exposure limits for perc from 100 ppm for eight hour day to 25 ppm.
I don’t know if this was ever achieved..cuz I got out.
Yes there were sealed metal drums with lids. One for waste from cooking off solvents (as explained in the other thread) a company Safety Klean picked up the waste drum. No hazmat suit. No it wasn’t dumped somewhere. That Co had the ability to cook off more than our still could and extract more pure solvent reducing waste.
Laundress might be interested in the Spotting chemicals I remember on the spotting board.
Streetex
209
Picrin
Pryrtex
Ammonia Hydroxide (50 50 water)
Sodium Perborate ( requiring heat from steam gun)

Perc fumes didn’t interfere with my memory of all this.
Wait why am I writing this..
LOL

 

[davetranter]

Coin-op Dry Cleaning

I'm not sure whether it is ill mannered of me to post to this thread (and so return it to the top of the list), but, having seen few, if any, posts from the UK, I thought I would add this....
Here in the UK, many 'launderettes' had a coin-operated dry cleaning machine.

If I remember correctly (it has been a long time!) these were available for use anytime the shop was open until the early '70s. After this, the machine could only be used when an attendant was present, and she (usually 'she') would check (by touch and smell) that the fabric was dry before the client could leave the premises. ( I seem to recall that the reason quoted was that customers had previously been overcome by fumes in their cars, while returning from launderettes, and had been involved in collisions).

Whilst I have never used one of these machines, and my parents only rarely, I think they stayed available well into the '80s. The Dry Cleaning machine remained in the launderette closest to my parents' house right up until the premises closed, and was 're-purposed', but, of course, had been out of use for a decade or more.

I hope this is of at least slight interest to the Membership at large.

Dave T

 

[ozzie908]

Dave Tranter

I too remember the dry cleaning machines in the local launderette it looked like a large front loader and I can still see the cartoon customer on the information guide collecting the items and hanging them in their car with the window closed and a big red X next to it. A green tick indicated the same customer with the windows open allowing any remaining solvent to evaporate.
Always wanted to use that machine but it was expensive even back then 60's....!

Austin[this post was last edited: 9/28/2023-07:21]

 

[daveamkrayoguy]

Well, Holy George Jefferson!

Here’s one dry cleaners which has definitely become past tense…

And I don’t think I’ve ever gone to it but if I did they might not have been able to do or get a certain stain out of something I’d brought in../

Prompting me to go to anther we usually go to that chino is still around…

— Dave