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Very few cleaners in North America clean the following better than RAVE FabriCARE:

Armani As Four Avon Celli Badgely Mischka Balenciaga Barbera Belvest Bijan Blass Boss Brioni Burberry Canali Cardin Carmen Marc Valvo Casey

Cavalli Celine Chanel Charvet Costa Demeulemeester Dior Dolce & Gabana Dunhill Escada Eskandar Feraud Ferragamo Galliano Gaultier Givenchy Gucci

Hermes Hickey Freeman Jaeger Joop Kiton Lacroix Lagerfelt Lang Lange Lanvin Lauren Loro Piana McQueen Missoni Montana Mugler Oxxford

Prada Roehm Rykiel Sander Santoria Attolini Smedley St. John St. Laurent TSE Ungaro Valentino Varvatos Versace Vestamenta Wang Zanella Zegna Zoron

 

THE 10 DEADLY SINS OF ORDINARY CLEANERS

Let's face it. There's over 34,000 drycleaners in the USA and over 400 in the metro Phoenix area alone. And almost every single one claims to be "best of class" and to offer "exceptional" or "award winning" drycleaning and shirt laundry services.

Your intuition and experience should tell you that these claims -- even those proffered by the so-called "better cleaners" -- are nothing more than puffery on the part of very ordinary cleaners.

More specifically, the vast majority of ordinary cleaners commit the 10 Deadly Sins of Drycleaning. They ...

1. Skip the stain removal process entirely

They simply load their machines and press the start button.

And if the spots and stains miraculously disappear based on a combination of the drycleaning solvent, the drycleaning detergent (if any), the addition or injection of moisture into the drycleaning machine (a reckless undertaking), and the drycleaning machine's tumbling action, you're in luck; if not, that's your problem and they'll simply hang one of those sorry-we-tried-but-we-couldn't tags on your garment.

2. Use chlorinated and/or hydrocarbon drycleaning solvents

99.9% of all drycleaners clean your fine garments and household textiles in perchloroethylene or "perc" (a chlorinated solvent branded "Dowper"), in petroleum (a hydrocarbon solvent branded "Stoddard"), or synthetic petroleum (a hydrocarbon solvent branded "DF 2000" or "EcoSolv").

These solvents are excellent on oil-based stains (about 10% of all stains a drycleaner sees), but, rather ineffective on water-based stains (about 90% of the stains a drycleaner sees). More importantly, chlorinated and hydrocarbon drycleaning solvents are way too aggressive for fine designer, high fashion, specialty and couture garments. If you operated a uniform rental business specializing in auto repair shops, you'd definitely want to clean in perc.

3. Reuse their drycleaning solvent over and over again

That would be fine if only they continuously purified every single drop of their drycleaning solvent before and after each and every load. And continuously filtered their solvent during each load. But they don't do both.

Instead, they either filter with zero purification, filter with inadequate purification, filter with irregular purification, or filter with inadequate and irregular purification.

And the result? Greyish and dingy whites, creams and pastels. Dull and faded colors. And that all-too-familiar "drycleaning solvent smell."

4. Use cheap drycleaning solvent detergents or none at all

Just like you add a detergent to your home wash, a drycleaner must add a drycleaning detergent to their drycleaning solvent.

Many are cheap; some expensive. Many are ineffective; some effective. Most ordinary cleaners opt for cheap.

And, in many cases, where the pressure on costs is great, they don't even use a drycleaning detergent. Even the cheap ones!

5. Add fragrance or perfume to their drycleaning solvent

Ordinary cleaners love fragrance or perfume.

And the reason? A futile attempt to "disguise" or "neutralize" the odor associated with drycleaning in "dirty drycleaning solvent" -- drycleaning solvent that has not been both continuously purified and continuously filtered.

6. Add sizing to their drycleaning solvent

Ordinary cleaners also love sizing. So they add or inject sizing into their drycleaning machines during the wash cycle. In much the same way that you inject detergent or softener into your home washer.

Purportedly, it's to "keep your garments feeling new and crisp." And, believe it or not, even to "retain your garment's original shape, weight and feel."

Truth is, the more sizing, the more garments a presser can bang out in an hour. Which you've got to do if your entire business model is geared to quantity and speed. Not quality of product.

7. Take unacceptable risks in their cleaning process

It's all done in the name of cutting costs and cutting turnaround time.

Typically these risks involve: mixing garments of different colors; mixing regular and fragile garments; overloading their machines; adding or injecting moisture into their loads; reducing their "wash" cycle times; and increasing their "dry" cycle temperatures.

All of which produces the fastest, cheapest -- and worst -- cleaning.

8. Machine press your garments

This gives true meaning to the term "bang and hang" cleaning. The result? Crimes of fashion such as crushed nap; shine; seam, flap and button impressions; and wrinkled seams and linings.

9. Fail to inspect your garments

It's the old story: why bother with a careful, thorough inspection -- from top to bottom -- from inside to outside -- when the entire operation is geared towards getting your garments into a machine, onto a press, and into a bag. ASAP. They're in by 9:00 and out by 5:00; or picked up on day 1 and delivered on day 3.

10. Stuff your garments into a bag, then cram them on a holding rack or conveyor

Just look at the holding racks or the conveyor of any drycleaner with a reasonable volume of business. The orders are packed like sardines in a tin. So instead of the packaging reflecting and enhancing the "care and attention invested in the cleaning and finishing process," your garments are returned to you -- "pressed" and on a hanger -- looking only slightly better than the day you turned them over.

There you have it. The 10 Deadly Sins of Ordinary Cleaners.

But we must confess. There are many more than 10. Were you to spend some time on our site, you'd probably come up with at least 150. All related to knowledge, expertise, skills, procedures, technologies, craftsmanship, equipment and facilities. And all directly related to minimizing costs. Then again, the 150 Deadly Sins of Ordinary Cleaners just doesn't have the same ring to it.