True Quality CleaningStraight talk about caring for fine garments & household textiles from an expert who calls it like it is. In plain English.

There's over 26,000 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 ordinary cleaners.

More specifically, the vast majority of ordinary cleaners commit the 10 Deadly Sins of Ordinary Cleaners. 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 more aggressive the better), the drycleaning detergent (if any, and then, the cheaper the better), 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
   
   97% of all drycleaners clean your fine garments and household textiles in perchloroethylene aka perc (a chlorinated solvent branded Dowper) or synthetic petroleum (a hydrocarbon solvent branded DF 2000 or EcoSolv).
   
   These solvents are excellent on oil-based stains such as body oil, butter, lotions and creams (about 10% of all stains a drycleaner sees), but, rather ineffective on water-based stains such as perspiration, soda, coffee and wines (about 90% of the stains a drycleaner sees). More importantly, chlorinated and hydrocarbon drycleaning solvents are way too aggressive for fine bespoke, made-to-measure, designer, high fashion, specialty and couture garments in which I specialize. If I operated a uniform rental business specializing in auto repair shops, I'd definitely want to clean in perc. If I operated an ordinary cleaner, I'd definitely want to clean in either perc or synthetic petroleum or both.
    
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 ordinary drycleaners 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.
   
   According to one Phoenix, Arizona drycleaner, it's to "keep your garments feeling new and crisp" and to "retain your garment's original shape, weight and feel" (I kid you not!).
   
   Truth is, the more sizing, the more garments a presser can bang out on a press 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
   
   Ordinary cleaning is all about pushing the maximum number of garments (quantity) through their system in the shortest possible time (speed).
   
   So they machine press instead of hand iron. Typically, 30 to 40 pants per hour per presser and 20 to 30 non-pant garments per hour per presser. About 1½  to 2 minutes per garment.
   
   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 I must confess. There are way more than 10. Were you to spend some time on our site (www.ravefabricare.com) or on this blog (truequalitycleaning.com),  you'd probably come up with at least 100 all on your own. All related to knowledge, expertise, skills, processes, craftsmanship, technologies, equipment and facilities. And all directly related to the cleaner minimizing costs and time and maximizing piece count volume and revenues.

Then again, the 100 Deadly Sins of Ordinary Cleaners just doesn't have the same ring to it.

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