In a previous post (
Drycleaners who flip flop -- part one), I vented against
drycleaners who say one thing one month and something completely
different the next month. And opined that some cleaners just don't
seem to care what they say, when they say it, or to whom they say
it. So long as it serves their personal interests and reinforces
their current point of view or marketing strategy.
Here's another case that proves my point ...
As of October 2009, one New York cleaner used traditional
drycleaning solvents:
perchloroethylene (aka perc) and synthetic petroleum. In
January 2009, he defended his use of these traditional solvents by
stating that "
carbon dioxide (CO2) is great but does not do a great job of
cleaning."
Then, in October 2009, this cleaner installed a Solvair
drycleaning machine. Solvair drycleaning machines clean your
garments in glycol ether (what Solvair calls their "biodegradable
drycleaning liquid"), rinse in liquid carbon dioxide (liquid CO2),
and dry when the liquid CO2 is converted into a gas and extracted
from the system.
Since that date, this cleaner has aggressively touted his "CO2
drycleaning process" on his websites, blogs and various social
media such as Twitter and Facebook as "much better" than perc or
synthetic petroleum.
Specifically, the single message that's being
promoted is that your garments are being cleaned in pure liquid CO2
("the stuff that makes the bubbles in sodas") in a machine that
transcends the frontiers of science ("more advanced than any other
drycleaning machine on the planet"). And that you shouldn't risk
cleaning your fine garments in anything other than pure liquid
CO2.
All this despite the fact that he purposely fails to distinguish
between the two types of CO2 drycleaning processes: pure liquid
CO2 and hybrid glycol ether/liquid CO2. And despite the fact
that every Solvair drycleaning machine actually cleans in glycol
ether and not pure liquid CO2 (it only rinses in CO2 after the
glycol ether clean cycle).
Help me out here. I'm confused.
Up until such time as he installed his Solvair drycleaning
machine, CO2 didn't do a great job of cleaning. Now, CO2 is
much better than perc or synthetic petroleum. And you shouldn't
risk cleaning your fine garments in anything other than pure liquid
CO2.
How can I help you?