What is Dry Cleaning? Contrary to popular belief, dry cleaning does not mean your clothing tumbles around in a dry basket of air. Clothes are deep cleaned in a safe liquid Eco friendly solution, then solution is extracted out, and then your clothes are steam pressed. Dry Cleaning is a full submersion process except that there is no water in the process. During the cleaning process your clothes are wet from our cleaning solution. Dry Cleaning is a great way to safely clean garments and remove stains such as oil and grease. It is great method for cleaning your specialty items or everyday wardrobe.
What caused my garment rippled or blistered? This is usually a result of something called fusible separation. After cleaning and pressing a garment, separation between the shell fabric (outer layer of clothing) and the interfacing (adhesive) used to hold it in place can become separated due to improper fusing (construction) or small amounts of shrinkage. This is most commonly seen with suit jackets. Manufacturers are responsible for ensuring that the shell fabric is properly fused. If you see this on your jacket or any other garment, bring it back along with the original invoice, and we’ll do our best to make it look great again!
Dark spot on shirt collar (tips)? After commercial laundry shirt pressing we sometimes encounter dark or discolored spots on the collar tips. During shirt manufacturing, your collars are constructed with two layers of fabric held together for shape and stability. This process is called interfacing. Interfacing requires an adhesive, or glue, to be applied between the layers to hold them in place prior to completed collar construction. If too much adhesive is used, the heat from the commercial laundry press will cause the excess bonding agent to soften and leave a permanent stain on the tips or surrounding area. There is no way to prevent or know of such instance prior to cleaning. The shirt manufacturer can be held responsible for this type of adverse discoloration.
My Buttons are cracked after cleaning, why? Over time buttons in commercial laundry may crack as a result of repeated pressing, old age, or threads coming loose (The same concept as how a pair of jeans will eventually fade over time if continuously washed in water). The combination of consumer wear and the heat of our press units can accelerate this change. Tip: Sending designer shirts with thicker than normal buttons or any shirt with pearl snap buttons is not recommended. There is an increased chance these will not withstand the commercial laundry press. Therefore, you should dry clean for best results.
How and Why did the color of my garment change? Color changes will occur when an area of a garment comes in contact with a bleaching agent, alkaline, or acidic substance, or any substance that can cause oxidization prior to us receiving and cleaning the garment. Cachet Cleaners DOES NOT keep any of the mentioned agents in our production facility being that we are a 100% Green and Environmentally Friendly Cleaners.
Tip: Sending designer shirts with thicker than normal buttons or any shirt with pearl snap buttons is not recommended. There is an increased chance these will not withstand the commercial laundry press. Therefore, you should dry clean for best results.
The change is often not visible prior to cleaning, but the heat of the drying or steam finishing process accelerates the chemical reaction with the fabric dye. The reaction usually leaves a garment with a yellow or orangelike discoloration where the substance contacted the fabric, but the change can come in other colors as well. As previously mentions we DO NOT have bleach or any products that could cause such a reaction in our dry clean facility. If you come in contact with any products that are acidic, alkaline, or contain bleaching agents, flush them immediately by rinsing with water (do not rub!) and get the item to a professional dry cleaner as soon as possible.
Every day things that can cause these reactions include: hair spray, body lotion, facial products, deodorant, perspiration, salt, hand sanitizers, perfume/cologne, toothpaste, medications, juices, and sunlight exposure.
When I brought in my garments that spot wasn’t on it? You’re probably right. However, there are many types of stains that are not visible prior to cleaning that can be activated during the dry clean process and can leave your garment with an easily noticeable stain. These are called “invisible stains.” Invisible stains are the most frequent problem we face at the dry cleaners. These stains are caused by a reaction between the heat of our drying/pressing process and a sugar-based or oil-based stain and can be pronounced depending on whether it is a protein based or cellulose based fiber. Sugar based stains can caramelize from the heat (causing a difficult to remove brown stain) of the process and oil-based stains can oxidize; if either happens a “new” stain that wasn’t visible prior to cleaning appears. Remember to always let a Service Representative know if you spilled anything on your clothing so we may give it proper attention prior to cleaning.
Why Did the Dyes Transfer if my garment is Dry Clean Only? Dye transfer typically happens when the lighter color fabric shows transfer from the darker dye. The most common occurrence is with black and white garments (Salt and Pepper Transfer). If the darker dyes happen to be soluble in dry cleaning solvent, the dye will transfer onto the lighter fabric. There is no way for a dry cleaner to predict this happening because the dye transfer doesn’t occur until it is already in the dry clean machine. This problem is due to a manufacturer’s defect during production because the textile manufacturer is responsible for making sure the dyes used are colorfast (having color that is resistant to fading or running). If this happens to your garment, we will do our absolute best to reverse the effect, but there is no guarantee of restoring the original look.
Home Laundry the same as Professional one? Commercial laundry is very different from doing laundry at home. Your laundry is washed with our environmentally friendly commercial detergent and starch of your preference, and then placed wet on our state of the art pressing equipment to give them the absolute best press. Anything else we recommend dry cleaning.
- Common sugarbased stains: Coffee, sodas, tea, beer, milk, fruits, etc.
- Common oilbased stains: Hair Spray, cosmetics, lotions, etc.
Once stains either caramelize or oxidize, it is extremely difficult and sometimes impossible to reverse the effect. However, if you spot this on one of your items, we will try our best to remove it on a redo attempt.