WHAT WENT WRONG
WHAT THE EXPERTS SAY:
Inspect silks carefully during reception for abrasion damage.
Clean silks and delicates as separate classifications.
Never use a spatula on silk items. Always use a circle
or cycle for silks.
garments. This is poor cleaning practice and if items are damaged, the cleaner is responsible. However, mistakes do happen, and damage can often be recovered using the following procedure: 1. Dissolve 200mls of liquid paraffin or suede & leather oil in 4.5 litres of solvent, or 1lt in 22.5 lt of solvent.
2. Immerse the item in the solution; then give it a short spin in the cleaning machine.
Plastic beads dissolve!
A lucky escape - this beaded coat could have damaged every garment in the load. These beads passed the cleaner’s rub test with perc but dissolved in the cleaning cycle: Fault: Before cleaning, the beads on this white coat were tested with perchloroethylene solvent and were found to be resistant. The heavily beaded coat was placed in a cleaning bag and then cleaned in a Normal Lights/White load. When removed from the machine, hundreds of beads were found contained in the bag and those still attached were badly affected and had marked off all over the coat. The instruction on the care label was ‘Dry Clean Only’! This was a lucky escape for the cleaner; were it not for the bag, many of the garments in the load could have been permanently stained, resulting in a huge bill for compensation. Technical cause: this is one of those rare cases where checking the beads with solvent did not reveal they were partially soluble. This was almost certainly due to the longer time, higher solvent temperature and mechanical action to which the beads were exposed in cleaning and drying. Responsibility: this was an expensive coat, and the cleaner took all reasonable precautions prior to cleaning. In view of its value and the inadequate aftercare label (it did not specify a solvent) and knowing full well the very high risks involving beaded items, the cleaner would have been wise to refuse it, or accept it at ‘owner’s risk’ and cleaned it using a less aggressive solvent. Having accepted it, the cleaner should negotiate sympathetically with the customer using the TSA Fair Compensation Guidelines. Top Tip: instead of relying on a rub test with cotton fabric soaked in perc, remove one bead and leave it in perc for 30 min, then remove and squeeze between two pieces of cotton cloth.
LUCKY ESCAPE: This beaded coat could have damaged every garment in the load.
RUB TEST: These beads passed the cleaner’s rub test with perc, but dissolved in the cleaning cycle.
If you have problems you would like the authors to examine, please send with a good quality, high resolution (300dpi/1MB at least) pic of the item to
kathy.bowry@
laundryandcleaningnews.com
@LCNiMag May 2024 | LCNi 31 drycleaning
DAMAGE POTENTIAL: Poorly maintained finishing equipment can cause serious damage and unnecessary finishing faults
3. Tumble the item for 2 min. without heat or the fan; then dry at low temperature.
Emulsifiable oils are available from
suppliers for treating washed/wetcleaned garments. These are also suitable for a drycleaned item if the care label allows a water-based process.
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