Professional Dry Cleaning vs. Home Dry Cleaning

Many people have an issue with the price of professional dry cleaning.  This fact alone has led many to seek out different, less expensive methods such as home dry cleaning treatments.  While they provide a cheaper alternative to professional dry cleaning, many remain skeptical as to how effective they really are.

The Processes

Regardless of its name, professional dry cleaning uses a fluid called perchloroethylene to remove soil and stains from fabric.  It is able to dissolve greases and oils and prevents shrinkage, loss of color, and fabric distortion. The process begins with the pretreatment of spots and stains using special cleaning agents. The garments are then loaded into a machine and washed with perchloroethylene, then pressed and packaged.  The chemical is filtered and reused after each cycle.

Two types of home dry cleaning products exist: with a dryer bag (i.e. Dryel) and without a dryer bag (i.e. Dry Cleaner’s Secret).  Both processes begin with removing spots with the provided spot remover before either placing the garments into either the dryer bag or directly into the dryer along with the cleaning cloth, depending on the product. When the garments come out of the dryer they are wrinkle-free and typically require no other treatment.

Benefits & Drawbacks

Professional dry cleaning has obvious benefits, obvious drawbacks, and less obvious drawbacks that need to be brought to light. 

When you bring your clothes to a professional dry cleaner, you can typically expect nothing less than perfect.  Your clothes will almost always be clean and stain-free, and all the wrinkles pressed out.  The entire process is more precise and thorough than the alternative at-home dry cleaning methods.  You get what you pay for.  Speaking of which, the cost of professional dry cleaning is a major drawback.  It’s expensive, with prices ranging from nearly four dollars to over twenty dollars, depending on the size of the garment, the fabric and the amount of treatment needed.  It often takes a few days for clothes to be cleaned professionally; however, for a higher price, some facilities offer same day cleaning.

A little known fact about the process of professional dry cleaning is that the chemical perchloroethylene poses health risks to both the people handling the garments while they are being cleaned, and the customers who wear the clothes afterward. The chemical can enter your body when you breathe-in its airborne vapors.  In liquid form, it can—to a certain degree—be absorbed through your skin.  The most common effects of exposure to the chemical are irritation of the eyes, nose, throat, or lungs, and effects on the nervous system similar to alcohol consumption.  Perchloroethylene is considered to be a potential carcinogen, and has shown to cause liver or kidney disease when one is exposed to high levels of the substance, such as during a spill or in close quarters.  People at highest risk are the workers at dry cleaning facilities or people who live nearby facilities.

Home dry-cleaning is a cheaper and safer alternative.  It costs less than fifty cents per garment to dry clean at home if everything is done correctly. It also freshens and removes wrinkles in one simple process without the use of harmful chemicals.  The biggest drawback is that home dry cleaning kits cannot remove stains that are larger than a dime and sometimes need to be touched-up after the first cycle.

The Verdict

The truth of the matter is that deciding between professional dry cleaning and home dry cleaning is an issue of preference, budget, and necessity.  If any of your garments have heavy or large stains, professionals can do the best job, but if you know that your local dry cleaning professional uses chemicals that may be harmful to your health then you might want to avoid using their service. If you have smaller stains or simply need to refresh a piece of clothing, then home dry cleaning is your best bet.  Not only will it save you money, it is more practical to clean something at home than to waste gas driving to the dry cleaner’s, not to mention that you will waste the energy that is burned during the dry cleaning process.