Wet Cleaning

by: Ravikeerthi Rao

The care procedures applied according to the information given on the label guaranties that the article will not be damaged.

However, there is no guaranty that soil and stains are completely removed even after following thee instructions.

Milder treatments and lower temperatures than indicated on the label are always allowed.

Washing involves the immersing of a garment in water with detergents and other additives to accomplish the goal of cleaning your clothes and household items, like bedspreads and comforters.

When washed in water, the problems can occur - certain fabrics can shrink, color can bleed, and fabric texture can be altered.

Modern washing machines have eliminated most of these problems.

Traditionally, water could not be used on certain fabrics, like wools and silks for cleaning.

Alternatively, we have Dry cleaning.

However, dry cleaning can also adversely affect some fabrics.

Dry cleaning leaves a softer feel to the garment than wet cleaning.

But the garment will be cleaner and better deodorized with wet cleaning.

In short, neither method is perfect.

The introduction of specialized, nonflammable solvents in the 1950s, however, allowed cleaners to dry clean virtually any type of fabric, including natural fibers.

One of the solvent is Tetrachloroethylene, also known under its systematic name tetrachloroethene and many other names like   Perchloroethylene , PCE, or PERC

It is a colourless liquid widely used for dry cleaning, hence it is sometimes called "dry-cleaning fluid."

Despite its name, dry cleaning is not totally dry.

Generally, the term “Dry Cleaning” refers to the process of cleaning clothes using a liquid solvent.

It involves the use of liquid chemicals called solvents that remove most stains from a variety of fabrics.

While still a liquid, the term “Dry” in dry cleaning referred to the fact that there was no water being used. 

The majority of dry cleaners - about 80 percent - use the solvent, perchloroethylene or "perc", still today.

Over the last decade or so, as people started to become aware of the hazards of using PERC (perchloroethylene , a liquid solvent) and other petro-chemicals (or hydrocarbons like heavy benzines), companies began looking for newer, more environmentally friendly solutions.

In the 1990s the United States Environmental Protection Agency began to regulate dry cleaning chemicals and encourage commercial cleaners to use safer, more environmentally friendly solvents.

This action coined the term "Green Dry Cleaning".

Green dry cleaning refers to any alternative dry cleaning method that does not involve using perc.

One is wet cleaning - a more gentle version of home laundering - and

the other three follow the traditional solvent method but use :

carbon dioxide, hydrocarbon or silicon-based cleaners instead of perc.

However, of the four types of alternative cleaning offered, only two are considered truly safe for the environment and consumers - wet cleaning and liquid carbon dioxide cleaning.

Carbon dioxide (CO2) cleaning uses liquid CO2 as the cleaning solvent, along with detergent.

Liquid CO2 is non-toxic and is actually used to provide carbonation to soft drinks.

The liquid CO2 is formed by placing this nonflammable and nontoxic gas under high pressure.

What is Wet Cleaning?Quite simply, Professional Wet Cleaning is the

process of using water and specialized equipment and detergents to clean “dry clean only” garments.

Specialized equipment has been developed to aid in the finishing of wet-cleaned garments, and special softeners and additives have been created specifically for the wet-cleaning process.

It is now totally safe to clean virtually any garment using the Wet Cleaning process!

The requirements/goal of washing, cannot be achieved with the regular wash cycles provided in household washing machines compare to Wet Cleaning, mostly because of use of professional equipment, the aids used and the finishing methods by the latter.

The main difference between the two technologies is that while dry cleaning relies on toxic solvents such as Perc to clean clothes, wet cleaning machines use water and specialized, nontoxic detergents that present less risk to human health and the environment.

The specialized detergents and conditioner used in the wet clean process are milder than home laundry products.

Wet Cleaning is widely recognized as one of the most environmentally friendly options available today.

Wet Cleaning has come a long way in the past few years, and it is still evolving and becoming better each year.

In the meantime, it’s safe to clean virtually everything using Wet Cleaning.

However, just because it is safe, doesn’t mean that Wet Cleaning is always the best choice.

Wet Cleaning is great for some situations, and not as great in others.

In certain situations, people may have to take a call or decide whether Wet Cleaning or Dry Cleaning is a better choice to deal with a particular stain.

As a minimum, laundering instructions include (in order) five symbols: washing, bleaching, drying, ironing, and dry cleaning.

The circle symbolizes the dry cleaning & wet cleaning process for textile articles carried out by professionals.

In professional textile care - different solvents are used, organic or water based.

Therefore care labelling differs between dry cleaning and wet cleaning.

Additional info:

The letters within the circle are intended for professional textile cleaners.

They give information in particular on the solvents that can be used.

The bar below the circle indicates that certain limitations in the dry cleaning process are required.

These may concern mechanical action, addition of moisture, lye and / or drying temperature.

When choosing the cleaning process, the professional textile cleaner must also take into account the nature of the textile materials and their degree of soiling ( normal / mild process ).

The GINETEX care symbols are protected under trademark law.

The trademarks are owned by the Groupement International d’Etiquetage pour l’Entretien des Textiles ( GINETEX – International Association for Textile Care Labelling ).

The GINETEX symbols are also the origin of the international standards ( ISO / EN 3758 ).

Reference :

http://www.epa.gov/dfe/pubs/garment/apparel/10krues.pdf

http://www.europarl.europa.eu/document/activities/cont/201108/20110825ATT25276/20110825ATT25276EN.pdf

https://www.thespruce.com/what-is-green-dry-cleaning-2145936