How does dry cleaning work?

Question

Like, what do they do to the clothes to get them clean? Do they get wet? What kind of chemical's do they use? Please explain if you have knowledge of this.

Answer 1

A typical wash cycle lasts for 8-15 minutes depending on the type of garments and amount of soiling. During the first three minutes, solvent-soluble soils dissolve into the perchloroethylene and loose insoluble soil from fabrics comes off. It takes approximately ten to twelve minutes after the loose soil has come off to remove all of the ground-in insoluble soil from the garments. Machines using hydrocarbon solvents require a much longer wash cycle of at least 25 minutes because of the much slower rate of solvation of solvent soluble soils (e.g oily stains). A drycleaning surfactant "soap" may also be added.

At the end of wash cycle, the machine starts a rinse cycle and the garment load is rinsed with fresh distilled solvent from the pure solvent tank. This pure solvent rinse prevents discoloration of garments caused by soil particles being absorbed back onto the garment surface from the "dirty" working solvent.

After the rinse cycle the machine begins the extraction process. This process recovers dry cleaning solvent for reuse. Modern dry cleaning machines can recover approximately 99.99% of the solvent used in the cleaning process.

The extraction begins by draining the solvent out of the washing chamber cycle and accelerating the basket to speeds of 350 to 450 rpm, causing much of the solvent to spin free of the fabric. When no more solvent can be spun out, the machine starts its drying cycle.

During the drying cycle the garments are tumbled in continuous stream of warm air (145°F/63°C) that circulates through the basket evaporating any traces of solvent left behind after the spin cycle. The temperature of the air is carefully controlled to prevent over drying and heat damage to the garments. The warm air then passes through a chiller unit where the solvent vapors are condensed, and returned to the distilled solvent tank. Modern dry cleaning machines use a closed loop system where the chilled air is then reheated and recirculated. This results in very high solvent recovery rates.

After the drying cycle is completed, a deodorizing (aeration) cycle starts to cool the garments and remove the last traces of dry cleaning solvent, by circulating cool outside air over the garments and then through a vapor recovery filter made from activated carbon and polymer resins. At the end of the aeration cycle, the dry cleaned garments are clean, odorless and ready for pressing/finishing.

Answer 2

The first answer you received is correct and detailed. I am a former dry cleaner supervisor. The only thing I would add is if you have a bad spot on the garment, let them know. They will pre-spot it with the appropriate solution, let it dry completely, then clean it.