I work in a dry cleaners - ask me anything!

[PinkParade]

Want to know what really happens to your clothes?!

Badaboom, you got it. Except that a delicate top would be in a machine with other delicate tops and dresses probably, not suits. Also you can’t just throw in clothes covered with vomit into a machine, you have to pre-treat them, which involves a sort of pressurised water and air gun that you blast off stains with, and then all stains are scrubbed with stain treatment/water. Now I have to add that I worked in a place that used the traditional perc solution and I don’t think a lot of germs survive that tbh.

SuchAToDo - yes they tags stay attached throughout the whole process.

Tickets on clothes while they're being cleaned yep, the tickets stay on the clothes from start to finish. They're just paper but don't get affected by the solvent. It's rare for the ticket to fall off. Most confusion comes from if the customer hasn't removed the old ticket so there seem to be two!

Delicate top washed with stinky trousers yeah, it all just goes in together. If they're dark coloured they're all going in. I don't think we have different settings for delicate and not delicate (I don't operate the machine). I've never noticed smells or stains transferring from garment to garment, any dirt lifted would stay in the cleaning solvent.

Although I would say sofa covers and curtains tend to be cleaned alone because they're so big and heavy.

I'm very intrigued by this silica solvent OP, I must google this!

I know we ran different machines depending on the clothes. A cycle can be longer or shorter, and the drying temp can be higher or lower. This has to be fitted to the clothes. Silk needed one thing, and pure wool heavy coats another. That said, often you could try the same, sure. There's a cost associated with running a machine and you'd want to fill it. ;)

We did perchlorethylene solvent cleaning, and also something called "dry cleaning in water", which means a water wash with some sort of chemicals added (very hazy on the details here) to prevent shrinking, twisting etc. It was very good, almost everything could take it.

Silica solvent it's called green earth and its great, doesn't smell like perc does. I've done shifts in perc shops before and always got a headache. I've never heard of dry cleaning in water - it sounds good though.

Everything for us just goes in together! Not had any disasters yet (except the time when a white coat with a black pattern went in the light load and the pattern ran...it was a while ago so maybe I'm misremembering what happened but it was something to do with a two coloured coat and the dye running)

Could I ask your advice please? Took some curtains to be dry cleaned and they came back smelling dreadful - sort of similar to stale chip fat. I put them up but the odour began to spread through the house so I took them down and returned them. Dry cleaner said they had not been ventilated properly and offered to clean them again. I’ve got them back again, put them up and they still smell. I’ve had them on the line outside all day but the odour is still strong. What should I do? Ask for them to be dry cleaned again (although I am losing confidence in them) or ask for a refund and take them elsewhere? Am I slowly poisoning my family? Any input would be much appreciated. Thank you!

@PinkParade Hope you see this :) Dry cleaners have damaged an expensive dress I wore once for my 40th. The sequin/beaded mesh has come away from dress. She gave it back to me without saying anything, I had to point it out to her. She said she will fix it but it looks like specialist handy work. What should I do? What are my rights? Thanks in advance!