Can dry cleaners remove stains

A lot of people are interested to know if it is possible to remove stains through dry cleaning. So, can dry cleaners remove stains?

Stains require prompt and immediate treatment to ensure their successful removal. Sadly, hand washing may not be that effective when it comes to removing stains. It often leaves you with no choice but to try dry cleaning.

If you are wondering if dry cleaning can remove stains, the truth is that this can be appropriately answered only if you understand first what dry cleaning means. Dry cleaning is the process of cleaning clothing and textiles using a chemical solvent aside from water. All types of stains, including the most terrible ones, can be easily removed if special equipment and solvents are used.

Factors Considered for Proper Stain Removal Through Dry Cleaning

To successfully remove stains, several factors must be considered.

Nature of stain

Oily substances, beverages, and food may turn invisible once they dry out but may transform into a yellowish or brownish stain once exposed to air or after some time. This is because of the oxidation or caramelization of sugars found in the staining substances. If there are invisible stains on your clothes, make sure you inform the dry cleaner about it for them to treat it using the correct method. This kind of stain is treated before dry cleaning since the heat of drying or finishing can make the stains set, making it impossible to remove them.

Perspiration can also leave behind some rather stubborn stains, particularly on silk and wool. Any clothing that is constantly exposed to perspiration and body oils may become yellowish, discolored, or odoriferous for good. Removing such stains can be extremely hard since they tend to react with the sizing and dyes of the garment.

People who tend to sweat a lot are recommended to have their clothes dry cleaned as often as possible or use perspiration shields instead.

Colorfastness of dye and type of fabric

You need to remove that not all types of stains can be removed from your clothes even after you put in your best efforts. As a result of the different natures of fabrics, you can only use dry cleaning to protect your clothes from damage.

Some stains can get oxidized and absorbed into the fabric, and removing these might be impossible. Complete stain removal may also be impossible if the fabric’s dyes tend to bleed because these dyes and the stains will be removed together. Dyes that easily bleed are the ones with poor colorfastness.

Simply put, dry cleaning cannot remove stains under the following circumstances:

• The stains are set in the fabric, are oxidized, and are very old.
• The stains are stronger than the dyes.
• The fabric’s dye is soluble which means that it will be completely removed together with the stains.
• The fabrics are of delicate nature, limiting the degree of the stain removal process.

Types of Stains That Dry Cleaning Process Can Remove

All hope is not lost if your shirt is splashed with oil while cooking, you spilled your coffee on it, or a pen has leaked in its pocket. Full-service dry cleaners can get rid of most types of stains as long as you act immediately and inform them of the presence of the stain.

When you bring your clothes to the dry cleaner, let them know about the stain, what it is exactly, when it happened, and whether or not you have tried removing it on your own. This is because there are home remedies that can damage the fabric or make the stains set further. If your dry cleaner doesn’t raise these questions, it is time for you to look for a new dry cleaner.

So far, stains have two basic categories, and these are oil-based and water-based stains. However, these categories can be further broken down into the following:

Dye stains

A dye stain is made up of both ink and vegetable dyes and some other substances like fabric dye and mustard that can occur when washing your clothes at home.

These stains can cross over into several categories and turn into combination stains. For instance, coffee with milk stain is a dye and protein stain at the same time, while butter is oil and protein stain alike. Dry cleaners can apply the proper process with two or three steps for removing the stains. If you want to learn why does mustard stain so bad, please read our previous guide for more info.

Oil, fat, and grease stains

Fatty, greasy, and oily stains tend to be notoriously difficult to remove at home yet reliable dry cleaners will be able to do the job. Motor or cooking oil, petroleum jelly, butter, many food items, and some skincare products like hair care products and lotion belong to this category.

Protein-based stains

These protein stains are from organic materials like eggs, dairy, meat, sweat, and blood. To get rid of these stains, dry cleaners use enzymes with the ability to “digesting” these proteins.

Tannin stains

A few of these stains are some of the most common, and these are composed of several water-based stains, including alcohol, coffee, tea, wine, and more. The majority of these strains contain other ingredients that need extra attention, like dairy or sugar.

Once stains have set or bonded with the garment’s fabric, this may irreversibly damage your clothes. Even if you have removed the visible stains, there might be fabric discoloration, with the stain becoming a permanent one.

How Do Dry Cleaners Remove Stains?

These are the steps that dry cleaners follow when removing stains from the clothes of their clients. You can count on these experts to keep your clothes stain-free in the safest way possible. But, if you want to get the best results, you must compare several cleaning companies first so you can be sure that your favorite clothes will be in safe hands. You might also want to check the customer reviews of the dry cleaners to ensure that you will be working with the right company.

If you want to get rid of those stains effectively and professionally, it might be time to dry cleaning a try.