Dry cleaning
Not dry. Cleaning in a liquid that is not water, chosen because water is the thing that swells fibres, moves dyes and felts wool.
Precautions
- Check the manufacturer's instructions
- Consider professional help
In detail
Dry cleaning is cleaning in a non-aqueous solvent, and the name describes what it avoids rather than what it does. Water causes most of the damage a delicate garment risks: it swells natural fibres, mobilises dyes, lets wool scales interlock and felt, and relaxes the construction that gives a tailored item its shape. A solvent leaves all of that alone. What it lifts is a specific soil class, and the conservation guidance defines it precisely — where soiling is predominantly grey, grimy, oily or greasy, consisting of fine inorganic particulates, greases and oils, a solvent process may be effective. It is correspondingly poor at the water-soluble half: sugar, salt and perspiration residues are barely touched, which is why a garment can return looking clean with an invisible sugar deposit that browns later. The guidance is notably unenthusiastic, warning that a textile must be strong and in good condition and that very few museum textiles are good candidates. Its checklist is worth borrowing: what each component fabric is, whether colour comes from dyeing, what the trims are, and whether the fibres are degraded. The historic solvent was perchloroethylene, a carcinogen.
What works
Dry cleaning is effective against Grease Supported
Why
- Dry cleaning is explained by Solubility and polarity
- Dry cleaning is explained by Fibre swelling and shrinkage
- Dry cleaning is explained by Professional textile care symbols
- Dry cleaning is explained by Penetration into fibres
Aftercare and prevention
- Dry cleaning requires the aftercare Waterproof jacket
Sources for this page
Sources
Conserve O Gram 16/2: Dry Cleaning Museum Textiles
National Park Service, US Department of the Interior · Government or regulator
Relied on for: That certain soils are best reduced by solvents other than water, that solvent-suited soiling is predominantly grey, grimy, oily or greasy consisting of fine inorganic particulates, greases and oils, that a textile must be strong and in good condition, and that very few museum textiles are good candidates. (states this directly)
Verification: a person has read the passage relied on.
Read on — The section headed Examination and Assessment, including the soiling checklist. Supports the claim as stated. Gives the solvent-treatment method an authority on WHEN it is the right branch, expressed as soil type rather than as fabric type, which is the distinction the catalogue already draws elsewhere.
Right to Know Hazardous Substance Fact Sheet: Tetrachloroethylene (RTK 1810)
New Jersey Department of Health, 2011 · Government or regulator
Relied on for: That tetrachloroethylene, also called perchloroethylene, is used as a dry cleaning solvent and is classed as a carcinogen. (states this directly)
Verification: a person has read the passage relied on.
Read on — The 'Description and Use' block and the 'Handling and Storage' reactivity list. Supports the claim as stated. Establishes what professional dry cleaning has historically used, which lets the catalogue explain the difference between a solvent process and a water one without hand-waving. It does NOT become a domestic recommendation: the substance is a carcinogen and the record says so first.
Last reviewed by a person on .