what a wonderful thing!

I recently visited a drycleaning group’s blog. It was a new site and had a lot of sincere exchange of opinions. Of course, such exchanges were mainly on problems encountered by these drycleaners.

For example, how to prevent yellowing on white clothes, how to remove underarm stains, urine smell, smell of smoke, solvent odor, melting beads, stiffening vinyl, store inspection, landlord problems and so on. After going though these exchanges, I realized this site is not for me so I quietly left.

All these problems don’t matter at all to a wetcleaner. I have shown on numerous occasions wetcleaning is the best solution for these problems.

I have been involved with wetcleaning for almost 20 years. At first, I participated in the development of a machine and programs. Now, my main involvement is with wetcleaning chemicals. I have been operating a wetcleaning shop for 14 years.

I have never sent out any leather or fur items. I have had “zero claims” during these 14 years. Of course, there have been some missing clothes or ripped shirts but I have never had not even one incident of shrinkage, color loss, loss of sheen or deformation. My wetcleaning career is certainly not uneventful but I was able to restore any problems.

It’s no secret I am a great fan of wetcleaning. I will swear by it. If I were to start anew in this industry, I will not hesitate to do wetcleaning. I feel so sorry for those who insist wetcleaning doesn’t work.

I goal is to correct these misconceptions and help those who wants to convert to wetcleaning. I am always ready to teach these people whether they use my chemicals or not.

What is professional wetcleaning?

I have always emphasized “professional wetcleaning.” The word “professional” may be overused these days but who can blame someone who wants to call himself a professional?

A real professional should have a strong conviction and will. Technical level is a given for a professional. In my book, a professional wetcleaner should have the following qualities:

Firstly, one must have a green mind. I know it sounds quaint but it is the foundation. Recently a Forbes article mentioned business with green mind has better chance of success. I agree. When you are armed with a green mind, you will be determined to process every piece without the use of a solvent and provide the cleanest and healthiest service to customers.

Secondly, one must have the equipment of technique to process 100% by wetcleaning. If you treat wetcleaning as a secondary method to drycleaning, you don’t deserve to call yourself a professional wetcleaner. If you send some pieces out for fear of ruining them, you are not a professional wetcleaner, either. You must be able to wetclean 100% quickly and safely. That’s why you need a proper equipment and technique.

Thirdly, tenacity of a fighter. There will always be a problem. A real professional won’t stop until he finds a solution. That is how he builds up his knowledge bank. Wetcleaning is still evolving and needs new contributions. Sending items out to a drycleaner is an easy copout.

I have met quite a few real professional wetcleaners. They have proven the practicality of wetcleaning and they are proud. But they have a long way to go to put wetcleaning where it needs to be.

What is stopping wetcleaning become more popular? I believe the number one reason is persistent misconception. Drycleaner’s perception is not keeping up with the technical progress being made by these professional wetcleaners.

What’s even more interesting is the fact that most naysayers haven’t experienced the professional wetcleaning to begin with. So, I am going to go over some of these misconceptions. Once again, I am emphasizing professional wetcleaning.

Wetcleaning is harder than drycleaning?

Not even close. I have always emphasized that wetcleaning should be much easier than drycleaning. As long as you have the proper programs, nothing would be easier than wetcleaning.

Would you believe me if I told you that you can pick anybody from the street who has no experience with cleaning and I can teach him to 98% of cleaning work in 2 days? That would be impossible with drycleaning but wetcleaning makes that possible. I have trained my cleaners and have never felt the need to spend more than 2 days. They still needed input from me for the 2% of the work but even that is covered in a couple of months.

How is that possible? First of all, most of stains are wetside so they don’t need any special attention. They will simply melt away in the washer.

Secondly, spotting chemicals for wetcleaning are relatively safe. I never keep strong bleaches like YellowGo on the spotting board. The chemicals on my spotting board are safe and accident-proof even for a beginner.

In fact, I rarely use the spotting board. With about 60 pieces in one load, I spend less than 10 minutes. I let the stored programs and chemicals to do most of the work.

Wetcleaning can’t remove oil stains?

Oil stains are surely hard. It might be the only shortcoming of wetcleaning. Wetside stains are hard for drycleaning and oil stains are hard for wetcleaning. But a wetcleaner wouldn’t spend as much time with oil stains as drycleaners would with wetside stains. With so many new oil removers on the market, our job became much easier.

Wetcleaning cause shrinkage? Color loss? Faded sheen?

That is such an old story. It must go back way back when wetcleaning was often mistaken for laundry. That misconception still exists by the way. I don’t think I need to tell you that wetcleaning is nothing like laundry.

A properly wetcleaned cloth is simply indistinguishable from a drycleaned one. I have proven that many times before. In fact, wetcleaning exceeds drycleaning in cleanliness, fresh smell, bright color and feel. Shrinkage is not even discussed in professional wetcleaning community.

Many items cannot be wetcleaned?

Whenever I hear that comment, I ask this question: “Can you dryclean every item 100%?” I personally believe there is no item that cannot be wetcleaned. But to be modest, let’s say 99.99%. I personally have never turned a customer away for non-serviceable item.

Leather items, vinyl, printed item, mink, silk wedding gown, antique silk dress, cotton army uniform from WW II, traditional Indian garments, Korean traditional garments, large rugs, Ugg boots, seat covers, rabbit fur jacket, I mean the list goes on and on. I sometimes surprise even myself.

Wetcleaning is slow?

I have shown on numerous occasions wetcleaning takes far less time and labor than drycleaning. It’s much faster.

Some worry finishing is harder when you wetclean. But that’s not professional wetcleaning. To a presser, there is little difference. Of course, there are some items that require more attention but same goes for drycleaning.

But when it comes to spotting, cleaning and machine maintenance, wetcleaning requires significantly less time and labor. It depends on the operator but if I were in charge of wetcleaning, I would be able to go golfing every afternoon.

Turn professional now

Over the past years, many cleaners started wetcleaning with wetcleaning chemicals. Some even reached the professional level even though they don’t have dedicated wetcleaning machine. To these people, I always urge them to go wetcleaning 100%. That will take care of all the above mentioned problems. Systematic training is definitely recommended.

Come and see for yourself

I know there are doubters no matter what I say. “Yea, sure. Easier said than done. I wasn’t born yesterday.” Teaching an old dog a new trick is never easy.

So, why don’t you come and see for yourself? Come visit my store in Frisco, Texas. My door is always open to those who want to learn. So many people have already done that. You can bring your own “problem” clothes and wetclean them yourself.

Don’t worry about the cost. Just bring your passion for learning and I will take care of the rest. Do not doubt for a second that wetcleaning is the future of the cleaning industry.