Q: What is drycleaning?
A: Please understand that drycleaning is not dry, in the sense that there is liquid involved. What makes it ‘dry' is the fact that the liquid contains no water. That's right, we clean your clothes in a liquid solution that contains additives, optical brighteners, soil suspenders, basic drycleaning liquid and other supplements, but has none of the properties of water.

The same way water dissolved the aspirin in the glass above, water can also disturb or dissolve fabric finishes, top dyes, sizings and other fabric treatments. In addition, water can cause some fabrics and fibers to shrink, swell or distort, or it can damage some linings and interfacings. On the other hand, drycleaning solutions can clean those same garments without those risks or problems.

Take a look at the way the aspirin in the glass on the left floats undisturbed and intact in the glass of drycleaning solution, while the pure water on the right has disintegrated the aspirin. The difference in the way water and drycleaning liquid impact on various textiles is one of the reasons garment manufacturers recommend drycleaning for so many of your fine garments. They know that professional cleaning is the best way to remove the soil and stains that can abrade and erode fine fabrics, without endangering the hand, texture, colors or linings.

Q: What is wet cleaning?
A: Professional wetcleaning is as different from home laundry as a McDonald’s quarter pounder is from a filet mignon steak! The hamburger and the steak are similar in that they both contain beef, but after that they don't have much in common. The same is true concerning wetcleaning and washing; they both use water, but after that the two processes don’t have much in common either.

Professional cleaners wash or launder cotton business shirts. However, they wetclean a wide variety of other garments, because wetcleaning is a gentler, more sophisticated process that allows us to avoid many of the pitfalls of machine washing (mechanical action, wrinkling, shrinkage, dye bleeding, loss of color and suppleness) and hand washing (soil redeposition). There are a variety of technological advances that enable a professional wetcleaner to perform at a higher level than you can achieve at home.

In and of itself water poses many risks to textiles, dyes, finishes and fibers. Water can cause some fibers to swell and distort. Water can cause dyes to bleed. Water can disturb finishes and cause the fabric to lose body. You’ve experienced all these things when you’ve laundered or hand washed things yourself. And the cumulative effect of repeated washing on many of your washable clothes is readily apparent to the naked eye.

On the other hand, professional wetcleaning employs 21st century scientific advances in water treatments and specialized processing equipment that stabilizes many dyes, restores finishes and protects most fibers from the adverse reactions that historically stemmed from exposure to moisture. While wetcleaning technology has evolved to the point that it is difficult for anyone to recognize whether a pre-qualified garment has been professionally wet or drycleaned, some fabrics, i.e. viscose rayon and silk taffeta, cannot safely withstand even 21st century wetside processing.


The most important factors in the effective use of wetcleaning technology are training, chemistry, and the special cleaning and drying equipment and unique finishing equipment shown. Professional cleaners offering wetcleaning services invest tens of thousands of dollars because wetcleaning is the ideal process for them to utilize for stain removal when your garment is the victim of heavy water-soluble stains.

When a garment has been the victim of many water soluble (mostly food) stains, each water soluble stain must first be treated, feathered, dried, retreated, and then drycleaned. Often these steps must be repeated several times, and there is no guarantee that the stain will be completely removed. A cleaner’s ability to effectively use this dryside approach is often limited by the age of the stain and the structure of the garment.

When cleaners are trained and equipped to professionally wetclean, using unique detergent blends for hydrophilic natural fibers to reduce shrinkage concerns, dye stabilizers to inhibit color loss, conditioners to restore body and hand, advanced cleaning equipment to minimize mechanical action and dryers equipped with residual moisture controls which continuously measures the garment’s relative humidity with microprocessor sensing systems to further reduce wrinkling and control fiber stability, they can often ‘save’ these garments.

Sometimes, a cleaner will ask you to sign a ‘consent to process’ form when the care label on the garment specifies drycleaning, but the stains or condition of the garment dictate the need for wetcleaning. They only recommend wetcleaning when they believe that process will result in the most beautiful garment. Wetcleaning and finishing are sophisticated processes and a professional cleaner will only recommend processing contra to the care label when they believe it is the process that will produce the best result.

That’s the simple story on professional wetcleaning, and why it’s different from laundering. As trained professionals nca members take great pride in their ability to select the right process for your garment - that's what makes them different.

Q: Is every article of clothing processed with the same method?
A: Most cleaners tend to process every article of clothing the same way because it is "easier." Our belief is that silk is different from cotton and cashmere is different then polyester. We treat every article of clothing with professional care and distinguish ourselves from other cleaners through our special fabric finishing techniques.

Q: I took my stained clothing to another cleaners. They could not remove the stain. Can you remove that stain?
A: Bring it in to us and let us try. Maybe the stain is irremovable. However, it could have been that the cleaners never paid special attention to it or the spotter was not very skilled. Our top spotting techniques have removed stains that were 70 years old! People have accidents and we understand that. You have more important things to worry about then a stained clothing. We will make sure your clothing is taken care of. Just ask some of our very satisfied customers!

Q: What is free storage?
A: Free storage is a special service we provide for our customers. Do you ever have problems during summer with all your winter clothes? Not enough closet space? Or not enough closet space for summer clothes during winter?

Just bring in the clothes that you won't wear due to time of the year. We will clean it and keep it for you safely in our store until you are ready to wear it again. You only pay for the cost of the cleaning.

Take advantage of this wonderful service today!