I recall when drycleaning machines, presses, laundry washers, etc. were purchased from who could offer you the most whisky. This was when petroleum machines never wore out or needed replacing. The only other solvent was perc and when new people came into the business or cleaners wanted to get rid of the old line shafts, they would be approached by the local drycleaning machine distributor. At the state convention is where the romance began. ‘Ole buddies having a drink or five together; a piece of equipment was sold.
Then along comes Valclean and that didn’t last too long for a lot of reasons, mainly because it wanted to go into a gas and the second was that the government didn’t like it due to being an ozone destroyer. When huge taxes were placed on the solvent it went the way of the dodo bird.
So long Valclean, hello more perc machines. A lot of people were hawking the new magnificant solvent. Then the government had studies that indicated it might be a carcinogen and a lot of people were praising the solvent and claiming it was perfectly safe and even made medicines from it. This contest went along for many years and it appears the governments are winning the battle and many, many lawsuits came along for contamination of ground water due to environmental contamination by perc.
Next came Rynex with some excellent cleaning and environmental properties with few negatives. Along came the highflash point hydrocarbons and GreenEarth with similar cycle times and excellent and gentle cleaning, which was especially important with the offshore garments that began flooding the markets with dyes that bleed, trim that dissolved in perc, interfacings that were not stable, funky materials that went into garments, and improper care labels which were basically (and still are) a work of fiction. Both the highflash point hydrocarbons and the GreenEarth solvents have very few restrictions and can even be classified as non-hazardous waste if they have not been contaminated with normal spotting chemicals and additives.
A few of the more progressive cleaners went with some of the newer solvents and liked them while the band was still playing “I’ll give up my perc when they pry my cold, dead hands off of it.” Along came the nPB with some myriad problems and decent cleaning. Poor old CO2 never had a chance the way it was originally marketed and the cost of the machines.
At first most of the new solvents wanted to retrofit the perc machines to run them but this proved not to be practical. The machines sold during the conversion process was pretty logical. Lighter than water solvents simply could not be used in perc machines for several expensive reasons. Now that we have basically shifted to all lighter than water solvents such as hydrocarbon, GreenEarth and Rynex with the bulk of new solvent sales, the question of which machine or manufacturer is becoming more important and what you need to look for when researching a new machine for a lighter than water solvent are several water separators, sloped base tanks that will allow any free moisture to fall to the bottom of the tank and can be drained off so it cannot sit in the bottom of the tank, cross-flow solvent paths such as going back to one end of the base tank and out of the opposite side; no dead spots for solvent to congregate and stay there, and the ease of maintenance as these solvents need more daily, weekly and monthly maintenance than perc machines. If the proper maintenance is not done they can develop a very foul odor your customers certainly will not appreciate.
The whisky jug doesn’t do much in today’s world in enhancing machine sales, but knowledgeable salespeople who can give straight and accurate answers to questions about the technical aspects of the machine are much more important today than any time in the past. The same machine will run any of the three mentioned solvents.
The question now is how long do I want to milk my perc machine and put up with the faded dyes, odors, high costs of solvent, taxes, landlords not wanting a solvent with perc’s reputation and bad press, and when I decide to pry my cold, dead hands from the perc drum, what solvent do I want to use.
Kreussler Chemical Company of Germany has made inroads into the US market in the past several years with their line of drycleaning and laundry detergents and specialty spotters and additive chemicals. At the Clean Show last year, they introduced their new solvent, K4, and have a number of plants using it with good results.
Rynex’s new reformulation does an excellent job of cleaning and can hold enough moisture in suspension to produce excellent water soluble soil removal.
GreenEarth is a viable solvent in the line-up with many plants in the U.S., Europe and Asia. It is a silicone solvent that is reported to be a benign solvent with no environmental concerns. It is a gentle solvent and needs an approved GreenEarth machine and a license fee paid annually.
High-flash hydrocarbon solvents have been around for about fifteen years, provide gentle cleaning and are available from two different refining companies. Other hydrocarbon solvents have been around for over 100 years and their characteristics are well known. Exxon’s DF-2000 is available through R.R.Street & Company while Chevron’s Eco-Solv is available through independent chemical distributors. Detergents and specialty spotters are readily available through regular drycleaning supply companies.
A detergent is always necessary in order to keep the non-soluble soil in suspension until it can be filtered out in order to prevent re-deposition. All of the three solvents mentioned have about the same total cycle time.
None of the emerging solvents can be run with no maintenance and makes it necessary to have set maintenance procedures such as lint filter cleaning on virtually every load, excellent water separation and water separator weekly maintenance. They all have about the same cycle time and when looking to replace a forty pound perc machine, a 60 pound lighter than water machine should be purchased.
These are some of the things that should be determined when a replacement solvent is decided upon. Once the solvent is chosen, then the machine should be researched. Ask about the sloped tanks, the water separators and ease of maintenance. As with any machine purchase it is foolish to go strictly by price. The quality of the machine and the seller’s reputation, service and parts availability is also important. Since virtually all DC machines are made off-shore now parts availability and the seller is more important than ever. Hopefully, the sales guy with a catalog and a car trunk are on their way out…as is perc.