Spotlight on Spotting

1 A GreenEarth® special issue on spotting Copyright, December, 2009. All rights reserved.

A round table discussion on spottingwith the industry’s brain trust.By Stacy Sopcich

Thanks to a groundbreaking collaboration between GreenEarth and the soap companies used by over 95% of our Affiliates, we recently produced a step-by-step video of stain removal techniques. After the filming, we invited representatives from each company to participate in a 90-minute round table discussion to address a wide range of spotting-related concerns raised by our Affiliates.

Here is the full transcript of what Jim Douglas (JD), Technical Director of GreenEarth Cleaning, Roland Dobbins (RD), Technical Sales Representative for Seitz, Rich Fitzpatrick (RF), Vice President of Kreussler, and Dr. Jim Schreiner (JS), Vice President, Research and Development for Adco had to say:

Q: The video outlines your recommended protocols for each of the major stain classifications. But what if you don’t know what type of stain you have?

RD: Seitz’s spotting chart always starts from that assumption. If you know what it is, then of course you can jump to that particular stain

product. Often you can tell stains from where they are located on a garment. Most beverage stains are down the front and on the cuffs.

Or you can also determine stains from the type of garment that it is – office worker or garage worker. It’s good to try and determine the type of stain as much as possible – but our whole system is predicated on the same setup – you are starting with Quickol, a neutral lubricant – see how it goes with that and continue on.

RP: Kreussler’s protocol system follows what Roland described, I would add to that – working on garments before they’ve been cleaned, on unidentified stains, you have the ability to simply use the spray spotter PreNet CS mixed with solvent and use that as a general all purpose spotter in the pre-spotting application.

There are four fundamental criteria for determining what the stain is: location, color, shape or substance, and also its odor. If you put steam on it you can often smell what it may be based off of – chocolate, beer, coffee will give off a very noticeable odor.

JS: If you are faced with an unknown stain, the location is important. Typically, if you’re seeing something darker on the perimeter – you can assume, if it’s a yellow, yellow/brown stain – you’re working with a tannin stain. Proteins tend to be surface built up stains, and tend in many cases to be more grayish in color. Oils as you look at them, will have a yellow, yellow/brown appearance, somewhat like a tannin stain, but the edges won’t be smooth, they tend to be jagged. It all can vary based on what the customer attempted to do with the stain on his or her own.

Q: How do we know which chemicals we can use on the board without flushing or drying and which ones we can’t? Is there a simple rule of thumb?

RF: We break spotting into both pre-spotting and post-spotting segments and if you’re pre-spotting, the idea is that you’re pretreating the stain and you’re using products designed to go into the cleaning fluid – there shouldn’t be a flushing and drying as part of

The crew behind GreenEarth’s spotting video:(top row)Tony Goleb, Roland Dobbins, Donna Freese, Rich Fitzpatrick, Jim Douglas, Josh Frey,(bottom row)Stacy Sopcich,Tim Mzxwell(not shown, Dr. Jim Schreiner).

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the protocol. You have to use products that are specially designed for that, spray spotters and pre-treaters designed to go on the garment and directly into the wheel.

On a post-spotting application (like a lot of what was demonstrated in the video) all of the products in the Kreussler range need to be flushed with steam and dried. Leaving a product on the garment and letting it dry on the rail is not only poor spotting technique but also unsafe for the garment and unsafe for the consumer putting it on.

Q: Specific to GE silicone, you each have certain products that are intended to be able to be used on the board and run wet, correct? What are those products?

RF: Kreussler has the pre-spotting product linePreNet A-B-C. PreNet A is a tannin remover designed for coffee, tea and those type of stains, PreNet B is a protein remover, and PreNet C is a paint, oil grease and cosmetic remover – all are designed to go on garments and then into the wheel.

JS: At Adco, we recommend that when pre-spotting, all of your pre-spotting agents be flushed on the board; particularly if you’re going for greasy stains, tannin, proteins. The biggest concern about applying a general spotting agent and tossing it in the wheel is now those contaminants become part of your cleaning system. And you can have a still break down. No distillation can cause additional problems. In filtration- only machines, those stains may or may not be picked up by the filtering media adequately and may redeposit on other garments. The only thing we recommend that you put into the wheel is our leveling agent, SP LEV, which is designed go on after you’ve used wet-side stain agents and then allowed to mostly dry –that’s applied to handle moisture that is left on the garment.

RD: Our PolySpot GE, which is our leveling agent, does a very good job for most pre-spotting stains, and Solvex 1-2- 3 (1 is for POG, 2 is for protein and 3 is for tannin).

The key to remember when pre-spotting with GreenEarth is to do it in moderation. You don’t need tons of product to remove the stain, just a little bit of product and a little tamping or mechanical action prior to putting it in the machine. The key is not to put too much on so it will rinse easily in the machine. We are not as concerned about contaminants, we feel like the filter or distillation is very helpful in this.

Q: Is there anything that dictates when you should pre-spot and when you should wait and post-spot? Is there a general rule of thumb?

RF: If you’ve identified the stain and you recognize that it contains fresh protein, it would be best to pre-treat or remove before it goes into the machine. The heat from the drying could make it hard to remove after the fact. If you’re dealing with large, copious amounts of soil, say mud or road splash, it’s a good idea to put some penetrant on that, some pre-spotter, and allow it to loosen the soil before it’s cleaned.

RD: Your front counter people are going to catch yellow mustard, red wine and the customer would also point those out. You can make a determination at the spotting board, but you should at least be looking for those things.

“The biggest concern about applying a general spotting agent and tossing it in the wheel is now those contaminants become part of your cleaning system. ”

Dr. Jim Schreiner

Flushing it out:Which products can go in the wheel?

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Spotlight on technique.:

Holding the steam gun too close to the fabric is the #1 cause of damage.

Keep your gun at a safe distance, 8-12 inches.


JD: If you have a fragile garment or you want to minimize mechanical action and wash time – you may want to pre-spot that before hand and not count on a really long cleaning cycle.

Q: Odors, both body and smoke, are a big issue for our Affiliates. What are your recommendations for removing odor?

RF: A complicated question because it’s a complicated classification. The chemicals that make up different odors are incredibly vast, especially when we’re dealing with smoke and fire odors. It depends a lot on what was burning in the fire, was there was a lot wood, synthetic burning, different dioxins in the smoke, they all respond slightly differently.

The best way to remove odor compounds is through the addition of moisture, something that will help release the molecules from the garment and allow them to be carried away in the cleaning solution. There are different additives you can put on that will encapsulate or complex those different odor-producing molecules if they are sulfur or nitrogen based molecules. You can complex those or you might also be able to trap them into another molecule that doesn’t allow them to become volatile. This is getting into advanced chemistry and most cleaners are just looking to know what they can do to make the clothes not smell as much.

The best thing to do is to increase the cycle time, increase the detergent concentration, and possibly add moisture in the pre-wash aspect if possible to release some of those soil loads.

RD: Seitz has an odor spray and it is very helpful for many odors. Since it is moisture based you can’t just spray it on and then put in the machine, it needs to dry outside the machine before going in. We don’t want much moisture on the garment as it goes in. It works on most odors, but things like petroleum and tar, it’s not going to work on those.

If you have a contaminant – such as smoke, which is a bacteria – as the bacteria continues to grow, if you don’t stop the growth of the bacteria, it will continue to make odor. Removing the contaminant is also part of removing the odor. What do you have to do to get it out? It’s a combination process.

JS: Odors are very complex. In some cases they are water soluble and in some cases strong solvent soluble. Generally there won’t be a single product that will take care of all odors.

The other issue as you remove the odor is not reintroducing them into the system, either through

distillation or improper filtration. You need to make sure that you don’t reintroduce those to the clear solvent and to subsequent loads.

One thing to remember with odors from fires, and other types of combustion, there are also a large number of particulates. We also need to make sure that we have adequate detergent levels in there so we can lubricate those very small soot particles out of the articles. If we don’t remove them, at some point down the road, they will again begin to release a burnt smoky odor to the article. In some cases, if you’re doing smoke loads from fires, increase detergent levels.

Everyone has different body chemistry but additional water is going to help remove odors from body fluids. With animal urine, there are other substances that can contribute to the odor that in many cases may not be able to be be removed.

Q: Is laundering a good place to start for body odor?

RD: You can essentially launder on the spotting board. With a perspiration stain, pre-spot on the spotting board and let it dry and then send it in the machine. You can do some of that in pre-spotting and remove some of that odor and the contaminants.

Q: The rap on the street against GreenEarth is that it “doesn’t clean” like perc, especially on grease. But long time Affiliates love it and say they have no issues. So, does GreenEarth clean as well or doesn’t it? Or is GreenEarth just different?

JS: It’s just different. There are lots of things you have to take into account when you talk about cleaning. For many years cleaners focused on the KB value of perc – is it going to remove grease? This is not an adequate measure. The thing you have to look at is the type of clientele you’re bringing to your facility. If you’re bringing in garments from people with heavy soils, worn longer, you need longer cycle times to get them cleaned. If you’re getting clothes in that are not heavily soiled, it’s a matter of perspective – are we getting the clothes clean and are the customers getting their clothes back better than they gave them to us?

RD: Different. Whenever a dry cleaner considers moving away from perc or some other solvent, he needs to do an assessment of what type of textiles are coming into his facility, what does the soil look like? In an industrial plant you need to dry clean shop rags to remove petroleum grease, GreenEarth might not be the choice of solvent you would put in. But if they’re

Smoke and body odor:A complicated classification.

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running a retail dry cleaning facility, where petroleum oil only represents less than 10% of the soil load on textiles, the slightly reduced KB value would almost have no effect on the overall cleaning performance for your choice.

I think GreenEarth has many different attributes that are beneficial to the cleaner. One thing you have to take into consideration when changing a solvent – every solvent is different. The benefit you get from a more aggressive solvent, like perc has a downside – some things melt in perc. That’s not a problem with GreenEarth.

As far as cleaning, with dry cleaning as in laundry, if you have more time, more mechanical action, different detergents, different solvents you can change the way it cleans. Ultimately we try to get the best out of the products that we are putting in the machine and the very best out of the solvent based on the machines the customers are using. We have accomplished a very good method with GreenEarth designed products.

Q: Playing devil’s advocate, what about a GreenEarth cleaner that might still have a perc machine in the plant, wouldn’t it be easier for them to run the grease stains through the perc machine? How do you advise them?

JD: Well first, let me say that, from GreenEarth’s perspective, we would have concerns about any potential mischaracterizations about the type of process that’s being used to clean.

If a customer is expecting that their garments will be processed in GreenEarth, and another solvent is on the premises, the operator needs to indicate that GreenEarth is an option rather than lead them to believe every garment will be processed in GreenEarth. It should be a fair characterization of the cleaning process in use and the benefits of each of the processes. That is what we’d ask.

RF: What is the grease stain on? On a embellished wedding gown where all of the beads are going to be damaged in perc, I’d say no, that’s not a solution. If a facility is running multiple solvents and many plants do these days, they usually look at the benefits of each solvent and break their load classifications into that.

If they do a lot of fine knits, soft silks and delicate, fragile garments and they have GE, they may default all work to GE, where they come out very soft and supple, if they are doing a lot of heavily soiled more resilient cottons, or blended materials, then maybe they’d go in the perc machine.

RD: Years ago when Stoddard solvent was being used and perc was first being introduced, people didn’t like the cleaning of perc because it didn’t clean a lot of things very well. And it took the advent of detergency in order to make perc do the all around cleaning that it started to do after that. I think that’s one of the things we’ve been able to achieve with GreenEarth, it has come a long way in recent years.

Most people that have multiple types of machines in their store are on a course of discovery to determine if GreenEarth is the solvent they are going to go with. I think you just have to make a decision that you are going to go that direction and realize that you need to learn how to clean with that solvent.

Certainly different chemistries will help you get out stains easier, perc is going to get out some greases better than GreenEarth but that doesn’t mean its the best course of action to use.

JD: Shouldn’t there be a concern for consistency? You may have a customer with fine items where one may have a great deal of grease, but you want to deliver consistency in softness, lack of odor. I know some cleaners that would actually process the stain in perc and then rerun the garment through GreenEarth for consistency.

RD: Absolutely, people love the feel that comes out of GreenEarth; I think that if they had the time, they would want to do that, for that very reason.

JD: I think the consistency to the customer becomes paramount. Customers look forward to the softness, the absence of odor. Each solvent has its own specialties but from the customer standpoint a consistent experience of the product needs to be paramount.

Q: Many of our Affiliates are in parts of California where regulations have changed. How do your products line up with these

new regulations? Specifically what products can be safely used and what can’t?

JS: Spotters are restricted in the Bay Area Air Quality Management District (seven full counties and parts of two or three others) where they passed an ordinance. As of July 1st, no spotters containing chlorinated halogenated solvents could be sold. Cleaners can use what they purchased prior to July 1, 2009 until July 1, 2010. The solvents that contain those type of products are going to be volatile dry spotters typically used to flush out any dry-side spotting agents. POG is also a good remover of greases and oils. Adco places it in the spotting kit for GreenEarth. Cleaners should keep a spotting bottle of GreenEarth on their board to flush with on the dry-side.

RD: We have found that our products don’t have in them the restrictions that they are applying at this point in time and we are researching usability under those restrictions. Every product that Seitz makes is rinsable with steam and all can be rinsed on the wet-side including our POGs. With GreenEarth, we want them dried before they go in the machine. Essentially, cleaners need to spot without the use of VDS.

RF: The state of California is an issue, especially regulations in and around San Francisco. Regulations there are different from Fresno and Sacramento. We need to make a product that can be used in various locations and not be restricted. Unfortunately, the California dry cleaners that are under these regulations are required to have these very specific chemicals available to them.

Kreussler feels very confident that the products we are selling and manufacturing in California conform to all the regulations, but every cleaner has to be responsible for what he’s purchasing and to make sure they are up to speed with all regulations that affect them.

Q: Let me restate what I’m hearing here: Seitz, Kreussler and Adco all believe that all the chemicals in the products that they currently sell are all within the boundaries established by BAQMD. Should that change, you would communicate this with your customers.

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Kauri-butanol value:Is it relevant?

Q: Can you explain the terms KB value and surface tension to the cleaner/spotter who may not have a full understanding of chemistry. How do we think about them with respect to cleaning in GreenEarth.

JS: KB value is a term that was developed for the paint coatings industry many years ago. They needed a tool to help them formulate paints and coatings; in particular they were looking to measure how well a solvent dissolved the various resins and materials they were working with. Ultimately, they came up with the Kauri-butanol value – the KB value. They would look at the ability of a solvent to dissolve a particulate and keep that resin in solution, particularly gum. At the time, KB was a very common solvent parameter that people measured, a very easy test to do.

Early on in the dry cleaning industry KB was latched on to – as perc became available people liked that higher KB value because they read it as meaning that it would clean better. In reality it will only clean those stains affected by KB value –resin or gum, but greases don’t fit this. There are a variety of solubility measurements used now. A measure more commonly used today is the Hansen parameter. I tell customers if you are still talking about the KB value, you’re living back in the 30’s and you need to move on and accept that it is not indicative of how well a solvent will clean. Use of detergents and adequate cleaning time are paramount to processing clean garments.

The other physical property that people talk about is surface tension. This is the ability of liquid to attract to itself and how it interacts with other surfaces. Water has a very high surface tension—put a drop of water on a very clean piece of glass and it would form a bead. That’s because of the property of water chemistry that forces it to bead up.

GreenEarth has a very low surface tension, a drop on clean glass will spread out, it won’t bead up as much. That lower surface tension enables it to get into places that water can’t – it can get in between the dirt and the fiber and help move the dirt particle off. A solvent with a much higher surface tension will not be

able to lubricate and get that dirt particle moving, it will be prohibited from getting in between the dirt particle and the surface.

Q: Sounds like there is a sort of molecular magic that happens with surface tension, the detergent, the solvent and the fabric?

JS: There really is. There are different types of attractions of soils to a surface. If you lay dirt particles on a surface – we’re not talking imbedded electrostatic – basically they’re positive, negative interactions between a surface and a dirt particle to keep it there. Particles that get trapped between multifilament fiber structures, or down within a microfiber type network, that’s a bit different. Surface tension alone won’t break that. That’s where the surfactants come in – they help adapt and reduce the surface tension and give a means for the electrostatics to be broken between the surface and the particle soil. Other types of stains – the chemistry becomes even more complex.

We have to look at the actual chemical substance that you are removing. They will have different types of interactions with the surface. Some can chemically bond with a surface, some develop intermediate strength with the surface that requires a little bit of different chemistry.

Q: What are the “do’s” and “don’ts” for fabric types regarding their ability to withstand spotting chemicals and techniques?

RD: The structure of the fabric is very important, its weight. Silk or Lycra that is stretchy will make a big difference on how you approach pre-spotting and post-spotting. Cleaners should be reading labels and looking what’s in these products. Same with dye.

It’s extraordinary how many types of fabrics there are – there is no way to know all of the fabrics. You should get a general good feeling about different fabrics and what they act like. You get the same fabrics over and over, you get a feel for what you should be testing for.

JS: Fibers that are in garments come from so many different locations. Some are good quality and some are mediocre and some poor – dye lost, fibers breaking, loss of elasticity. With bright colors, pigment prints – you have to be careful. Silks can be a problem. How you approach velvet – be careful. The stain will dictate how’s it’s processed. Sometimes, scissors may be the only way to remove the stain!

Q: When in doubt, always test?

RD: First thing, if you don’t know the garment, you should test.

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Dr. Jim Schreiner


Q: Silk is a universal concern for dry cleaners – what are the special considerations when it comes to silk, and does it depend on the stain?

RF: Yes, there are special considerations with silk and the dyes used. Obviously, we can’t give specific instructions, independent of the garment. But generally with stains on silks, you want to avoid mechanical action and the combination of surfactants (solvents, water) on that piece of material, because you’re likely to damage the dyes or the fabric itself. In general, pre-treating/post-spotting is done with control and reduced mechanical reaction. You should maintain a small spotting area, because silk is a protein fiber, it doesn’t react well to certain strong alkalis and certain enzymes. Special consideration needs to be considered when you are working on a protein-based stain on a silk or wool – you need to be careful with those and not too aggressive.

Q: Let’s discuss the age of the stain – when it’s an older stain, what do you do?

RF: Follow the steps, continue to work on it through assigned protocol. You’ll determine if you need to move on to a more aggressive treatment like a bleach or enzyme or you decide that the stain cannot be removed without damaging the garment and then stop.

JS: Adco did a study, talking with customers. The stats indicated that the stains that the average dry cleaner sees are approximately two weeks old. You rarely see a new, fresh stain unless it’s a favorite garment. Stains start changing significantly after a few days.

Q: Does that change the SOP?

JS: Start as though it’s a fresh stain and work from there. Every stain will age differently – based on where the garment was, if it was wrapped up, exposed to heat, if the customer attempted to treat on their own, etc., all of these factors play a role in stain removal.

Q: New topic. Running longer wash cycles to address heavy soiled items — is this a good idea?

JS: Better to increase the detergent. Cycle time minimum should be somewhere between 8-12 minutes, up to 20. Average wash time should be 15-20 minutes; beyond 20 you get diminishing returns and run the risk of other things happening, too much wear on garment, etc. You won’t really benefit from extending your cycle times past 20 minutes. On more sturdily constructed garments, rather than extend a single wash cycle, I recommend, shorten one and add another small amount of detergent and put in a second main wash if you are running across heavily soiled garments that are sturdily constructed.

RD: It varies as well with the cleaning machine, the filtration, number of baths, the types of garments you are using Typically if you have one machine, you are required to separate whites and darks, you have to consider everything that’s in the load when you consider extending or shortening the time on the load. To get good cleaning, you need adequate time and chemical action – it’s a matter of which is the lesser of the two evils – you’ve got to get the work out and get it out clean.

Q: We’ve established that 20 minutes is as long as you can go without getting to the point of diminishing returns, is there a minimum time you should never go below?

RD: I’ve seen people do loads in four minutes as the time for a short cycle. My question to them is, “What do you hope to achieve in four minutes?” That’s not enough time for the chemistry to work to lift soil and carry it away – I think that’s way too short. Even for bleeders that don’t go back to the tank – even more time would be necessary, like six minutes. That would be the shortest cycle. If you’re doing specialty cleaning like feathers – that’s a different situation. For general cleaning, I think you need 15-20 minutes total.

JD: First bath being a pre-wash without filtration. Isn’t there a limitation on how long a pre-wash should be so that the clothes themselves don’t become the filter?

RD: Every load should be dictated by what garments are going in and what the soil level is. If you’re washing a bunch of greasy items, you want to extend the first bath. You don’t need as much in the second bath. You want to carry as much soil to the still as possible.

RF: What are the risks of greying textiles whenever you clean without filters? Whenever you clean, no matter how small the amount of time without filtration, you increase the risk of greying textiles. Looking at a prewash main wash application, it should be five to six minutes minimal time if you expect to have any standards. When extending pre-wash time – you increase greying textiles. That’s the risk associated with them.

JD: In a pre-wash our goal is to free removable insoluble matter and direct it to the still as opposed to the filter. So three to four minutes – is that too short or too long of a time?

JS: The loose soil or knock off dirt – I think if you’re doing a three minute pre-wash in GreenEarth – you’re wasting time, you’re going to get a little bit, you’re not reaching maximum. To reach maximum efficiency – the time you’ve got and the solvent you put in the wheel and drain it out and clean the clothes – I’d like to see four to five minutes. The other thing that is important in the pre-wash is small amounts of detergent – that will help tremendously and help keep the soil suspended so we don’t get re-deposition or greying, which is a common problem in dry cleaning and laundry.

JD: What should the volume of solvent be in a pre-wash vs. a full wash? I’ve seen people running 1/3 to ½ gal per pound of capacity in prewash, where they elevate the solvent in the main wash to ½ - to 2/3 gallon. Are you in agreement with this?

JS: I think because of restrictions on solvent levels in facilities as well as cost of building the machines – in most machines I have concerns about solvent volume. Because stills are under vacuum, it takes a bit longer to redistill the solvent so we are not cleaning with adequate cleaning levels in our pre-wash and our main wash, we’re limited by tank size, solvent that we have in the tanks, and then the ability that if we’re running a two bath system to keep the solvent from coming back from the still fast enough without having boil overs and/or entrainment of other contaminants, to keep up with the production we need.

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If you get down to 1/3 gallon in the pre-wash, you’re running the risk of having your clothes becoming the filter. You need to be careful to not give the dirt that you knock off the perfect place to get back on the garments, rather than out of the wheel and into the still which is where we want it.

JD: So closer to ½ gallon and elevate the volume in the main wash cycle? Another thing I’ve become concerned about – flow rates. They certainly have an influence on soil removal and the quality of cleaning. The change of volume in the wheel in the wash, should that be under 60 seconds?

RF: Cleaners are not paying attention to their flow rates of their machines like they should. Machines are under a lot of abuse. Pumps and filters become obstructed. Pressure on the filters are dropping their flow rates to two to three minutes – to exchange a drum full of solvent – that is simply not adequate enough. If their cleaning cycles are running a two to three minute prewash or four to five minutes in a GreenEarth machine, 10 to 15 minutes in the main – they just get the solvent out of the wheel without some filtering mechanism and back to wheel enough times to adequately clean.

The use of absorption materials in the filter requires contact time with the solvent, the solvent has to pass over the material for a specific amount of time to absorb dyes, acids, soils particulates, if you’re not moving it long enough – you’re simply leaving the dirt on the clothes.

JD: Due to low surface tension of silicone, it will pass through a filter without building filter pressure; looking at the pressure on the filter gauge may not be the true indicator of what kind of flow rate you’re having.

JS: Cleaners need to look at their flow rate, what they are trying to do in the wheel. To try and cut costs, they cut back on filter changes, and don’t look at the pressure or what’s going on with the flow. Another concern is pump curves. We all know that the pumps have a curve where the flow is good through a certain pressure range, once you get outside of that optimum pressure range – flows can drop off dramatically. You have to look at the rise in pressure – how is it impacting my flow? Am I getting adequate flow, even though my flow is not going up? If my flow drops, my pressure is not going to get much higher and the pump will only put out so much.

JD: The concerns should not only be the volume of solvent both in pre-wash and wash, but the presence of detergent in pre-wash, being aware of what your machine is doing – the changes of solvent in the wheel – these are the major influences on the quality of cleaning.

RD: The work tank is ½ full and the customer is expecting to get adequate solvent in the wheel and they are running the low level, even lower and it’s just raining down on top of it – the pump runs dry during the first bath. No flow, just a raining effect, not really knocking the dirt off. Not really achieving the results they want because they are running too low of a level in

the tank itself. Many cleaners run low solvent in the first bath and often times in the second bath.

Q: Okay, so we need to watch solvent level, detergent level, flow rate. How often should we we check this?

RF: Most detergents are injection-based products so there should be product going in with every load. As long as the operator is following the machine manufacturer’s recommendations, he should be assured his detergent concentration is adequate. There is no way to quantify your flow because flow meters are not installed on dry cleaning machines. You can fill from one tank to another tank through your filter housing and you can measure the flow rate through that. A good preventative maintenance log on the machine that walks people through a checklist is recommended. Most machine manufacturers will supply you with this.

JS: Pay attention to your machine. Take time, once a week, to watch a load—am I getting solvent in there, how is it draining, are valves working properly, something that sounds off, look for leaks, listen for air, air compressor needs to be oiled, etc.

RD: Dry cleaning is our business and we need to spend time making sure that we are keeping an eye on our business, our investment, etc. Maintenance and pre-maintenance charts are a good reminder for someone in the plant to make sure that these things are getting taken care of.

Q: Is there a way to lift moisture or speed up the drying process when pre-spotting?

RD: Technique is important. Use a towel to absorb the moisture. Airflow in the area where you hang garments will also help.

RF: Using leveling agents or surfactant blends that bond to the moisture in the fabric and pull it up off the fabric and hold to the solution, and that will rinse in the dry cleaning fluid, is another way to deal with wet garments before you put them in. Ideally if you do some intense stain removal, using good spotting techniques and control how much moisture you have on the garment and are patient enough to allow the garment to dry. This will help move it through efficiently and safely.

Changes of solvent in the wheelcan change the quality of cleaning.

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Q: Okay everyone, here is my last question. If you could give one last piece of advice on stain removal to our Affiliates, what would it be?

RF: Patience. Don’t expect complicated stains to come out quickly. You need adequate time to get the stain out.

You also need adequate space. An organized area, with good light, makes it easier to function.

Set it aside if it requires more time. Work systematically through your protocols.

RD: Technique of spotting. Good sound techniques are important. The majority of color loss is done by the spotting gun being too close with the steam, or the bone rubbing too hard, not from chemical damage.

Also checking colors – check for solvent and moisture – how will that effect it.

JS: Patience. Cleaners are in a hurry. They say if a little bit is good, then a lot is better. They don’t give adequate time for the stain removal process to work.

Cleaners need to make sure they are constantly learning – they will constantly be exposed to new stains. Learn from your mistakes.

JD: The definition of a great spotter is a spotter that knows when to stop.

Using the techniques, proper selection of spotting products…this defines a great spotter.

Patience is a virtue.Getting worked up doesn’t work.

“The definition of a great spotter is a spotter that knows when to stop.”

Jim Douglas

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Spotlight on Spotting