Yelp comment: Your questions answered.

We recently had a Yelp review that brought up several common dry cleaning questions consumers still have.  One addressed for our New Albany, IN store came from Tayiti C. of Buford, GA posted on 8/31.

In her review she believes all dry cleaning is done with toxic chemicals and your dry cleaning needs to be aired out after pick up.

Answer:  Over 80% of cleaners still use a chemical called PERC that is carcinogenic and slowly being banned by EPA.  If your dry cleaning comes back with a "perfumy" odor, then your dry cleaner is not filtering their solvent properly and cleaning your garments in dirty solvent.  Think of taking a bath in water used by the previous person.  Yuck!

Even some of the alternative dry cleaning processes cleaners switching from PERC have used, such as Hydrocarbon (petroleum based solvent) and GreenEarth, still make sacrifices in cleaning quality and hydrocarbon is not environmentally friendly.

First, we are the only cleaners in Kentuckiana to use a truly Green dry cleaning process our, Glacier Dry Cleaning.  Our process uses an environmentally friendly biodegradable cleaning solvent that is safe for you and the environment.  Our process uses no heat, leaves no odor in clothes, and has been proven to clean better than any current dry cleaning process on the market, (even PERC!).


Her second question is regarding practice of upcharges by dry cleaners.

Answer:  Almost all dry cleaners upcharge for material and designer brands.  This extra cost is for the extra labor, skill, and complexity in processing the garment.  For instance, her garment was made of silk.  Silk is a very delicate garment that requires extra labor and skill in cleaning and pressing the garment.  Dye's in silk can be very unstable and can also make any spot stain removal a challenge.


Hope this is informative.
Nu-Yale Cleaners

Can Dry Cleaning be Green and Clean?

Since it's Earth month, I thought I write a short piece on the environmental issues with dry cleaning.

Did you know that organic dry cleaning is hardly “organic”? Any chemist knows anything with a carbon atom in it is organic, like gasoline.  Some dry cleaners have exploited this term, and many unsuspecting people think “organic dry cleaning” is chemical free. Most dry cleaners nationwide are still using traditional dry cleaning methods involving hazardous chemicals called PERC or Hydrocarbon (a "natural" petroleum solvent).

There is an entirely new process developed by Solvair we installed in 2008 called our Glacier Dry Cleaning.
The advantages of our Glacier Dry Cleaning vs.traditional dry cleaning are:

• A truly “green” way of dry cleaning; every step considers the environment.

• Cleans better than traditional dry cleaning.

• Keeps white garments, bright.  No yellowing or graying.

• A truly gentle and cold process; heat is not used so stains never set.

• NO ODOR.

In the past 50 years, dry cleaning has not changed much until now. As a family owned dry cleaner for over 50 years this is the first innovation that we have seen which is truly amazing.  It not only solves all the environmental issue but it cleans better too.  A win-win for us and the consumer.