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Do you take your Dry Cleaner for granted? I'll admit I did.
I used to bundle up my clothes, drop them off at the local cleaners,
then return later to pick them up. I gave absolutely no thought
to what happened to my items while they were there. I guess I
figured it was like magic. At the very least, it was a mystery
to me.
But now the mystery has been unlocked. I toured Hollin Hall
Cleaners in Alexandria the other day, with company president
Bill Bohannon. He took me step-by-step through the entire process
and I found it fascinating!
The heart of the process is a huge dry cleaning machine. This
is no small investment! A machine like this costs between 60-thousand
and 100-thousand dollars! But Mr. Bohannon feels it is a necessary
investment to ensure that all the work is done on the premises.
He doesn't believe in shipping it out like some cleaners do.
In fact, he doesn't believe in cutting corners in any part of
the business.
The machine operates in many ways like a combination washer
and dryer. Your garments go into a large front-loading tub where
a liquid is applied. This is not water, but instead a fluid with
its own special properties. The garment then is agitated in the
tub, again much like you washer at home. This is followed by
a drain cycle. Then the garments are dried in the same machine.
They go into the machine dry and they come out dry. All the
excess liquid is extracted and that liquid drops back into the
base of the tank where it is filtered through huge units and
reused. Actually less than a teaspoon of the liquid is lost in
the process per garment, in the most efficient machines.
The liquid dries very quickly. Because of its nature the dryer
only has to get up to 145 or 150 degrees. The low heat reduces
shrinkage.
Dry Cleaning In Action: The "dry" in dry cleaning
actually refers to the absence of water in the process.
It's really quite an efficient process. And it works remarkably
well. The liquid used has a cleaning value of about 93 on a scale
of one to 100. Some of the new experimental processes that claim
to be more environmentally friendly have a cleaning value that's
just in the 30's. Those machines also have to run longer to complete
the process. And they are more labor intensive, more costly and
they just don't work as well.
Once clothing comes out of the dry cleaning machine it goes
to a finisher who removes the wrinkles and you pick it up ...
like magic!
Hollin Hall Cleaner also does shirts. They are washed with
a high speed extraction process then pressed while still damp.
The collar and cuffs are smoothed flat on large ironing machines
and the sleeves are actually blown dry with highly pressurized
hot air. Bohannon explains that sleeves are larger these days.
And it is more efficient to blow them dry than to try to iron
them flat.
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Owner Bill Bohannon is both proud and quick to emphasize Hollin
Hall as the only certified professional drycleaner in Northern
Virginia.
"We don't do cheap work here," Bohannon explains.
"You have to keep the iron on long enough to make sure the
garment is pressed dry. If it is released while still wet, the
garment will wrinkle back up."
Sure, you can find one of those cleaners that advertises "shirts
for less than a dollar" - but you get what you pay for.
They often rush through the ironing process. Hollin Hall also
keeps the pads on the ironers in good order, which is why they
have to replace very few broken buttons on your shirts.
"Some cleaners take a loss on cleaning shirts, but make
it up by cutting corners or doing a shoddy job of dry cleaning,"
Bohannon continues. "We focus instead on productive quality."
That means they offer the best quality at a fair price. The prices
are reasonable, but not "cheap." There's a big difference.
Bill Bohannon also offered a word of advice about those new
products being advertised as "dry cleaning at home."
First of all, he says they aren't really dry cleaning. Its more
masking the odor of the garment. Bohannon likened that to a person
not taking a bath, but just adding layers of perfume. He says
they are just the latest "snake oil" in the industry.
After all, can something that costs under 10-dollars really compete
with a dry cleaning machine worth over 50-thousand dollars?
Bohannon has been in the dry cleaning business for 26 years.
He says, "It's a funny thing, a lot of big stores that were
practically institutions around here, are gone - stores like
Hechinger's, Service Merchandise, and Woodward and Lothrop. And
our small business is still here."
"I realize how fortunate we are. We try to do our jobs
to the best of our abilities here, and the public supports us
for that. We just want to say thank you to everyone who helped
make this possible."
Hollin Hall Cleaners is located at 7932 Ft. Hunt Rd.; Alexandria
Virginia. Phone (703) 765-5518. Hours: Monday through Friday
8 a.m. until 7 p.m. and Saturday 8 a.m. until 6 p.m
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