Which benefits does wet cleaning offer for textile cleaning?

The following comparison will illustrate this; it applies to the cleaning service for private customers, not to industrial areas.

<b> Service:</b> <b> Dry cleaning</b> <b> Wet cleaning</b> <b> Laundry</b>
<b> Suits (for men and women)</b> ++ + - -
<b> Trousers, skirts</b> ++ ++ - -
<b> Dresses, blouses</b> + ++ - -
<b> Sportswear, protective clothing</b> + ++ (+)
<b> Easy care and leisure clothing</b> + ++ +
<b> Home textiles / Curtains</b> + + +
<b> Shirts</b> + ++ ++
<b> Bed and pillow service</b> - - ++ +
<b> Underwear, bed and table linen</b> - - + ++

Rating:    ++ = good; + = possible; (+) = partly possible; - - = not possible

The comparison shows the wide application range of wet cleaning for all service areas of textile cleaning. From this point of view, wet cleaning links laundry with dry cleaning. It offers market potential for cleaners in the field of private service and for laundries in the field of outerwear.

Service expansion

An essential benefit of wet cleaning is the possibility of extending the service range. For cleaning companies, this is usually more difficult than for laundries because cleaners are used to handling solvents and wet cleaning means a drastic change in their basic operations. Storing and handling solvents, operating a distillery and discarding distillation residues is routine business.

However, particularly shop companies often fear the step from a small domestic washing machine to a professional washing/spinning machine with bottom drainage and the required removal of the drier exhaust air. Also, many cleaners are not familiar with the proper application of the multitude of possible washing and drying procedures which requires special staff training.

Laundry companies, on the other hand, are used to all this and find it easy. They, however, are not familiar with handling textiles made of wool and finishing multi-layer garments such as jackets or wool coats. Some laundry companies are also faced with the disadvantage of being located far from the shopping areas of a city.  

Implementing wet cleaning in a laundry company is generally easier than in a dry cleaning company as the wet cleaning programmes can be integrated easily into existing modern washing/spinning machines. Also, the existing drum driers are often equipped with residual moisture sensors so that merely the finishing section has to be adapted to the requirements of wet cleaning. Trouser toppers, form finishers and pressing table - this is usually all that needs to be procured to perform wet cleaning in a laundry enterprise.

It is amazing to see how easy the step towards wet cleaning is if the service expansion occurs slowly, step by step. A pressing shop, for example, offers customers to clean their garments before they are pressed, then also offers shirt service and washes and finishes easy-care outerwear. The further step to full service is a perfectly logical one.

Another example: A laundry in a retirement home that expands its service gradually to the overall care of the residents’ bed- and table linen. It is merely a matter of time before the outerwear is treated successfully in wet cleaning procedures.

New service structure

The change of our way of living has also changed the requirements in services, not only in the retail trade, but also for textile service. This concerns textile procurement as well as textile care. Jobs that require the wearing of conventional suits and dresses continue to exist but are becoming rarer. As a result, there is an increase in the volume of clothing that does not necessarily need to be dry cleaned.

Textile cleaners have noticed the consequences thereof for years: The volume is considerably lower. Since, however, the operating costs of a cleaning enterprise have not been reduced but rather increased, the price for the cleaning effort must go up. Rising prices, however, keep customers away as they can clean most of their easy-care textiles at home. Textile cleaning is price-sensitive. This can only be compensated by improving the value creation of the enterprises. This can be achieved most reliably by increasing the number of orders. For this purpose, the service must go beyond the usual cleaning of trousers, jackets, skirts, and coats.

The major potential for using textile care as a service is with working people and well-off senior citizens. The need for textile care in these households concerns predominantly all kinds of clothing - including shirts, blouses, and leisure clothing but also bed and table linen, i.e. anything that takes an effort to clean at home. Wet cleaning offers the possibility of cleaning all of these textiles immediately at one single location. When complemented with a press for flatware and with a cleaning machine, if required, an enterprise so equipped can cover the entire service of this active demand group. Of course, this requires appropriate marketing, attractive and adequate pricing, cashless payment systems, and practice-oriented opening hours.

Wet cleaning is the technical precondition for offering a textile service that meets the demand profile of working people and service-oriented senior citizens. With appropriate marketing, professional textile care can present itself as a modern service provider for many find domestic textile care troublesome and time-consuming.

To use this opportunity – in an ecological and future-oriented manner with more favourable performance characteristics than those of a domestic household – this is the advantage of wet cleaning!

Customer acceptance and secured future

Another advantage of wet cleaning is its high degree of acceptance in the public. This is confirmed in the customer perception with regard to cleanliness, colour vividness and the pleasant scent of the cleaned textiles. Furthermore, the working atmosphere in the cleaning company benefits from the fact that no solvents are used.

Wet cleaning is performed with water and biodegradable detergents. The specific water and energy consumption as well as the detergent consumption are lower than for domestic cleaning. There is no risk of air or ground pollution. The waste water quality in wet cleaning corresponds with that of domestic waste water, and the fact that wet cleaning requires neither distillation nor residue disposal means considerable cost savings; therefore, wet cleaning of easy-care textiles can be offered at lower prices than for dry cleaning.


Another advantage: The LANADOL product range has been dermatologically tested!