Mild Mannered
Senior Member
- Joined
- Jun 2, 2009
- Messages
- 621
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The chemicals in dry cleaning are deadly. Whenever I got my suits & jackets back from the dry cleaners, I always felt nauseas wearing them. Even airing them out for days/weeks didn't help.
It has taken me 20 years to finally get it through my head, that dry cleaning chemicals are deadly to me. I have recently undertaken a desperate measure. I washed all of my suits in my bath tub.
Behold the culprit. Perchloroethylene.
I let each suit soak in water and very little liquid Tide for about 3 hours.
It literally took at least 3-4 hours for the PERC to release itself from the fabrics.
After this long soak period, I drained the tub. Refilled with water. Did a second soak for 30 min.
Drained water. Did a third soak for 30 min again. Drained tub, pressing gently with my hands,
as much water as possible from the suits. Then hung dry for 24 hours.
Then gently ironed everything. I am happy to say that not one of my suits was damaged.
Mostly canvassed, but some fused, yet all have survived this process amazingly well.
Suit & jacket brands that were washed include: Canali, Pal Zileri, Zegna, BOSS Black, Stollery's,
DAKS Jermyn Street, Aquascutum, etc.
I have also done the same procedure to my trench coats (Burberry, Aquascutum)
Here is a sample of the water after removing suit from the first soaking.
I don't recommend anyone try this at home unless you are ready to toss the suit altogether.
This was a last resort for me as the chemicals were affecting my health. If it had not worked, I would have trashed the whole lot and started over. Thankfully 100% of my suits/jackets are ok.
I can breath again. and not one of my suits have any smell of those chemicals.
Here's a sample pic of the water.
I lightened the photo for clarity. Believe me that water stunk of chemicals.
Compare the color of the water to the color of the PERC in the photo above.
It has taken me 20 years to finally get it through my head, that dry cleaning chemicals are deadly to me. I have recently undertaken a desperate measure. I washed all of my suits in my bath tub.
Behold the culprit. Perchloroethylene.
I let each suit soak in water and very little liquid Tide for about 3 hours.
It literally took at least 3-4 hours for the PERC to release itself from the fabrics.
After this long soak period, I drained the tub. Refilled with water. Did a second soak for 30 min.
Drained water. Did a third soak for 30 min again. Drained tub, pressing gently with my hands,
as much water as possible from the suits. Then hung dry for 24 hours.
Then gently ironed everything. I am happy to say that not one of my suits was damaged.
Mostly canvassed, but some fused, yet all have survived this process amazingly well.
Suit & jacket brands that were washed include: Canali, Pal Zileri, Zegna, BOSS Black, Stollery's,
DAKS Jermyn Street, Aquascutum, etc.
I have also done the same procedure to my trench coats (Burberry, Aquascutum)
Here is a sample of the water after removing suit from the first soaking.
I don't recommend anyone try this at home unless you are ready to toss the suit altogether.
This was a last resort for me as the chemicals were affecting my health. If it had not worked, I would have trashed the whole lot and started over. Thankfully 100% of my suits/jackets are ok.
I can breath again. and not one of my suits have any smell of those chemicals.
Here's a sample pic of the water.
I lightened the photo for clarity. Believe me that water stunk of chemicals.
Compare the color of the water to the color of the PERC in the photo above.