Dry cleaners hangers staining pants...

I've had three pairs of trousers go bad from repeated trips to the cleaners. I wear them weekly to bi-weekly and have them cleaned every fourth wear or so. The reason the stain is directly attributed to the sticky cardboard hanger they place them on. There is a quite noticeable discoloration where the pants fold over the hanger.

The cleaners say there is nothing that can be done, they took a pair in to re-clean for free and could not fix them. They say they are not able to use any other style of hanger, since this is the standard.

Has anyone ran into this problem? I'd love to find a way to stop it, my pants are getting more and more expensive as I climb in buying quality and I don't want to keep trashing my favorite pants.

-Use a different dry cleaners!
-Buy more slacks so cleaning every 4th wear is not necessary!

some of these questions are funny...if a vendor/service provider is fukking up ur stuff, STOP USING THEM!! geez, SF is not needed for this call!

The answer is two fold: China and financial pressure. Over the past 5 years or so, the US wire hanger industry has been decimated by dumping from China. As a result, the quality of hangers used by ordinary cleaners has gone from acceptable to incredibly poor. This problem has been compounded by the fact that ordinary cleaners are under tremendous financial pressure in the current economic environment. For many ordinary cleaners, revenues are down 10% to 30%. This means cost cutting throughout their operation. Cheap hangers from China have been a godsend. Here are 3 options: 1. Ask the cleaner to put your trousers on your own hangers. You'll need to drop some off with your cleaning. 2. Ask your cleaner to upgrade to all white hangers (even if made in China) and eliminate the brass hangers with the lingnin/sulphur/chlorine/acid laden kraft board. It might spur them to start looking closely at all aspects of their "quality" and to delay their fast decent to mediocrity -- the current position of the vast majority of the 26,000 cleaners in the USA. 3. Find another cleaner, not because of their hangers, but because of their lack of technical skill in being able to eliminate the stain caused by their own hangers. If they can't remove such a simple stain they shouldn't be in the garment care business! Web site: www.ravefabricare.com Daily blog: www.truequalitycleaning.com

Originally Posted by stubloom

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The answer is two fold: China and financial pressure.

Over the past 5 years or so, the US wire hanger industry has been decimated by dumping from China. As a result, the quality of hangers used by ordinary cleaners has gone from acceptable to incredibly poor.

This problem has been compounded by the fact that ordinary cleaners are under tremendous financial pressure in the current economic environment. For many ordinary cleaners, revenues are down 10% to 30%. This means cost cutting throughout their operation. Cheap hangers from China have been a godsend.

Here are 3 options:

1. Ask the cleaner to put your trousers on your own hangers. You'll need to drop some off with your cleaning.

2. Ask your cleaner to upgrade to all white hangers (even if made in China) and eliminate the brass hangers with the lingnin/sulphur/chlorine/acid laden kraft board. It might spur them to start looking closely at all aspects of their "quality" and to delay their fast decent to mediocrity -- the current position of the vast majority of the 26,000 cleaners in the USA.

3. Find another cleaner, not because of their hangers, but because of their lack of technical skill in being able to eliminate the stain caused by their own hangers. If they can't remove such a simple stain they shouldn't be in the garment care business!

Web site: www.ravefabricare.com

Daily blog: www.truequalitycleaning.com


WTF???

Originally Posted by ter1413

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WTF???

I'm kind of confused, too.

Originally Posted by ter1413

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-Use a different dry cleaners!
-Buy more slacks so cleaning every 4th wear is not necessary!

I am more puzzled by this comment. How is buying more pants going to make cleaning ever 4 wears any less necessary?

Originally Posted by ter1413

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WTF???

One of the top dry cleaners in the country joins SF and starts posting about the dry cleaning business and you say WTF. The only other cleaner that I know about with a national reputation is Parkway Custom Cleaners in Chevy Chase, MD right outside of DC. I'd say the poster knows of what he says.

If he says that the cheaper Chinese hangers have chemicals that could stain clothes in them I'll just take his word for it.

Originally Posted by scurvyfreedman

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One of the top dry cleaners in the country joins SF and starts posting about the dry cleaning business and you say WTF. The only other cleaner that I know about with a national reputation is Parkway Custom Cleaners in Chevy Chase, MD right outside of DC. I'd say the poster knows of what he says.

If he says that the cheaper Chinese hangers have chemicals that could stain clothes in them I'll just take his word for it.

Wow, did not know that this guy was a genuine Dry Cleaning Guru. Stick around, stubloom, we have dry cleaning questions around here all the time!

Now if I could just find a decent dry cleaner in Nashville...

I should have clarified, I have tried 2 different cleaners, and both had the same problem, with both the same answers. Finding a good one is hit or miss, I'm still looking.

Thanks stubloom for your extremely insightful reply, that is great information.

Is 1 out of 10 the normal helpful answer to useless reply ratio normal on these forums?

Originally Posted by scurvyfreedman

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One of the top dry cleaners in the country joins SF and starts posting about the dry cleaning business and you say WTF. The only other cleaner that I know about with a national reputation is Parkway Custom Cleaners in Chevy Chase, MD right outside of DC. I'd say the poster knows of what he says.

If he says that the cheaper Chinese hangers have chemicals that could stain clothes in them I'll just take his word for it.

Who gives a fluff if the guys represents a "national dry cleaners." The OP should have taken his business elsewhere. I have NEVER had that problem with the few that I have used in nYc. Here is another piece of advice, don't wait long to p.u your slacks and buy plastic hangers and put them on them when you get them home.

Originally Posted by jrsmiles

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I should have clarified, I have tried 2 different cleaners, and both had the same problem, with both the same answers. Finding a good one is hit or miss, I'm still looking.

Thanks stubloom for your extremely insightful reply, that is great information.

Is 1 out of 10 the normal helpful answer to useless reply ratio normal on these forums?


Stick around and you will see that the ratio is higher!