How do you remove grease stains in laundry?

Most dry cleaners are familiar with the OTPR (oily type paint remover) Pyratex®, manufactured by Streets®, an outstanding stain remover and an industry staple for many years.  Pyratex® has the ability to quickly cut through exceptionally heavy stains such as grease, shoe polish, lipstick, paints and oils, just to name a few.  Today I have the opportunity to tell you about a new type of Pyratex® - Pyratex LV®, a virtually odorless, color friendly, leave on, no flush, OTPR, that will not affect the flash point in solvents. Now, I know what you are thinking, "Mike, it is your job to sell Pyratex LV®, so you may be a bit biased" and I am, but those customers of mine who have already purchased the new Pyratex LV® are seeing that this new product is finding a very useful place on their spotting board, right along side the Pyratex® they have been using for years and is making their jobs much easier. 

Just like the Pyratex® that dry cleaners have been using for generations, Pyratex LV® is formulated to take on the heavy-duty stains.  It can handle paint, oil and grease stains, as well as lipstick and cosmetics. It lubricates, lifts and suspends soils to prevent it from redepositing on fabrics.  It is virtually odorless.  Another nice aspect of the Pyratex LV® is the fact that it does not need to be flushed from fabrics when cleaning in perc, HFHC and LFHC.  It can be used effectively in D5 solvent, but will require flushing with steam, water or other flushing agents.  Even better, it does not need to be flushed in wetcleaning orlaundry.  Yes, that is right you can use Pyratex LV® in your wetcleaning and laundry. In fact for those of you using the "old" Pyratex, I would think of the new Pyratex LV as "Pyratex for laundry".

Dry cleaners know that one of the biggest challenges in laundry is the removal of food greases, oil stains, cosmetics, waxes and so on.  Washing and wetcleaning does an excellent job at removing water soluble soils, but the real challenge comes when faced with the solvent soluble soils in wash/wetcleaning.  Quite often a dry cleaner will take valuable time and added expense by first cleaning a garment in their dry cleaning machine to remove these oily type stains and then laundering them, that is if they can be dry cleaned.  However, by using Pyratex LV® as a pre-spotter, you can eliminate having to go to the dry cleaning machine to first remove grease stains before laundry. 

Pyratex LV® is sold by Streets®authorized distributors.  All ingredients are biodegradable.  It contains no Proposition 65 listed ingredients or halogenated compounds and is designed to comply with California 2015 VOC regulations. 

This leads me to the question, how do you remove grease stains in laundry and the answer is simple - you use Pyratex LV®!

For answers to more frequently asked dry cleaning question, visit us at www.olddominioncleaners.com

Old Dominion Cleaners makes contribution to Walk MS 2015

In full support of one of our loyal customers’ fundraising team, ODC made a contribution toward the Walk MS 2015.

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an unpredictable, often disabling disease of the central nervous system that disrupts the flow of information within the brain, and between the brain and body. The cause of MS is still unknown – scientists believe the disease is triggered by as-yet-unidentified environmental factor(s) in a person who is genetically predisposed to respond. Learn more about MS and options for managing symptoms, treatments, coordination of healthcare, and living well with MS. Visit this link to contribute to the fight against MS and to learn more. http://main.nationalmssociety.org/site/TR/Walk/VARWalkEvents?team_id=415312&pg=team&fr_id=25822

ODC makes contribution of Bob Books to early readers.

On December 3, Old Dominion Cleaners staff had the luxury of working hand in hand with a local baker and the Lakeside Elementary School staff to bring a fun afternoon of reading to Lakeside’s preschool students.  Staff from both the baker and Old Dominion Cleaners read books to the 18 children and staff. After reading the books, the children decorated gingerbread men provided by the baker and Old Dominion Cleaners provided all the children with a set of Bob Books.  Bob Books are defined as being  a series of children’s books designed to teach reading skills acquisition . With a foundation in phonics methods, each level addresses a single stage in a child’s reading development.  Michael DeVeaux from Old Dominion Cleaners believes that the earlier these foundation are built in the children, the easier it will be in regards to development in the area of reading.

Coat Swap Flyer We just finished our 2nd Annual Coat Swap with Lakeside Elementary School. Coat Swap is an opportunity for children to trade in a lightly worn coat for a voucher. This voucher can then be used to obtain a professionally dry cleaned coat on the redemption date.
If you or anyone has the opportunity to give to anyone and uplift their current situation, do it. Don’t wait until you reach a certain plateau of success. Any minute, hour or day is fit for giving and sharing with those who have a particular need.

How do we track your clothes through the dry cleaning process?

Have you ever wondered how we keep track of your garments after we’ve received them from you? Although we don’t expect you to be as obsessed as we are with dry cleaning, we thought you might be interested in a little behind-the-scenes peek at our process. Before your garments are dry cleaned, we tag each piece of clothing so it can be easily identified. The tags we use are specially made to ensure that the ink and dye don’t wash out of them during dry cleaning. Next, we group all garments that require the same cleaning process together. This ensures we’re cleaning your clothes safely, and to your specifications. Once we’ve separated clothing into similar groups, we weigh the garments to make sure we place the right amount into our dry cleaning machines. At the end of the cleaning cycle, clothes are taken to the finishing department to be pressed on machines specifically designed to handle a great variety of fabric types and garment designs. After pressing, clothes go to an assembly area where our coworkers collect all of the items in your order and place them together for packaging. When the number of items we’ve placed together match the number of items on your invoice, the order is complete and ready to be packaged. Garments are placed in polyethylene bags, or in your EarthSmart Bag if you have one, before we attach the invoice to your order. Your clean, packaged dry cleaning is then placed on our conveyor system to await pickup. Thanks for taking a moment to better understand our dry cleaning process! If you have any questions, feel free to contact Old Dominion Cleaners. We’re always happy to help! Visit us at www.olddominioncleaners.com

Old Dominion Cleaners sponsors National Night Out in Varina.

Old Dominion Cleaners thinks that it is very important to provide quality dry cleaning services to Richmond, Virginia and surrounding counties. ODC also thinks that it is equally important to partner with the community in support of activities and events within that community. We are delighted to contribute snacks and beverages to the 10 Varina communities of Henrico County that will congregate on Canesville Ln.. National Night Out is a great opportunity to catch up with fellow neighbors, meet elected officials of the area, and celebrate unity. Visit us at www.olddominioncleaners.com

Never trust a dry cleaner with only one type of stain remover in the back.

Old Dominion Cleaners, we keep several different kinds on hand, and we know how to use each one. It only sounds like overkill. It’s necessary because every kind of stain has its own peculiarities. For salsa, you need one kind of stain remover. For gravy, you need another. You need yet another for coffee. (Coffee, by the way, is not something we recommend spilling on clothes. We’ll do our best with it, of course. But coffee is so permanent, it is used as a fabric dye.) But there’s more to it than that. You also need to how to handle each type of fabric, and each type of fabric finish. And you need to know how each type of stain remover behaves on different fabrics and finishes. A stain remover that’s perfect for removing gravy from one kind of fabric may be harmful to another kind of fabric. Just to make things more complicated, clothing manufacturers often put incorrect handling instructions on clothing tags. To be great at spot removal, you have to know when to believe what the tag says, and when to overrule it. Which means that to remove stains effectively and safely, you need to know your stuff. That’s why we don’t turn new employees loose on stains. We keep up on the science, and teach it to our most experienced people only, some of whom have been with us for years. So when you bring us a stain, you can relax. You’ll know that the person who works on it is thoroughly trained and experienced on the science of stain removal and fabric care. For more information on our services, visit us at www.olddominioncleaners.com