Well folks, another Clean Show has come and gone. This past week in Las Vegas, NV was the drycleaning industry's premiere event, The Clean Show. Like all Clean Shows it was a spectacle to be seen. It was a great opportunity to catch up with old friends, meet new friends, see the new innovative ideas that area hitting the dry cleaning markets and just have a good time, especially with all that Las Vegas has to offer.
The action was brisk most of the week at my companies booth (STREETS) and I was very surprised at the number of my friends and fellow cleaners from Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee and South Carolina that were able to attend the show.
STREETS has recently introduced new products designed for Green Earth solvent. GreenSol (a detergent and cleaning booster) and its companion product GreenSpot (a no flush pre-treatment, leveling agent and cleaning booster for Green Earth systems). These products created quite a buzz for my fellow STREETS guys and myself as we spoke to many Green Earth users that have been looking for more effective products for their process. These products have been available for a couple of months now and are already having great success and beginning to get rave reviews, as I had several plant owners that are using the products come to our booth and tell us about their success. If you are using Green Earth solvent, you owe it to yourself to check them out.
The questions were flying regarding the System K4, Green Earth, Dry Solv, DF2000 and perc. It became obvious that many dry cleaners are looking to make the change from perc and many are wanting to do this soon. It also became even more evident to me that something I had been suspecting for a while is the case. That being, DF2000 has truly become the proven alternative. With its 15+ year history in the industry it has a track record and market presence that cannot be matched.
From the latest dry cleaning machines, to the latest presses, to the computers, to the chemical companies, this years Clean Show was a good show. For those that could not make it to this years show, the 2013 show will be in New Orleans, I hope to see you there.
4 weeks ago
2 comments:
My God!!!!
I was at the Clean Show too, and I honestly detested the smell that came out of Columbia/ILSA's ISOL machine using RYNEX. However, K4 solvent stinks even worse. DF2000 is the only way to go.
Anonymous, thank you for reading the blog and thank you for your comments.
I have spoken with dry cleaners on both sides of this issue. Some who have felt there is a different smell to the alternatives and some who have not. Odor is a strange thing when you consider that we all perceive them differently. A fragrance, scent, aroma, malodor, stench, reek and stink are all ways of describing the same odor, depending on who is doing the smelling. It is all in the nose of the beholder.
In my opinion though, we have seen something happening in our industry for several years now. A few years back, detergent companies from Europe began to import detergents with fragrances into the U.S. This was a very novel idea and proved to be a good marketing tool for those companies in the beginning. Some people equated those fragrances to better cleaning quality, even though the actual cleaning results may not have been better. Soon, all the detergent companies had a product with a fragrance added, more of a me too, than anything. But what I have always wondered, does the consumer actually like the smell being added or not? Did some of them like it and some didn't? Was it a fragrance or did it reek? Did those who didn't like it return to do business again?
I think that the bottom line is that the industry has gotten away from the idea that good quality dry cleaning is free of odors. That a properly maintained dry cleaning system should produce odor free clothes every time. I might be starting to sound old fashioned here.
I do agree with you that DF2000 is by far the closest thing to an odor free solvent that is available, including the other high flash hydrocarbons and is truly the proven alternative.
If a dry cleaner is looking to make a change to a new process, they owe it to themselves to investigate.
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