Comforters are some of the most cumbersome household materials to clean using the traditional washing method, given that these typically become too heavy too large to handle even by the usual washing machine when wet. To help solve this particular issue, a lot of people turn to dry cleaning, as there are a lot of advantages to it compared to the conventional soap and water means to wash their soiled comforters.
In a nutshell, dry cleaning is simply the process of cleaning clothes, fabric, and other products without the use of water. Instead of using water and soap to remove stains, the products to be cleansed are subjected to solvents which depend on the dry cleaning shop, which could range from PCE, or Perchloroethane, to Hydrocarbons, Dimethoxymethane, Carbon Dioxide, Brominated Solvents, Modified Alcohol, so on and so forth.
One of the popular questions, therefore, among comforter owners would most definitely be: “How much does it cost to dry clean a comforter?”
To help answer these questions, especially to those who have not tried dry cleaning comforters yet, here are some things you need to know:
What influences dry clean comforter price?
- Store Location : The over-all cost of the dry cleaning services is greatly influenced by the location of the store. It can be observed that in dry cleaning shops which are established or operating in rented spaces tend to charge higher rates than shops which operate within the vicinity of a non-rented lot, such as in a space within the homeowner’s lot premises. This could be understood given that people tend to make up for the renting costs through funnelling it through their service rates.
- Type of Solvent Used: As previously mentioned, there are a lot of chemicals that have been and are currently used as solvents to clean up soiled clothes without water. The most common of these solvents, which are used by modern-day dry cleaning shops include Carbon dioxide, as well as PCE, despite there being a move to phase out the use of the latter, due concerns regarding both that of the health and the environment.
- Store Prestige: Once a store has had several years in terms of service, it could be implied that they’re doing a good job by having a solid set of loyal customers. A lot of these customers would not risk going to other shops, should they be able to find one that would cater to their dry cleaning needs. Having said that, shops that have been in business for longer could exact larger fees than that of newer shops with a lot less prestige.
- Labor and Storage Costs: One obvious factor which a business needs are people who would be taking care of the store operations. Part of the charges for each dry cleaning job would most definitely, therefore includes salaries of its workers. Also, it would take additional effort to take care of the clothes in large bulk; hence stores that operate on a much larger scale would often demand higher costs to somehow compensate this.
- Extra Services: Another factor that could add to the over-all price of dry cleaning is the extra services that one could choose to avail. One of the most common include delivery, as well as the addition of extra
- Cost of Dry Cleaning by Shop: Different shops around the world offer dry cleaning services for various apparel, and not just for comforters. Most of these shops employ a rubric system for the pricing of their services, with variables to determine the price commonly including weight as well as the kind of washables. To give you a hint on the various prices, there actually are quite a lot of them that post their rates online.
One of these sites is spitspot.com, one of the few dry cleaning shops that offer delivery services as well. Their dry cleaning services for a full comforter has a rate of $20, The Queen or Kind Comforter for $ 25, and the clean down comforter for $ 30. Another of these sites is http://cloudninedrycleaner.com.au/, which lists their blanket dry cleaning services from $25 to $32, depending on the size for polyester and cotton. For wool blankets, is priced slightly higher, with prices ranging from $33 to $44. According to several comforter owners, Royal Crown charges $31 dollars to have king-sized comforters cleaned.
- Dry Cleaning Insurance: There are some instances when clothes, clean down comforter, and other washed apparel are mishandled by the dry cleaning store, such as damaging of the apparel through holes and ripped areas, and in some cases, having the laundered materials rendered lost. To help deal with these issues and other issues that could financially plague dry cleaning shops, such as customer complaints, employee dishonesty, equipment breakdown and damage, etc, there are several insurance companies that could help. Some of these shops include State Farm Automobile Insurance Company, Net Quote, among others. The price of the Insurance would greatly depend on the cost of the materials or cleaning equipment that you would end up declaring.
Cost of DIY vs. Shop Cleaning
At this point, it’s quite common knowledge for anyone that a lot goes into the over-all cost for having your material dry cleaned. You could do your own dry cleaning in the comfort of your very own home with the Perchloroethylene solvent. The medical grade 120-mL bottle would cost you $12.00, but you have to purchase several other equipment as well, as this can’t be managed with bare hands. This single $12.00 bottle would last for several uses.
Ways to Save
If you believe that you really have to avail of dry cleaning services, but with to find ways to save, then one of the things you can do is to avail of coupons. Groupon is the ultimate site for finding deals and discounts for certain shops, with discounts ranging to $10 to as much as 55% off on dry cleaning services.