THE DEFINITIVE WAY TO CLEAN YOUR KILT by Joshua Brown

[The Wizard of BC]

When selecting a dry cleaner it is just good practice to ask them what chemical they use.

There are currently 8 chemicals that can be used. Not all of them are available in all areas. Some are good and some are still to be proven.

PCE, Perchloroethylene or tetrachloroethylene is the old standard dry cleaning solvent. Around since the 1930's and the most common since WWII this is the one that most people know as the dangerous one as it was the very first chemical branded as a carcinogen.

Alternatives which you may or may not see are;

DF200 and Ecosolve are hydrocarbons derived from petroleum.

Dibutoxymethane going under the brand name SolvonD4 is one of the most widely use alternatives to PCE.

Liquid Silicone or D4 is more environmentally friendly but much more expensive than PCE..

Brominated solvents like Fabrisolv, & DrySolv clean faster but can damage some synthetics.

The opinions on supercritical CO2 are still coming in. Some say that it is superior to PCE in every aspect while some point to the higher cost of the machinery as a down side.

Glycol ethers like Rynex, Solvair, Caled, GenX and Impress) are becoming more readily available and have shown very good results with very good environmentally friendly effects.

Modified alcohol under the brand name SENSENE may be the best but is still not widely available in all areas.

My local dry cleaner recently upgraded their machinery. They now use GenX. The machinery cost was over $500,000.00 Canadian dollars.