Got suit back from cleaners, smells like dry cleaning fluid, what gives?

February 5, 2015 2:30 AM

My suit now smells of something petroleum-based, which I assume is the dry cleaning chemicals. After four days of hanging in a well ventilated room the smell is fainter but still there, so I plan to take it somewhere else to clean it again. I'm just really curious about this as it's never happened to me before. My question for the right honorable Green is what could the cleaners possibly have done wrong to cause this? I thought dry cleaning was pretty much completely automated and foolproof now and there wouldn't be much chance of something so basic going wrong.
posted by duoshao to Clothing, Beauty, & Fashion (2 answers total)

Best answer: I believe this can be caused by dry cleaning fluid that isn't cleaned/filtered sufficiently. See this comment. It could be that your dry cleaner adjusted the automated parts of the process to save on time, money, and/or supplies, and it resulted in "dirtier" solvent being used and leaving an odor behind.
posted by neushoorn at 2:53 AM on February 5, 2015

I have heard that too. Ugh I hate that smell.
posted by radioamy at 7:54 AM on February 5, 2015