I have always heard that taking clothes to a dry cleaner to be
laundered will make clothes last longer with better colors, less
shrinking etc. I have seen statistics (not online. Consume Reports I
think) that clothes laundered by a professional will last 4 times as
long as doing it at home.  I am not talking about an actual
dry-cleaning process. I am talking about just taking 'normal' non-dry
clean clothes to a cleaner to simply be laundered in a washing machine
like a person would do at home. So my question is: What do cleaner
companies do in their laundry process that is so much better for
clothes than a person washing at home? I have looked on various "how
do cleaning companies work" websites and have found nothing that talks
about their actual laundering process. What detergent do they use?
What type of cycling do they put the clothes through? Cold or warm
water? What type of water? What type of washer? How do they dry the
clothes? Is it even true that having a 'professional' wash your
clothes in some industrial washer is going to be that much better for
your clothes? Is it worth it for me to pay the price to have a company
launder my clothes or am I better off just doing it at home with a
proper set up?  I have a front loader, use cold water, hardly any
detergent and never dry my clothes, yet I hear the professionals still
have a better method.

Thanks

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Clarification of Question by benjarrett-ga on 11 Nov 2004 08:16 PST

I notice this question has been open for a while with no response. Not
enough money or too complicated of a question? I am open to
suggestion.

benjarret -

You have several subquestions within your parent question.  Bear in
mind that researchers receive 75% of a question list price.  There is
a lot of research required here for that price.

jbf777