Chapel Hill/SW durham DRYCLEANER (houses, luxury, high school)

[firstdoc]

I am looking for a drycleaner here in the CH/Durham area that is cheaper than the one I currently go to. Any good recommendations? Please post prices for mens pants/shirts for drycleaning if possible.
Thanks!

[CHTransplant]

Dry Clean Warehouse

[StoneOne]

These folks have always done a very good job for me.

Perfect Image Cleaners

[TarheelsMatt]

There's a dry cleaner on the corner of 751 and 54 on Hope Valley Rd. in Durham, kinda near Jordan High School. Less than 2 bucks an item I believe.

[Heathercp]

We were using this dry cleaner for a while because they're cheap and had been recommended by a neighbor. However, when two items came back just as bloody as they'd been delivered (I'd cut my hand and gushed everywhere) and a sweater came back with smelly armpits, I decided that cheap wasn't the way to go. After these experiences, we started paying more attention to my husbands uniform pants. The do a great job at pressing. That may, however, be all that they do.

[cleanerjohn]

You get what you pay for. How do these cleaners do it so cheap? They cut corners in cleaning and pressing. Your garments are cleaned over and over in the same dirty solution as the last batch. As far as stain removal goes, you don't actually think they will spend a lot of time trying to remove stains do you? After all, some stain removal chemicals cost $45/gallon.

Some places do not even use detergent. Yes, even dry cleaning has to have detergent so that all the dirt and grime do not redeposit back into the garments after the washing phase. Its sort of like taking a bath after someone else if you do not use detergent. At $75/gallon, I doubt I would use detergent either if I was charging only $1.97 per garment.

They use "slam bam" method of pressing. Garments are sent through steam and pants are pressed hard. Hard pressing is good for some fabrics, but can shorten the life of most finer/delicate fabrics.

Don't get me wrong, not everyone needs or can afford proper cleaning and pressing methods and these "one price" cleaners fill that need. Basically, if "one price" cleaners does a good job for you please continue to go there Or if you are a person who drives a BMW, Mercedes, or another luxury vehicle and complains about having to pay extra to put premium gas ha ha!

Just for disclosure, I am in the dry cleaning business in the area and have researched the "one price" cleaners' business model. I will also refrain from naming my cleaner because advertising is not my intention.

[dimecovers3]

I have about a dozen shirts that all have the same exact two issues. There are places at the very end of the cuffs and at the neck at last button on the collar that the fabric is gone and tattered. It looks like it has been eaten through. All have been dry cleaned (or pressed as they are mostly just cotten men's dress shirts) by the same cleaners. Is this normal over time? I'm out a good $400 dollars and I doubt any of them made it more than 6-8 times through this cleaner without the first tell tale signs. I actually bought an iron the other day cause I figured there was no way to get shirts cleaned and pressed over time without them being destroyed.

[cleanerjohn]

The main job of a cleaners is to get the clothes cleaned. In order for cleaners to get the collars and cuffs cleaned, they have to scrub them. NO one wants to pay for services to get shirts with ring around the collar even after cleaned. During the scrubbing phase there may be some abrasion, but not until the shirt has been clean many many times.

IF your shirts are fraying after a few cleanings, I would have to look into the fabric or the quality of the shirt. According to the manufacturers, a shirt should last anywhere from a year to year and a half until showing signs of wear.

From my experience, I will tell you that loosely woven oxfords and shirts sold by the warehouses do not last long. Especially buttons on the shirts sold by warehouses rarely make it past two cleanings before we replace them.