Ideally, we like to have your items in our care for 48 hours. We feel this gives us the necessary time to re-treat stains, or soak overnight, and achieve the best possible result. If you are in a hurry though, we do have a same-day service available, provided your items are dropped off before 11am. Same-day is not available with pickup & delivery service, household items & linen, leather & suede, wedding gowns or repairs & alterations.

Typically, it depends on your item and the care label. As a rule, we prefer to wash business shirts, as opposed to dry clean, as it achieves a better result. Woollen items should generally be dry cleaned to ensure there is no shrinkage, including woollen doonas and mattress overlays. Feather or down doonas are washed. If you aren’t sure, just ask our team and we can advise a course of action.

The first step is to check the care label. If the label says the item is dry cleanable and has a code “P”, “F” or “A” in a circle, then we can process this in dry cleaning. Even if your item says “Do not dry clean” we have the capacity to wash your items in our laundry department.

Your clothes are cleaned at our state-of-the-art dry-cleaning plant. One of Melbourne’s biggest and brightest dry cleaning plants, the equipment at Deluxe Drycleaning is regularly updated to keep pace with new trends in garment care, and to ensure efficient and safe processing of your items.

A women’s blouse as opposed to a women’s shirt, are two very different items of clothing. Firstly, men’s shirts (usually cotton, or a polyester & cotton blend) are constructed to a fairly standard shape and size. Business shirts, whether male or female, require no detailed and time consuming hand finishing to press them. They are plain on the front, sometimes with a pocket, and generally one or two pleats at the cuff. Some dry cleaners charge more for women’s shirts, as well as blouses. At Deluxe dry cleaning we charge the same price for men’s and women’s business shirts. Recognising that some slim fit men’s shirts these days are the same size as women’s shirts, we have automated shirt finishing equipment that caters for sizes from extra small to very large. As a result, we don’t see it as fair to charge a different rate for men’s and women’s shirts. However, a blouse, is different to a shirt. A women’s blouse will have a different price to a women’s shirt. Blouses are generally more delicate, not water-washable, and have a higher level of detail in their makeup requiring more hand-finishing. They can be made from silk, acetate, rayon and many other fibres. These fibres are generally dry cleaned, not washed, and require hand finishing on a steam press, taking longer to finish and therefore a higher price.

Nope. We pretty much treat every type of fabric. We don’t clean bags, shoes and hats though (caps are fine). Some leather items we will outsource to a specialist leather cleaner.

In the event where we have made a mistake, we own it, and reimburse in line with standards advised in the Trade Practices Act schedule. When we believe there may be other factors at play we defer to The Australian Textile Industry, and how it governs the wearing and sale of apparel. It is mandatory for clothing, household textiles and furnishings sold in Australia to have a care label, and for this care label to adhere to Australian standards. The care label applies to all components of the finished item, including buttons, buckles, trims, dyes, fabric, interfacing, lining, belts and any other sequins or beading attached to the finished product. If the cleaner has followed the instructions on the care label, and the cause can be attributed to poor manufacturing or inappropriate care labelling, reimbursement should be pursued from the manufacturer via the retail point of sale. In this instance we can provide a letter advising of the process undertaken and how the garment has failed.

Whilst it looks like we perform miracles, unfortunately our skills are based on science, not magic. Whilst we will try every ‘trick in the book’ to get that stain out, not every stain can be removed. Stain removal can depend on the type of stain, the fabric, the time the stain has been there and any attempts to remove the stain previously, even the application of water and some rubbing with a cloth can make stain removal by yourself, or a professional, harder. To give yourself the best chance for a stain to be removed, avoid treating it yourself with home remedies, and avoid rubbing stains with a cloth or napkin, this may not affect stain removal, but could damage fabric fibres. Also, the more time you allow your cleaner, the more strategies they can try to remove the stain. Ultimately, we will try everything we can to remove a stain, but our priority is always on ensuring we preserve the integrity of the garment.

The short answer is no. It’s integral to prolonging the life of your clothing that it is cleaned when there are stains. It is possible for stains to set-in over time if left untreated, or for yellowing to occur, in addition it leaves your natural fibres exposed to moths and other insects which are attracted to the stains. The opposite side to this argument by a lot of suit retailers is that too frequent dry cleaning of your suit jacket is not good, some suggesting even as long as 2-3 months between cleans. Whilst we wouldn’t advocate for this extreme view point, if you wear your jacket only for short periods, and avoid getting it dirty over lunch or dinner, it is reasonable to take it off and air it out overnight. Really your suit jacket shouldn’t get too dirty during wear and should avoid being worn when sitting down for long periods.

Sounds crazy but they do exist. Think about lemonade, or white wine. Both of these are soluble in water, as opposed to dry cleaning solvent, and require specialised treatment using spotting agents to remove in dry cleaning, the problem being that they often can’t be seen when the item is presented for cleaning. After cleaning, without specific treatment, and with exposure to heat during the process, the sugar can oxidise and go a yellow-colour. Often these “caramelised” sugar stains are very difficult to remove. We recommend marking these ‘invisible’ stains when they occur and bringing them in for cleaning straight away. Be sure to bring the stains to the attention of our team when you bring them in for cleaning.

If we can’t remove a stain, and we have tried everything, you may get your item back with a tag attached explaining we have done all we can. Sometimes this may also suggest we have done the best in the time allowed, particularly if a same day service was requested. For the best chance of removing all stains, the more time you allow us, the more effort we can put in. We don’t charge any extra to try whatever we have at our disposal. As above, the integrity of the garment is our top priority. If we believe there is a risk to the item, but a chance to remove the stain, we will seek your permission to proceed first.