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There are special leather liquid spot and stain removers that are safe to use to remove spots and stains when drycleaning suedes and leathers just as there are spotters for cloth items.

The spotters made for use on cloth are not usually designed to be used on suede and leather as they will have a harmful effect on the leather skins. They will usually result in color loss and hardening of the skins.

The only liquid stain and spot remover chemicals that should ever be allowed to directly contact suedes and leathers are those that are designed specifically for use on suedes and leathers. Any other spotters will usually result in an unnecessary damage claim.

Unlike spotters manufactured for use on cloth items, some leather spotters are made to be used on both leathers and cloth.

This simplifies the spotting procedures in that the same spotting agent can be used for both the leather and the cloth portions of the leather or suede instead of having to use two spotting agents — one for the leather portions and another for the cloth portions.

Prespotting water soluble spots and stains

To loosen and dissolve water-soluble spots and stains such as perspiration, beverages, food, blood and for general soil removal from items before cleaning, it will be necessary to use a specially formulated safe leather product designed to remove waterborne spots and stains.

Ideally, use of a prespotter specifically formulated for use on suede, leather, fur and trimmed cloth items will not remove colors or harden the skins while at the same time being highly effective on the cloth portions of suede, leather and fur items.

This color safe prespotter should be a liquid product that can be applied to any type of suede, leather, fur with a cloth lining or cloth trim by spraying it on any soiled or stained areas using a hand held trigger sprayer, a pressure tank sprayer, the spotting gun sprayer (without any steam) or with a spray gun.

This prespotter should be most effective on suede, leather, fur and cloth when applied full strength.

When used on cloth only, the prespotter may be mixed with water in a ratio of up to four parts water and one part prespotter.

Apply the prespotter liberally to the stained or soiled area of the suede, leather, fur or cloth before cleaning.

Mechanical action may be applied with a bone or spotting spatula or by using a dedicated suede or leather spotting brush. The amount of mechanical action applied depends on how delicate the skin is that is being prespotted.

The ideal leather prespotter should be formulated so that it may be allowed to dry on the suede or leather before it is cleaned or it may be cleaned while still wet when the leather cleaning system is conditioned with a specially formulated detergent conditioner, which will emulsify the prespotter while it conditions the drycleaning fluid to prevent color loss or stiffening of the skin.

Thus, the suede or leather item that has been spotted with the leather prespotter may be cleaned either wet, immediately after it is prespotted, or after it has dried.

With such products, leather can be cleaned whenever it is convenient for the operator.

However, for heavily soiled items it is good practice to wait at least a half-hour before cleaning. This will allow the chemicals in the leather prespotter time to work to loosen the soil and stains before cleaning.

Since this special leather prespotter allows the suedes or leathers to be cleaned immediately or later in the day, the following day or even several days later, it permits considerable scheduling flexibility in the prespotting portion of the leather cleaning process.

For example, if the prespotter is used at the end of the day, it may not be convenient to clean the leather at that time, but it may be cleaned the next day after it has dried.

So, if the actual leather cleaning is to be done only once or twice a week, the prespotting can be done at any time it is convenient for the operator during the week, as time permits.

However, furs spotted with prespotter should be allowed to air dry thoroughly before cleaning to protect the delicate fur skin from damage.

Prespotting of heavily soiled suedes, leathers and cloth combinations can also be accomplished inside the drycleaning machine by adding a specially formulated leather soil release batch additive to the load in the drycleaning machine.

Such a batch additive can be injected into the machine if it has an injector.

It can also be poured into or metered into the machine by using a graduated dispenser bottle filled with the batch additive after loading the heavily soiled articles into the drum and before closing the door and starting the cleaning cycle.

The obvious advantage of using a soil release batch additive is that it makes a reality of the cleaner’s dream and lets the machine do the work of spot and stain removal on heavily soiled items. This saves time and labor otherwise spent applying prespotter to the garment and applying mechanical action by scrubbing and tamping it with a spotting brush on the spotting board and then repeating the process and rerunning the load as many times as it takes to get the heavily spotted and stained item clean.

The soil release batch additive should also be formulated to be highly effective for releasing soils and stains from the cloth portions as well as from suede or leather portions of the item. This makes it especially useful for garments that combine cloth with suede or leather such as cloth items trimmed with suede and leather as well as suede and leather items with heavily soiled cloth linings.

The effectiveness of the specially formulated soil release batch additive on cloth portions of suede and leather trimmed garments makes it possible for it to be used to clean heavily soiled cloth items like heavily soiled tan rain coats in regular drycleaning.

That added dimension can result in significant savings in time and labor costs normally required for scrubbing and brushing heavily soiled items, the cost of the spotting chemicals used and the cost of utilities for rerunning the cleaning machine to reclean them.

The beauty of a soil release batch additive is that it can remove heavy soil from suede, leather and cloth combinations in the machine without causing color loss, dye bleeding, stiffening of the skins or contamination of the system.

The soil release batch additive, as its name implies, is used on a batch cleaning cycle to release soil from the garment into suspension in the cleaning fluid.

A batch cleaning cycle permits the soil release batch additive to work in concentrated form with minimal dilution in the cleaning fluid for maximum soil removal during the batch cleaning cycle.

This means that as little as one ounce of soil release per ten pounds of dry weight of items being cleaned can do the job of removing heavy soil and stains in the drycleaning machine, in approximately five minutes of batch run time.

The soil release batch additive will result in the release of soil and stains from the garment and put them into suspension in the cleaning fluid which is then filtered or dumped to a still at the end of the five-minute batch run.

Batch cleaning means that the garments are cleaned in only a small portion of the drycleaning fluid that the drycleaning machine holds.

In older machines, batch cleaning means placing the garment and soil release batch additive in the drycleaning machine, then filling the wheel to a low level with drycleaning fluid. The pump is turned off before the drycleaning fluid flows over the level control device into the button trap.

The garments are then cleaned for five minutes in the small amount of drycleaning fluid in the wheel containing the soil release batch additive. Then the pump is turned back on and the cleaning cycle is completed as usual.

For best results, the filter should be by-passed for the batch wash cycle.

On many machines, the soil release batch additive may be injected automatically into the drum at the start of the cycle and the drycleaning fluid then filtered or dropped to a still at the end of the batch cycle.

The drycleaning fluid used with the soil release batch additive for cleaning suedes, leathers and cloth combinations must also contain the proper concentration of a special leather cleaning detergent conditioner.

Spotting agents and batch additives other than those mentioned above are not normally formulated for use on leather and will not work the same as those made for use on leather. Spotters and batch additives made for use on cloth only should never to be used on suede, leather or fur as they will cause color loss, color bleed and stiffen or otherwise damage the leather skins.