Dry Cleaning At Home Review. Dryel VS Woolite

I have to be honest, sometimes I don't check the cleaning instructions tag on clothing before I purchase it. But really, who has time to do that anyway? I will always wash clothing before I wear it. I don't care if I just purchased it from the store with the tag on, I still will wash it. More often than not, I end up frustrated because the tag says, "Dry Clean Only". I end up having to wait until I have enough for a trip to the dry cleaners, or they never get worn. Sometimes I actually don't read the tag and I throw them in the washing machine, but I have learned my lesson to always read the instructions first. I've gotten pretty good at eye balling what kind of material needs to be dry cleaned, and which ones won't. But I'm not perfect. 

I recently purchased a wool coat in preparation of the upcoming seasons; when it arrived, I realized that it was dry clean only. I didn't want to make another trip to the cleaners, not to mention the money being spent. But one day, I was browsing Target and ran across a product called Dryel. 

Dryel claims that it is a "dry clean at home" product, so I was pretty intrigued. I quickly threw it in my bag and brought it home with me. 

When I had gotten home, I opened the box. The contents of the box included a spot treatment spray, dry cleaning towelettes, and a bag. The instructions were pretty clear, you would pre-treat any stains, throw the clothing into the bag, and pop a dry cleaning towelette into the bag. You would then throw the bag into the dryer for 15 minutes, to refresh the clothing, or 30 minutes, for a deeper clean. It seemed easy enough, but there was one problem. Dryel didn't work on rayon or silk. Considering the fact that most of my clothing was made out of silk and rayon, this was going to be a problem. 

I didn't give up there, though. I had also discovered Woolite's "dry cleaner's secret", which was also a dry clean at home treatment. 

This product was a little bit more difficult to find. I was able to get it on Amazon for $8.88. Dryel was $6.99 at Target. There were some differences between the two. Woolite didn't require a bag to put your clothing in, it only took 20 minutes, and there was no pre-treatment spray. I'm not too concerned with stains since I could simply use Shout! I also didn't really care for a bag, either. The thing that attracted me to this product was the fact that I could use it on rayon and silk. Score!

Here's where I put the two to the test. For Dryel, I put couple of Madewell sweaters, my new Express coat, a pair of Joe's jeans, and a Ralph Lauren top made out of rayon that I didn't care too much for just to see how it would do. I tossed that into the dryer and ran its cycle.

For Woolite, I put in all of my rayon and silk clothes along with an Abercrombie cashmere cardigan. I threw those in the dryer and ran its cycle. 

Overall, I was pretty pleased with both products. Everything in the Dryel bag came out fine, even the rayon top. I feel like the clothes were cleaned and fresh. I got the same results with Woolite, but I felt that the Woolite batch smelled MUCH more fragrant than Dryel. To be honest, it was a little overbearing. I'm not sure what to do to fix it, but I'll probably use it less often. 

I don't think that I'll one over the other since they both had their differences. From now on though, I'll always dry clean my jeans at home with Dryel since it helps extend their lives a little longer. 

Have you tried any of these products? Let me know what you think.