i've tried tough stuff and resolve and they work alright i guess but sometimes i have to go back and spray the areas 2 or 3 times before the spot will finally come out. and i'd say a good 50% of the time they will just fade the spots but not clean them. there has to be something better out there. any suggestions?
what to clean carpet and floor mats with?
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use rubber floor mats and you won't have this problem....turtlewax carpet cleaner is pretty good
Bissell little green machine.
JTK
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I had good luck using silicone spray with a clean rag to remove tough stains from automotive carpeting.
Originally Posted By: Caliberguy
use rubber floor mats and you won't have this problem....turtlewax carpet cleaner is pretty good
there's still areas that the floor mats don't entirely cover up. i'll give turtle wax a shot though
use rubber floor mats and you won't have this problem....turtlewax carpet cleaner is pretty good
there's still areas that the floor mats don't entirely cover up. i'll give turtle wax a shot though
Originally Posted By: Trav
Bissell little green machine.
+1 if you're serious about detailing your vehicle's interior. Also, for household spills, I wouldn't be without one...cheap insurance.
Bissell little green machine.
+1 if you're serious about detailing your vehicle's interior. Also, for household spills, I wouldn't be without one...cheap insurance.
The machines you rent at the grocery store are available with an upholstery attachment - they are great for steam cleaning the entire interior.
I have also had excellent results with a bucket of warm water and a little Tide, a soft scrub brush and a shop vac or old bath towel to extract the water.
I have also had excellent results with a bucket of warm water and a little Tide, a soft scrub brush and a shop vac or old bath towel to extract the water.
Originally Posted By: Hallmark
Originally Posted By: Trav
Bissell little green machine.
+1 if you're serious about detailing your vehicle's interior. Also, for household spills, I wouldn't be without one...cheap insurance.
+2 I'd never heard of this little wonder until reading recommendations for it on BITOG. I bought a used one for only $30 because the water heater on it didn't work. I just fill it up with water that's been heated on the stove top and it works like a charm.
Originally Posted By: Trav
Bissell little green machine.
+1 if you're serious about detailing your vehicle's interior. Also, for household spills, I wouldn't be without one...cheap insurance.
+2 I'd never heard of this little wonder until reading recommendations for it on BITOG. I bought a used one for only $30 because the water heater on it didn't work. I just fill it up with water that's been heated on the stove top and it works like a charm.
Always had good luck with Blue Coral Upholstry cleaner. Pink liquid in a windex type bottle
I just did this yesterday. My car is a 1998 daily driver and I'm still using the original cloth floor mats in the summers. The dents from the driver's heels are only slightly worse than when I bought the car in 2001. The point being - they look pretty darn good for 13 years of daily use (5 of those with kids).
I use Oxiclean in hot water and a shopvac. After some reading at Autopia I also added compressed air (i.e. shop air with a blow attachment) to the process with positive results.
For mats out of the car:
1/ vacuum
2/ blow compressed air to loosen the nap, concentrate on any highly soiled areas
3/ vacuum
4/ wet with oxiclean mixture
5/ move mixture through the carpet fibers with a stiff nylon brush. You are "massaging" and working the liquid all through the mat.
6/ vacuum the dirty oxiclean mixture from the carpet
7/ wet with garden hose - medium flow, medium pressure
8/ move/massage the clean rinse water through the fibers with the same brush
9/ vacuum the rinse water out of the carpet
10/ fluff with compressed air
In the car I followed almost the same procedure with a couple of exceptions:
- more dwell time and finger massaging is required in any areas crusted with road salt, like around the base of the accelerator pedal. You may need lots of hot water with or without oxiclean to bring all of the salt into solution
- I did still use the garden hose, but I used a nozzle which could severly restrict the flow into a narrow stream. Low flow, low pressure, narrow stream. This is the interior of the car and you don't want to go crazy.
- don't forget to wash the upholstered sides of the "foot compartment" and not just the floor.
- greasy/oily stains will require a different approach using a detergent and/or spot remover.
The mats can obviously dry in the sun. Park the car in the sun, windows cracked, to speed drying. Greasy
I use Oxiclean in hot water and a shopvac. After some reading at Autopia I also added compressed air (i.e. shop air with a blow attachment) to the process with positive results.
For mats out of the car:
1/ vacuum
2/ blow compressed air to loosen the nap, concentrate on any highly soiled areas
3/ vacuum
4/ wet with oxiclean mixture
5/ move mixture through the carpet fibers with a stiff nylon brush. You are "massaging" and working the liquid all through the mat.
6/ vacuum the dirty oxiclean mixture from the carpet
7/ wet with garden hose - medium flow, medium pressure
8/ move/massage the clean rinse water through the fibers with the same brush
9/ vacuum the rinse water out of the carpet
10/ fluff with compressed air
In the car I followed almost the same procedure with a couple of exceptions:
- more dwell time and finger massaging is required in any areas crusted with road salt, like around the base of the accelerator pedal. You may need lots of hot water with or without oxiclean to bring all of the salt into solution
- I did still use the garden hose, but I used a nozzle which could severly restrict the flow into a narrow stream. Low flow, low pressure, narrow stream. This is the interior of the car and you don't want to go crazy.
- don't forget to wash the upholstered sides of the "foot compartment" and not just the floor.
- greasy/oily stains will require a different approach using a detergent and/or spot remover.
The mats can obviously dry in the sun. Park the car in the sun, windows cracked, to speed drying. Greasy
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An extractor or dousing the carpet as described above will remove an amazing amount of sand, dirt and other filth. Canned carpet cleaners can't touch what water can do, and in the case of cloth seats, I prefer a strong wash to remove all the phart residue.
I'd add:
-make sure water doesn't overtop holes in the carpet, like seat mounting points. The carpet is rubber-backed and designed to get wet, but getting the padding underneath wet is not good. Car companies like to mount computers in stupid places, so keep an eye out, esp under seats.
- plan on having a plan to dry the carpet. Leave the windows at least cracked, run a fan, leave it in a garage, run the heater on high for a few hours, or any combination of the above will keep molds from sprouting.
- if there is staining that cleaning will not resolve, esp on a light color, then go get yourself a can of dye. Yeah, it's a sleazy dealer trick, but it works great and makes it look *new*
I'd add:
-make sure water doesn't overtop holes in the carpet, like seat mounting points. The carpet is rubber-backed and designed to get wet, but getting the padding underneath wet is not good. Car companies like to mount computers in stupid places, so keep an eye out, esp under seats.
- plan on having a plan to dry the carpet. Leave the windows at least cracked, run a fan, leave it in a garage, run the heater on high for a few hours, or any combination of the above will keep molds from sprouting.
- if there is staining that cleaning will not resolve, esp on a light color, then go get yourself a can of dye. Yeah, it's a sleazy dealer trick, but it works great and makes it look *new*
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Originally Posted By: RTexasF
Folex (Wal-Mart) and a scrub brush.
^This. I've never tried/heard of Folex until this Spring. Someone suggested it on autogeek to remove salt stains in carpet. It's the only thing that worked for me. I tried Megs Quick Out, Blue Corral Foam, Duragloss FC, and none removed the hardened salt stains on my new carpet. They helped some, but not 100%. I picked up Folex from HD. Directions state to work in with your fingers. I figured if it was safe enough to get on my skin, it would be OK on my carpet. It removed all my salt stains with ease.
Folex (Wal-Mart) and a scrub brush.
^This. I've never tried/heard of Folex until this Spring. Someone suggested it on autogeek to remove salt stains in carpet. It's the only thing that worked for me. I tried Megs Quick Out, Blue Corral Foam, Duragloss FC, and none removed the hardened salt stains on my new carpet. They helped some, but not 100%. I picked up Folex from HD. Directions state to work in with your fingers. I figured if it was safe enough to get on my skin, it would be OK on my carpet. It removed all my salt stains with ease.
Originally Posted By: kkreit01
Originally Posted By: RTexasF
Folex (Wal-Mart) and a scrub brush.
^This. I've never tried/heard of Folex until this Spring. Someone suggested it on autogeek to remove salt stains in carpet. It's the only thing that worked for me. I tried Megs Quick Out, Blue Corral Foam, Duragloss FC, and none removed the hardened salt stains on my new carpet. They helped some, but not 100%. I picked up Folex from HD. Directions state to work in with your fingers. I figured if it was safe enough to get on my skin, it would be OK on my carpet. It removed all my salt stains with ease.
So does warm water (seriously). I'm not sure why people's first thought to remove water-soluable salt is chemicals...
Originally Posted By: RTexasF
Folex (Wal-Mart) and a scrub brush.
^This. I've never tried/heard of Folex until this Spring. Someone suggested it on autogeek to remove salt stains in carpet. It's the only thing that worked for me. I tried Megs Quick Out, Blue Corral Foam, Duragloss FC, and none removed the hardened salt stains on my new carpet. They helped some, but not 100%. I picked up Folex from HD. Directions state to work in with your fingers. I figured if it was safe enough to get on my skin, it would be OK on my carpet. It removed all my salt stains with ease.
So does warm water (seriously). I'm not sure why people's first thought to remove water-soluable salt is chemicals...
I have one of those little carpet cleaners. Bissel brand...it works fine. However the best thing I have ever used on floor mats and synthetic fiber carpet is Meguiars Quick-Out. Spray it on, wipe it off....rarely need a brush, the agitation from a rag when you wipe it off is typically enough. I used to detail semi-professionally, and went through a good deal of carpet solutions. Quick-Out is still my fav.
However, when dealing with light colored cloth seats, I prefer my Bissel extractor, as unlike carpets and floor mats, cloth seats absorb stains and they need to be extracted from the fabric. Quick-Out works if you have a good microfiber rag and blot, but the extractor is much faster.
However, when dealing with light colored cloth seats, I prefer my Bissel extractor, as unlike carpets and floor mats, cloth seats absorb stains and they need to be extracted from the fabric. Quick-Out works if you have a good microfiber rag and blot, but the extractor is much faster.
All of the recomendations mentioned above are great!
The reason I use floor mats is to keep my carpets cleaner.
So, when it comes time to clean the carpets themselves, it's only spot removing and hot water/mild soap.
The carpeted floor mats themselves, I take right out into the driveway, hose them down and scrub with mild soap and a scrub brush if needed, then again hose the snot out of them to rince. I also let them hang over a lawn chair on a hot day to dry(all day).
The reason I use floor mats is to keep my carpets cleaner.
So, when it comes time to clean the carpets themselves, it's only spot removing and hot water/mild soap.
The carpeted floor mats themselves, I take right out into the driveway, hose them down and scrub with mild soap and a scrub brush if needed, then again hose the snot out of them to rince. I also let them hang over a lawn chair on a hot day to dry(all day).
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Originally Posted By: Falcon_LS
I throw my carpet floor mats in the washing machine at 40 C. Turn out great when they dry.
+1. Quick and easy. Does a better job than I could do with a steam cleaner.
I throw my carpet floor mats in the washing machine at 40 C. Turn out great when they dry.
+1. Quick and easy. Does a better job than I could do with a steam cleaner.
I use a solution of warm water and Simple Green Carpet cleaner with a stiff nylon scrub brush. Then wet-vac
That's mainly because I have the cleaner already. Probably, any 2-butoxyethanol cleaner will work. Greased Lightning, regular Simple Green, Mean Green, etc...
Then there's the car-detailer trick I learned from my time installing asset-protection/recovery devices at the tote-the-note lot. Suavitel. The detailer would make a very dilute solution of Suavitel fabric softener and water. Spray down the mats, carpets, cloth seats...etc...then vacuum again.
I thought it would spot the upholstery for sure or make it more prone to future stains but it doesn't do either. Trick is to use a very dilute solution....mostly water. Too much and it will leave spots and the smell will overpower you.
I think we sold half of the velour interiored cars we had just because they were soft, clean, and smelled lightly of "aroma de Sol"
I'm still convinced it made the carpet softer in more premium cars.
Your results may vary. Test on an inconspicuous spot first.
That's mainly because I have the cleaner already. Probably, any 2-butoxyethanol cleaner will work. Greased Lightning, regular Simple Green, Mean Green, etc...
Then there's the car-detailer trick I learned from my time installing asset-protection/recovery devices at the tote-the-note lot. Suavitel. The detailer would make a very dilute solution of Suavitel fabric softener and water. Spray down the mats, carpets, cloth seats...etc...then vacuum again.
I thought it would spot the upholstery for sure or make it more prone to future stains but it doesn't do either. Trick is to use a very dilute solution....mostly water. Too much and it will leave spots and the smell will overpower you.
I think we sold half of the velour interiored cars we had just because they were soft, clean, and smelled lightly of "aroma de Sol"
Your results may vary. Test on an inconspicuous spot first.
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