Carpet shampoo

[Clk430benz]

What do you guys use on really dirty carpets and seats light gray color? I have a extractor to use just want to know best soap or cleaner. And of course tips

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[Stokdgs]

What year, make, model, vehicle are you going to do this to ?
Are the seats cloth or leather?
How dirty are the carpets ?
What make Extractor do you have? Are you very good with it ?

I use a Meguiars APC that is no longer available except I think in 55-gallon drums if that...

The next best APC is probably this one - Meguiars Detailer D101 All Purpose Cleaner

You can mix this 10:1 for light work and 4:1 for heavier soiled cleaning...

I would vacuum really, really, good, using a stiff brush to move the fibers around to get as much dirt out of the bottom of the carpeting as possible..

Then, spray the mixed cleaner on the carpet, adding extra to the really dirty places. Try to use as Little soap as possible to get the level of cleaning you need... Don`t go crazy here - remember, you still have to rinse it all out and extract it...

Then, scrub it in with a TuffShine Tire Brush -- TUF SHINE Tire Brush

Now, when you brush carpeting and floor mats, you have to be careful to - Not - change the pile, so dont go crazy hard here, start off in 1 direction, then another, checking to make sure you dont change the way the carpet bloom looked before you started..

Then, using the Extractor with only clean heated water, key the tool over the areas pressing down firmly to get the water as deep as possible.

How fast you go or how slow you go injects less water or more water, so think about this before you start..

Do 1 extractor width tool line at a time, going back and forth..

If it looks like you have all the soap out, then just keep going over the rinsed areas - a lot - with the extractor tool to pull up as much moist, dirty water as possible... The more you extract, the cleaner the carpets will be.. The cleaner the carpets are, the Cleaner the vehicle will smell...

If you dont get all the dirty soapy water out, the carpets may dry either hard, and not look great, or may dry and get very dirty very quickly, because the soap left in the fibers will attract dirt and hold on to it..

When you are done with all the Interior carpeting, carpeted mats and Trunk carpeting, you should have a huge amount of dark brown water in the Recovery Tank of your extractor...

I always get 4+ gallons of dark brown, dirty water in my Extractor recovery tank, and it still amazes me that this much dirt came out of such a small area..

If the seats you referred to are Cloth, then it`s the same process I outlined above..
Just be more careful - some cloth is not very strong if its old and might loosen up or do weird stuff..
Be even more careful how much soap you use, because you have to rinse it all out and extract it all out, so you dont want to get it stuck in the foam too deep..

Some foams - especially German Seat Foams - will soak up water and NOT want to let you extract it all out Easily... So be careful if its a German car..
Good Luck !
Dan F

[Lonnie]

I will second Stkdog`s suggestion to brush-&-vacuum, brush-&-vacuum, and vacuum some more. It`s ALOT easier to remove DRY carpet and seat fabric debris with a vacuum that when it`s wet (and heavier) and try to extract it. Also, carpet floor mats, if you have them, are easier to clean when you remove them from the vehicle if you turn them over, fabric-side down on a hard surface floor, and beat-and-shake them and then vacuum THE FLOOR of the loosened sand-and-dirt and repeat this several times. You are using gravity as an aid to allow the deep debris to fall out. You`d be surprised at how much sand-and-dirt a carpet floor mat can hold and at how many times this must be done until you get very little dirt to fall out. THEN vacuum the floor mat fabric face-up. You`ll NEVER get all that deeply seated dirt out by just vacuuming a floor mat face-up by itself.

One suggestion I would make is in cleaning cloth seats that you do NOT dip brush in a water -&-soap mix and then try to brush the seat cloths with it: you will soak the seats too much and it makes it difficult to dry because the foam under the cloth will soak it up. My suggestion is to use microfiber cloth dipped in the water-&-soap solution, wring it out until it seems drier (IE; doesn`t drip a lot) and THEN use that to wipe the seat cloths. You can follow with a brush (not dipped in anything, of course) and scrub as needed if it is REALLY dirty.
Another detailing trick is to NEVER spray an APC directly on the carpet or seat INSIDE the car: The mist scatters into places that hard to reach and may be difficult to clean later. This is very true for concourse show or collector cars. Now for extremely dirty daily drivers, I spray inside as needed. In fact many interior cleaners are aerosol-type cans that are meant to spray directly at the surface being cleaned.

As far as soaps/cleaners to be used with an extractor, you do need to be somewhat careful as high-foaming soaps that are good for hand use (IE, brush application and wipe dry with a towel/microfiber) are NOT good for an extractor. Most carpet stores have carpet chemicals that are also low-foaming and extractor-friendly. The company Chem-Spec comes to mind. I`m using carpet chemicals made by DSC Products, Inc; Muskegon, MI, recommended by a local carpet place that sells Persian rugs and high-end wool carpets. If it`s good enough for those type of carpet fabrics, it`s good enough for my car.

[Accumulator]

Most carpet stores have carpet chemicals that are also low-foaming and extractor-friendly. The company Chem-Spec comes to mind..

Places that cater to Pro Carpet Cleaning/maintenance service industry often have ChemSpec, and their Pre-Spotter product (forget the actual name) works well IME.

For certain specific stains it pays to have the specific chemicals: coffee, blood, red-pigmented stains, etc. Therea are lots of special cleaners that just sit on the shelf until that moment when you really do need `em.

[Shadwell]

Just one other trick not mentioned is the use of an orbital sander with no paper to vibrate the dirt up out of the pile..
Living near the coast this works well on sand.. lifts it to the top of the pile.. then vacumn it.. do this 2-3 times... (by then the worst of it is up and little more comes up.. I have found to be quicker than the shampoo rinse repeat 3 or so times... initially.. arguably it keeps thing dryer too so less drying time and chance of a damp smell afterwards..
I often finish off with a single pass on the extractor..

[Stokdgs]

Shadwell -
The Random Orbital has been mentioned in the past - thanks for bringing it back up !

I believe they make an attachment with brushes for the random orbital to use on carpeting..

Just have to be careful if using a brush attachment to not damage the sometimes not very strong piles of some carpets..

Some automotive carpets are also so industrial-strong that its almost impossible to hurt them OR get anything stuck in them out...

Yes ! Sand = nothing worse to remove out of any carpeting..
Dan F

[Shadwell]

Yeah, i saw the tip on here a year ago or so... previous to that i had mats upside down and smacked them.. but carpets was always a PITA
You`re righttoo, the pile issue is really specific, some are tough short pile dense, some feel like they have alopecia, and some are like kids hair, knotted with god knows what stuck in it.. i don`t go too hard with the stiff brush treatment as it does seem to pull the pile and fuzz it up... and not in a good way..

I`d take sand over vomit and or chewing gum though ....

[ShaneB]

I only extract when absolutely necessary. The less water I need to introduce into the car the better. For most of my details I will vacuum very well, spray the area with an encapsulating carpet cleaner (poorboys just came out with a new one) and scrub the area well with a brush. The cleaner lifts the dirt/stains out of the fabric and prevents it from reattaching to the material. Once dry you just vacuum the area well. This method works very well only in areas where there is no reservoir. Meaning a dried stain that`s mostly on the surface. Otherwise you`ll need to extract to remove the extra stuff causing the stain. Tougher stains will get pre treated with Folex or a similar type of cleaner (spray and blot up). I also use my steamer to scrub the area as well to help break up tougher stains.

A heated extractor is always going to be your best bet though to clean upholstery. I just wanted to share my method as I don`t have a heated unit currently

[Accumulator]

Regarding brushes on oribitals, the Cyclo is *extremely* effective when eqpipped with brushes, whole `nother ballgame compared to something like the PC/GG6.