Do you know how to choose a stain remover for your favorite furniture? Not really? Then here’s a tutorial on which product is the best to take, how to pick the best solution, what to pay attention to … and so on.
I will tell you what the selection of stain removers for upholstered furniture looks like through the eyes of a mobile dry cleaner expert with over 12 years of experience.
What is stain removal
It all starts with the question “What is cleaning?”. In the understanding of a specialist in the cleaning of upholstered furniture, cleaning is a complex of physical and chemical treatments aimed at removing dirt in order to restore some consumer qualities (appearance, smell, tactile parameters).
Cleaning aims to remove common dirt. And they rarely have an intense character, so cleaning as a whole is a rather delicate procedure.
A stain, in turn, is a pollution characterized by high visibility due to the accumulation of a large amount of pollutant and / or due to the high visibility of such a pollutant. This means that, at best, the stain requires more thorough cleaning in the same way and with the same chemistry used for general cleaning of the product. But it often happens that the stain-forming product is such that it requires special treatment.
In this case, we say that the stain is a high intensity cleaning.
An increased intensity of cleaning during stain removal is achieved by increasing the effect of cleaning factors – the intensity of chemical exposure, the intensity of mechanical action, an increase in temperature or an increase in processing time.
This is true if we are talking about the planned removal of stains. In addition to this, there is also emergency stain removal – this is a set of measures (physical, chemical and chemical-physical effects aimed not only, and not so much, at eliminating the stain, but at preventing the adhesion of the staining product with the product or collecting the staining product until its properties change – until it dries, hardens) until the stain adheres to the upholstery.
I understand that it is a little difficult, but if I paint it in detail, it will turn out to be a lot of text.
I can give you an example that will clearly “show” what I am writing. Such an example is a milk stain. Fresh milk from the upholstery is washed off with a washing vacuum cleaner with any typical upholstery cleaner suitable for working with a washing vacuum cleaner! But … if the milk was absorbed and sour inside the upholstery and filler, curd formed there, it dried well and turned into homemade Parmesan … In general, I hope that the owner of such a sofa likes the noble smell of cheese.
Classification of furniture stain removers
Thus, in the eyes of a dry-cleaner of upholstered furniture, there are two types of stain removal:
- emergency, which is carried out immediately after pollution;
- scheduled, which is carried out during general cleaning.
Accordingly, preparations, stain removers for upholstered furniture, can be divided into two large groups:
- stain removers for emergency response, designed for housewives or maids, as safe as possible, do not require an understanding of cleaning processes, fiber properties, dirt, and so on;
- furniture stain remover for professional or semi-professional use, for removing stubborn stains in the process of cleaning upholstered furniture.
“Household” stain removers
Usually the stain removers that fall into the first group are products sold with a spray, ready-to-use, and leave a non-sticky coating when they dry. They are non-corrosive, usually pH neutral, and can remain on the upholstery indefinitely without harming it.
Among them there is very little variety in purpose and principles of work.
Firstly, diversity introduces confusion, and secondly, it is difficult to make very different formulations for drugs, the meaning, the essence, if you like, the philosophy of which boils down to a simple formula: do not harm, sorb pollution, prevent dirt from adhering to fiber.
Here it is necessary to make a reservation, we mean that furniture, furniture upholstery is generally subject to wet, damp treatments.
Among the stain removers from TM Wieberr for today, June 16, 2021, there are no stain removers for maids. Although, there are thoughts of creating just this kind of universal stain remover for emergency response and removal of fresh stains. And if you are reading this article much later, check in the “Products“ section, maybe such a stain remover has already appeared in the range.
Furniture stain remover, for professionals and conscious hobbyists
Деление пятновыводителей для полноценной плановой чистки намного сложнее. Очень грубо и поверхностно пятновыводители можно разделить на:
alkaline stain removers – contain surfactants, alkalis, complexing agents and other useful additives. Usually they cope well with fats and proteins, respectively, and remove mixtures based on them. Also such compositions are well suited for softening dirt containing polysaccharides that make up fruit and vegetable purees, vegetable fibers themselves, starch, and so on. The higher the pH of such stain removers, the more caustic the alkali in them, the more effective they are against the listed stains, the better they remove stains. But any coin has a downside – aggressiveness towards upholstery materials, when the higher the pH and the more caustic components (for example, sodium hydroxide), the higher the risks of all sorts of side effects.
The range of Wieberr products in Ukraine includes the Scaria Cleaner stain remover.
Although this stain remover belongs to the group of alkaline, the pH of the concentrate is 13, it nevertheless has moderate aggressiveness due to the fact that less caustic alkaline agents are used as alkaline agents in it than in analogues;
solvent based stain removers – contain a significant percentage of solvents and the stain remover relies on the dissolving effects of susceptible dirt. May contain water-miscible or immiscible solvents. Well suited for removing fats, oil products, “leave-in” cosmetics, paints and so on. The same gum is also removed using solvent-based stain removers. Again, it can be said that the most effective drugs are also the most aggressive, on average.
If we give examples of drugs from this group, then TM Wieberr has several such drugs. These include Grease Eliminator – a terpene-based preparation that is delicate for typical upholstered furniture materials, but very effective for various fats, oils, paints, and Textile Paint Remover – a more aggressive preparation that is best suited for removing stains from upholstery, in which are not polyester;
stain removers, discoloration of dirt. The chemistry here is more varied – these are mixtures of acids for removing rust and some dyes, and mixtures based on hydrogen peroxide and / or organic peracids – for bleaching a wide range of dyes, the same preparations, but based on peroxide salts … This is the most difficult group to master. stain removers, it includes the most aggressive chemicals, but they can also be used if the instructions are followed carefully!
Again, to be more specific, among the Wieberr stain removers there is Rust Remover – a stain remover for removing rust, converting it into a soluble and easily washable form. Hydra is a reducing agent capable of delicately decolouring vegetable dyes. Powder Cleaner is a harsh oxygen-based stain remover capable of decolouring a wide range of colorants.
Typically, stain removers are formulated in such a way that some ingredients enhance others, or create an overall beneficial effect. For example, there are many stain removers where solvents are mixed with anti-resorbent surfactants to reduce the likelihood that dissolved stain product will settle on the fibers around the stain during the cleaning process. In alkaline products, surfactants can serve as a kind of “transport” (in fact, the mechanism is more complicated here, who are interested – read about the effect of surfactants on wetting), which ensures the penetration of alkali into smaller pores.
The components themselves that make up one or another stain remover, as already mentioned above, differ in their properties, of course, that mixtures based on them are also different.
For this reason, in the listed groups there are many similar stain removers, the work of which is still different, and there are subgroups. It often happens that even from one manufacturer 2-3 stain removers fall into one group.
How to choose a proper stain remover for furniture?
No matter how trite it may be, you need to choose a stain remover for furniture like this:
- Understand what you are going to clean – what kind of furniture upholstery, what it is made of. It is advisable to study the accompanying documents.
- Remember that there are times when stain remover works for one upholstery and not for another.
- Understand what kind of pollution you have – what the stain consists of. For fats, proteins, sugars, alkaline stain removers are needed. To remove stains from paints, varnishes, ballpoint pens, oil products – solvent-based stain removers. Dye stains will require a bleach product.
- Study the instructions. The instructions should indicate why and how to use this stain remover – for which fibers, surfaces it is suitable, and for which not, and for which dirt it is focused on eliminating. There should also be, at least in a framework, the composition for the stain remover and the pH level for water-based stain removers (any aqueous solution has a pH).
- Once again, study the instructions and make sure that you can technologically perform all the operations specified in the instructions for the stain remover. In particular, most of the stain removers must be thoroughly washed off the surface, some require neutralization with certain means in order to eliminate the remainder of aggressive components on the fiber.
Good manufacturers not only print instructions on the label, but also post instructions on their websites, in languages convenient for buyers.
And the best ones create video instructions for use or provide online technological support for products.
In particular, the Ukrainian manufacturer of stain removers for furniture Wieberr invites everyone to test any furniture stain remover.
Also you are welcome to join our Telegram chat, or Viberr chat where specialists with extensive experience communicate, and where you can get advice on removing stains or using products. You can also get advice from technologists and sales specialists using contact form on the site.
