Best car Upholstery Cleaners | for extractor or by hand cleaning
I want to share car upholstery cleaners that suit you best for deep cleaning your car carpet or textile floor mats. You can use them for local carpet cleaning, but most of these products are high volume and concentrated, so maybe for local cleaning is better to buy ready-to-use products that will be low volume and cheaper.
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How to use car upholstery cleaners?
To know how to make a deep cleaning of a car carpet, check our beginner’s guide to clean car carpets.
You can apply described cleaners with an extractor or spray the cleaner on the carpet, brush it, and remove the residue with a clean microfiber towel. Cleaning by hand is less effective because the extractor will collect more dirt from deeper places than a microfiber towel. If your carpet is dirty and has old stains use an extractor or dry/wet vacuum cleaner. Also, you can use it to deep clean fabric car seats.
What are the best car upholstery cleaners for 2024?
Meguiar’s Citrus Power Cleaner Plus
This cleaner is an all-purpose interior cleaner from a professional Meguiar’s line. The product is concentrated!
For carpet cleaning by hand, you should dilute it at 1:10, so for example, to 1 gallon of product, you need to add 10 gallons of distilled water. IMPORTANT! Before using this cleaner check: Meguiar’s directions for use to know in which proportion to dilute it.
My experience with this product was pleasant. No chemical smell, easy to work. When cleaning with a brush, it’s not foaming too much, as promised by Meguiar’s. The carpet I was cleaning did not have a lot of stains, but this cleaner made the carpet look cleaner and fresher. Following the reviews of the detailing community, it can remove hard stains without problems.
Koch-Chemie POL STAR
It is a professional product from a German car care company. A popular product in the detailing community loved for its effectiveness even with sensitive materials. For example, you can use it for Alcantara cleaning.
The benefit of POL STAR is a protective formula, so after you clean your carpet, it will have protection from getting dirty quickly. The key word is ”quickly”, don’t expect it to work as a specialized protector or a waterproof coating.
Check how to dilute on Koch-Chemie official website.
Chemical Guys FOAMING CITRUS FABRIC CLEAN
Concentrated product for cleaning car fabric that creates a decent amount of foam to float dirt particles on the carpet surface. It makes cleaning even with a microfiber towel way more effective. It smells fresh, works with old stains, and is safe to use, even for beginners. Check Chemical Guys how to use, to know how to dilute correctly before applying.
Adam’s Carpet & Upholstery Cleaner
It is the first ready-to-use product on our list. This cleaner will be a perfect solution for those who don’t want to dilute anything and use the product from the box.
Non-foaming formula, no smell. Works effectively with stains without risk of damaging the carpet’s surface.
Conclusion
For effective car carpet cleaning, I highly recommend using an extractor or dry/wet vacuum cleaner with an extractor nozzle. Every product on this list will be a perfect helper for interior cleaning, so stick up to your needs to pick the best for you.
For myself, the best solution is a highly effective product with the best price per gallon. For these criteria, the best option is Meguiar’s Citrus Power Cleaner Plus. I use it in 1:10 proportion, so with 1 Gallon bottle, I get 10 Gallons of effective carpet cleaner only for $21.99.
If the price per gallon doesn’t matter to you, and you need something easy to use and clean, use Adam’s Carpet & Upholstery Cleaner.
If you want to clean fabric only with a brush and microfiber towel, foamy Chemical Guys Fabric Cleaner will be better.
When sensitive interior surfaces are your concern, use Koch-Chemie Pol Star.
