Whether it’s a long drive or just a ride to shopping, you always want your car to be comfortable. But comfort doesn’t only mean how soft your car seats are, but it also means how clean they are. The outer surface faces pollution the most. But you can’t forget the interior too. Especially the seats face all the dirt and sweat from you.
But it’s not always so simple to do the job as you’ll get a head-full of opinion about the cleaning stuff. These will create even more questions in your mind. So, a common concern comes can you use a carpet cleaner on car seats? To know the answer and to decide for yourself just read on.
Can You Use A Carpet Cleaner On A Car Seat?
The way you keep things in a car, the way kids enjoy playing in it, it won’t be too much to say that you feel the car to be a mini home with wheels. So it gets dirty like home too. On top of that, it needs to be cleaned exactly like home.
Carpet cleaners are very efficient in cleaning. And, Yes, you can use a carpet cleaner for cleaning your car seats. But before going further to the cleaning process, you need to know the type of your car’s seat and the type of carpet cleaner as well.
Know The Material Of Your Car Seat Before Cleaning
As the exterior gets the dirt most, you need to clean it at least twice a month. While the interior should be cleaned once a month. And the car seats should be cleaned with the best care. So before cleaning the car seats, you need to know at least some details about your seats.
There are several types of car seats. Your car can be made of any of them. Different materials can tolerate different cleaning solutions, along with different machines. Going through a cleaning process without knowing what is suitable for your car seat can damage it. So first let’s know about a different type of seats-
Synthetic fabrics
- Nylon: The fibres of this fabric is made of synthetic plastics. These types of fabric are heat resistant, old age wear-resistant and stain-resistant too.
- Vinyl: PVC or Polyvinyl Chloride is commonly known as vinyl. This type of plastic made seats are flame resistant too.
- Polyester: These are durable fabrics as these are water and UV-resistant too.
Natural fabrics
- Faux leather: although these are called leather, that’s not the case. These are generally made up of PVC. So these fabrics give you the look of leather but, these are water-resistant too.
- Leather: It is known for the best quality and the costliest material for the car seat. So if you have this, you are afraid to ruin it by applying a wrong method of cleaning.
- Cloth: Cloth seats are not material that will be damaged by water. But it tends to absorb water.
Synthetic fibers are heat and water-resistant. That’s why you can use any cleaner that uses water or heat. The faux leather seats are almost similar to them. But the natural fabrics are different cases. On leather seats, you should not use water or heat too often as this can shrink the leather. But you can use a carpet cleaner, especially a steam cleaner.
On the other hand, cloth seats tend to soak moisture if too much water is used. If it soaks water and it is not dried properly, molds can set in the seats.
You Can Use Carpet Cleaner To Clean Different Types Car Seats
Steam cleaner
A steam cleaner generally uses only water to create steam and clean any stain or dirt from the part it’s applied on. But it has a different working effect on different seats.
How to use a steam cleaner for leather and cloth seats
Leather seats
if your car has a genuine leather sit and you want to clean it with a steam cleaner. Then you can do it without any tension as the leather used in car seats is a little different from other leather products. That’s why it is sometimes called car-leather.
In two ways, you can clean the car seat with a steam cleaner. No matter which step you follow, first you need to vacuum the seats thoroughly. No loose dirt or dust particle should be left. Then if you have a steamer with soft bristles, it would be best for the seat as it will not produce too much heat. You have to run the machine and steam the seats. Go for one seat at a time. Once you complete steaming the whole seat, you can see the dirt being loose and separated. Now, these types of steamers don’t have an extractor. So it can’t extract the dirty moisture from the seat. In that case, you can wipe it with a clean cloth.
Another steam cleaner is with an extractor. Although it’s not recommended, you can use it carefully. It just has the extractor to suck up the moisture along with all dirt. Now, with the machine, you need to be more careful. It produces more heat. So you can not run the machine too slow, as it will damage the leather. On the other hand, you can not run it too fast as it won’t clean the dirt properly.
Cloth seats
cloth seats can handle the heat of a steamer and the water. But it can soak the water in. So, in this case, you should use the steamer with the extractor. First you have to vacuum all the dust from the seat, similarly to every time you do before steaming anything. Then use the steamer slowly on the seat. You can use carpet cleaning foam in this case. Just follow the manufacturer’s instructions to know which foam you can use. Use the extractor simultaneously with the steamer so that no moisture can be soaked.
Shampooer
You can use shampooer on the synthetic fabric seats. But it’s not recommended for natural fabric seats. If you want to use shampoo on your car seat. You can do it manually. Like take a sprayer, make a shampoo solution and apply on the seat. After applying the solution rub it very well with a brush. Then rinse it. But the shampooer uses too much water, which you have to extract in time. Otherwise, it can harm both leather and cloth seats.
Conclusion
Carpet cleaners are an excellent option to clean car interiors. Especially the carpet and car seats. If you know your seat types properly and you can use the cleaners accordingly, you can be a pro too. You won’t need to take the car to any professional every time you feel like cleaning it. But you need to dry the seats very well. Or the leather can be damaged by the moisture. Even the cloth seats can grow moulds. Just do the cleaning on a sunny day and keep it in a sunny place for a quality of time.