How To Remove Old Stains From Upholstery?

Upholstery furniture develops stains over time. It could be due to some accidental spillage of beverage, or gradual staining due to everyday usage. In Singapore, you may rent an upholstery cleaner from us. Here we explain how you may remove the stains with our rental equipment - Bissell SpotClean Pro.

Picture: A customer's home sofa with stains accumulated through daily usage.

Bissell SpotClean Pro (Rental)

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Why are stains difficult to remove from your upholstery furniture?

In simple words, the stains have dried and set on your upholstery surface. To remove the stains, you need to "reverse" the staining process. This means to wet the surface again and try to "dissolve" the stains in your cleaning solution. After that, you will need to remove the dissolved stains from the upholstery surface. In the following we will explain how the stain removal can be done using our rental equipment.

Prepare your shampoo solution

You may use laundry detergent liquid as the shampoo solution. This is because the stains on the upholstery surface are more or less the same as those on the clothes. Hence a good laundry detergent liquid is able to wash away the stains on an upholstery furniture.

Step 1 - Shampoo wash your upholstery

Spray the shampoo solution over a small area to be washed. Gently brush over the wet area until soap foam is seen. After that, extract the shampoo solution with vacuum suction through the nozzle. Run least 3-5 shampoo passes to ensure good cleaning results.

REMINDER: Empty the "dirt water tank" before you refill the "clean water tank". Watch how to open the dirt water tank.

Step 2 - Rinsing your upholstery

This time round, use only water for rinsing. The main idea is to remove any shampoo residues using water. Run at least 3-5 rinse passes for each area.

REMINDER: Empty the "dirt water tank" before you refill the "clean water tank". Watch how to open the dirt water tank.

Step 3 - Drying your upholstery

Spraying is no longer required. Instead, try to remove water as much as possible using vacuum suction through the upholstery nozzle. For good vacuum suction, tilt the nozzle forward and gently press it down into the upholstery surface. Pull back the upholstery nozzle for for the water suction.

REMINDER: Empty the "dirt water tank" when its extracted water hit the "full line" mark on the tank. Watch how to open the dirt water tank.

Post-cleaning Steps

After the cleaning steps with the Bissell SpotClean Pro, the upholstery will be lightly wet. This is normal. To speed up the drying process, switch on ceiling fan and open the surrounding windows so high air flow can be sustained. You may expect drying in 3-6 hours.

Useful Tips

Shake the water + detergent solution for good mixing.
Tilt the nozzle forward, gently press it into the upholstery and pull it backward for good suction.
Check if the "full line" on the dirt water tank was reached. Empty the tank, otherwise the suction will be ineffective.
Use only home laundry detergent. DO NOT use flooring detergent or other aggressive detergent.
High air flow (ceiling fan level 3, window left open, etc) and sunlight to dry the sofa/upholstery fast.

Supporting Video: How to Open the Dirt Water Tank

You need to empty the dirt water tank when the dirt water hit the "full line" mark on the tank. As a good practice, do this whenever you are going to refill the clean water tank.
To open the dirt water tank: (1) Take out the dirt water tank. (2) Flip over the handle to the other side.
You can now remove the lid and dump the dirt water.
To close up the tank, simply reverse the actions: Put the lid back in place and flip over the handle to its original side.