Carpet cleaner -

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decibel

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#317487 21-Oct-2024 13:20

Many years ago, Consumer had an item in their magazine about spot cleaners for carpet. The really interesting part was they mixed up their own recipe and, lo and behold, it turned out to be the best product and over the years, held its own against commercial products.

I promptly followed the recipe and can confirm that it was an excellent cleaner.

Now however, in shifting from one house to another, I have lost the recipe and as I am no longer a Consumer member, I cannot access their website to try to find it.

I think it contained white vinegar, wool-mix and green dish-washing liquid amongst other things.

Do any of you wonderful people know more about this or maybe, if a Consumer member, could look on their website amongst their archive?

Wakrak

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#3299462 21-Oct-2024 13:25

Is this it?

Consumer Homemade Carpet cleaner: Mix 2 Tbls Dishwashing liquid, 3 Tbls White Vinegar, 1/4 cup Water. Work into stain. Blot dry with clean towel.

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Consumer NZ says vinegar and baking soda mix beats commercial cleaners | Stuff

decibel

317 posts

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#3299465 21-Oct-2024 13:35

Aarrggh ! This is what I get when I am not on Facebook and have deleted that horrible Stuff Android app - actually, I have abandoned Stuff everywhere.

Thank you very much for the great response; only 5 minutes!

neb

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#3299469 21-Oct-2024 14:10

decibel: The really interesting part was they mixed up their own recipe and, lo and behold, it turned out to be the best product and over the years, held its own against commercial products.

It's either surprising, or not surprising, depending on your point of view, how often this is the case. A couple of years ago I wrote to them and asked them to add using plain water to their cleaning-product tests as a control. Not only were there a lot of products that barely better than as using straight tap water, there were ones that actually performed worse than tap water.

As a rough rule of thumb, anything with "Eco" or "Green" in the name is about as effective as tap water.

johno1234

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#3299473 21-Oct-2024 14:25

neb:

As a rough rule of thumb, anything with "Eco" or "Green" in the name is about as effective as tap water.

... and also a likely cause of dead penguins and morose polar bears.

decibel

317 posts

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#3299476 21-Oct-2024 14:31

Thanks NEB, they obviously took note of your suggestion.

There it is at the bottom of this page, https://www.consumer.org.nz/products/carpet-stain-removers/review

👍

Ragnor

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#3299528 21-Oct-2024 16:29

A mild acid (vinegar) + surfactant (dish washing liquid) sort of makes sense, most general purpose spay cleaners are primarily citric acid

Baking soda + water makes sense as you are making an abrasive paste, a budget Jif (cream cleaner)

Baking soda + vinegar seems pointless, you'll just end up with water, co2 and salt

See here https://www.apartmenttherapy.com/vinegar-baking-soda-cleaning-mixture-myth-36880375

tdgeek

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#3299539 21-Oct-2024 17:13

Yes, sodium acetate if I recall.

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neb

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#3299545 21-Oct-2024 17:55

Ragnor: Baking soda + vinegar seems pointless, you'll just end up with water, co2 and salt

Could they have meant baking powder? That contains baking soda + a weak acid, which is what reacts when wet to give the necessary reaction for baking. Presumably baking powder + vinegar would give vinegar, as the weak alkali and weak acid in baking soda would neutralise each other.

mattwnz

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#3299597 21-Oct-2024 19:45

It depends if the stain is new and wet, or dry. If dry it is a different story IMO. The Bremworth dry carpet spray is amazing for dry stains on wool carpet.

Eva888

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#3300754 23-Oct-2024 22:47

I have used the Maxcare spray-on carpet cleaner from The Warehouse and it has been brilliant for spot stains and very reasonably priced. I wet the stain first then spray and rub it in and let it dry.

Beware of baking soda and vinegar type mixes and test a tiny bit first where it’s not noticeable. I used similar off the internet, sworn to remove all stains and it discoloured the stain so badly that it left an orange mark worse than the original. It certainly wasn’t neutral.

neb

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#3300759 23-Oct-2024 23:07

Eva888: I have used the Maxcare spray-on carpet cleaner from The Warehouse and it has been brilliant for spot stains and very reasonably priced.

Any feel for how it does with non-dirt stains, for example a hypothetical cat that decided to disassemble a hypothetical mouse on the carpet? Looks like it's mail-order only so not easy to read the active-ingredients list on the can.

Eva888

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#3300796 24-Oct-2024 08:39

neb:

Eva888: I have used the Maxcare spray-on carpet cleaner from The Warehouse and it has been brilliant for spot stains and very reasonably priced.

Any feel for how it does with non-dirt stains, for example a hypothetical cat that decided to disassemble a hypothetical mouse on the carpet? Looks like it's mail-order only so not easy to read the active-ingredients list on the can.

Our carpets are pure wool so can’t use an enzyme cleaner which would be great for hypothetical stains as yours and something to consider using if they are poly or nylon. Definitely drop water on the stain first and blot and repeat to soften before you use anything else on it.

You are in Auckland and I note a place called Dollar Outlet also has it. My can is grey. The ones at the Warehouse are now red. Hopefully same active ingredients. Warehouse did a click and collect when I tried. Costs $4.80

https://www.dollaroutlet.co.nz/

neb

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#3301240 24-Oct-2024 22:39

Thanks! I ended up picking up whatever the local Fresh & Save (Auckland supermarket chain) has which was easier than click&collect, the text looks more or less identical to the one you'd posted so it could be more or less the same thing. I'll give it a go on the weekend.

Edited to add: Ah, enzyme cleaners, I'd tried that but it didn't seem to have any effect. I'd actually got most of it out when it was still fairly fresh, it was only a few days later that I noticed in direct sunlight that there was still a residual mark in two of the spots that wasn't too noticeable under electric light.