I had a conversation with a cleaner who shared his frustration with all of the different products being recommended for cleaning upholstery, and the confusion he felt in trying to establish a sensible cleaning system for his company to use.
His concerns made me take a hard look at what products are made available for upholstery cleaning, and how a cleaner can narrow down that list to what is truly needed for upholstery cleaning in the 21st century.
Here's my list:
AVENGE FABRIC PRESPRAY (NEUTRAL): I always tell students that if I could only have ONE product with which to clean upholstery, it would be this type. This excellent upholstery preconditioner has a neutral pH (7), and use a surfactant that does not allow for deep penetration through the fabric. Avenge Fabric Prespray will suspend body oil, food spills, and other "common upholstery soils".
If the fabric has been allowed to become "abusively soiled" or has become exposed to smoke damage, and Avenge Fabric Prespray cannot not adequately loosen soil, you may either choose a higher pH preconditioner, or use boosting agents to enhance your neutral upholstery preconditioner.
Which is the better choice? First, review the characteristics of the available products:
AVENGE HEAVY DUTY FABRIC PRESPRAY (ALKALINE): Avenge Heavy Duty is more effective on synthetic fiber fabrics that have strong oil bonding characteristics, such as olefin and polyester. However, Avenge Heavy Duty should only be used on colorfast, synthetic fiber fabrics.
BOOST ALL: Boost All is a powdered, non chlorine bleach additive that will brighten and whiten dull or yellowed colors, remove most protein and tannin stains, and also eliminate yellow/brown discolorations from oily soils that are bonded to olefin and polyester. You should be aware that Boost All will raise the pH of your preconditioning solution, and thus you must test this solution for any potential color related problems on the fabric that you intend to clean. Also, off white cotton fabrics may become snow white after the application of Boost All.
CITRUS SOLV: Citrus Solv is an additive that will increase the grease and oil cutting quality of your preconditioner without altering the pH. When cleaning fabrics that have become exposed to body oil, newsprint, and petroleum, Citrus Solv will greatly improve your results
Using Avenge Fabric Prespray on natural fiber fabrics and Avenge Heavy Duty Fabric Prespray on synthetic fiber fabrics is the easiest system, but with training and experience, the use of boosters with Avenge Fabric Prespray will usually render the best results.
For the vast majority of your cleaning needs, the only other product that you must have is an acidic rinse agent.
FABSET: This acid rinse agent offers the following benefits in upholstery care:
- Dye Stabilization: Most dye bleeding and color fading may be prevented when FabSet is applied both before and after the cleaning process. Non-acid dye stablizers, such as Dye Loc should be used only if dye is not stable when tested with FabSet.
- Browning prevention or removal: Fabrics that are rinsed or post treated FabSet and dried rapidly are less likely to brown. Unless pre-existing browning is severe, rinsing with FabSet followed by rapid drying often removes browning.
- Natural fiber velvets dry softer when rinsed or treated with FabSet, followed by grooming and drying with drying fans.
With the use of proper tools, cleaning equipment, and training, seldom will a cleaner need more than these few products. Products such as alkaline upholstery emulsifiers, "Haitian Cotton" detergents and shampoos, and dry cleaning solvents are of very little use to cleaners who have the most up to date training and technology available today.
