upholstery cleaning

[ASmith11]

Hello everyone......I'm a newbie and looking for some advice. I bought the Gecko because I want to do some upholstery cleaning and would like to practice on my own furniture first. Any suggestions on proven successful methods I can use? Should I scrub with a brush before trying out the machine? Thank you in advance

[DON ELDRED]

Hwe Works better

[prodrying]

Residential upholstery we usually clean with HWE. However, that varies depending on the material. Commercial upholstery however we have had real good success with a drill, pad driver, and fiber plus pads. We spray a 50/50 mix of Encap-Clean DS on the upholstery and then agitate with the fiber plus pads. This of course is after a pre-vac. This works well for us most of the time on office furniture which is usually synthetic.

[MikeB]

A Smith, The Gecko is a portable extraction "spotter" from Excellent Supply? If so, you can Vacuum, use Releasit Ds, or Hydrox from E.S. as a prespray, agitate with a soft brush and let dwell 10 minutes, then use your gecko to extract using hot tap water (soft water is better).
It is important to evenly wet the upholstery as you go as to avoid water "rings" on the fabric. Don't leave untouched dry areas. Unless you have very expensive fabrics, this should work fine. It works for me.
Getting to know the fabric codes located on the tag under the cushions will help too.

[lee@deepclean.us.com]

MikeB is right on the money!

[SLOTOOLS]

Regarding HWE_
I also recommend fans to reduce drying times on upholstery, I have a couple studebakers that flat out move air, and can get the fabric pretty dry upon completion. I use the hydromaster dri-master- great tool that cleans with a blade of water.

[MikeHabib]

Go to you tube and look at either a Hos Orbot Micro ( I have learned that a Cyclo is just about the same thing but much cheaper) Or look up Xerion Solutions. I have used their upholstery cleaning process with very good results however, you have to watch the speed on the hand held buffer because the Bonnet pad shred pretty quick. I am personally going to fix my VonSchrader Esprit. I am getting the Cyclo to do stairs.

[preeti22]

Hi, I'm not getting the meaning of Hwe, so how can I explain you about this topic.

[MikeHabib]

HWE means Hot water extraction. Another term for steam cleaning.

[ASmith11]

Thank you everyone for your responses and thank you Mike for explaining the process you use. I found this very helpful and I am going to try this out today!

[MikeB]

You're welcome and good luck to you.

[ASmith11]

Hello again Mike.... I finally tried the Gecko HWE cleaning process and I love it. A few questions for you, if there is a stain do you treat it first and if so how? I found that when I was using the hydrox some stains began to appear but did not totally come out. My last question, have you tried the Soileze protector?

[MikeB]

Pre treating spots is a good idea and depending on what type of stain it is, a little brushing with a soft brush works well along with blotting with a clean cotton towel. If the stain transfers to the towel, keep going. If not...it might be a stain that is set in.
Red stains, CTI has a product that works. Most others should come out with hydrox.
I haven't tried Soileze yet but I'm sure it's top notch if Excellent Supply sells it.

[jtmellon]

I am surprised that no one has posted the true time tested way to clean uph. Sure using a drill driver is great for comm uph and yes I have used a gecko (I own one) for res uph but no one here is telling this guy the safest way to clean uph.

Well guess this old timer will have to do it (and if anyone of you call me old timer I will drive to where you live and give you a purple nurple)

Take a three gallon bucket and mix up a batch of encap ds or hydrox about two gal is good, now whip it into a foam, take a sea sponge (a real sea sponge) and soak the sponge and squeeze it out as much as you need to, use the foam to clean the uph with the sponge re foaming the sponge as needed and then use a white clean cotton towel and towel off the area just cleaned. You can also use a horse hair brush (a real one) in place of the sponge. This is the safest way to clean resi uph. If you have a gecko extractor you can then extract more of the cleaned area (don't wet it just do a vacuum pass).

Put blower fan blowing across the uph to help dry it.

Every cleaner should know how to do this process. It's a little elbow grease but it's safe.

[MikeB]

Yes that works too! I've done it. Quite a work out though if you're doing a sofa and some chairs that are fairly dirty. Invest I a folding table to put cushions on at waist height too. A lot easier on the back!