Reviews of the Best Upholstery Cleaner of 2018

Many of us are familiar with the phrase “cleanliness is next to godliness”. No doubt, we strive to keep all our environments clean as it gives us confidence and keeps the diseases away, at least. But then, what happens to that stain on the sofa that just refuses to go? What cleaning agents do you intend to use in removing it? Well, if you are using conventional means, chances are that you cannot get that stain off completely unless you take off the covers of your upholstery. It’s certainly not the best of ideas especially when you have the best upholstery cleaners available on the market.

Did we mention that cleaning your upholstery has tons of benefits? Aside from keeping the smell away from your home, every piece of furniture appears new. Additionally, you get to have unwanted allergens, pet hairs and pet stains off the furniture. Besides, your clothes remain clean since you’re sitting on a clean chair.

In this review, we’ll share our hands-on experience with some of the best upholstery cleaners. And lastly, we included some vital cleaning tips in the knowledge-based section of the article

What is an upholstery?

In simple terms, the word upholstery refers to the covering that shields the furniture in our homes, and this includes our armchairs, sofa, stools etc. Owing to the fact that we spend quite a lot of time on such pieces of furniture, it is quite normal to expect to see stains on them from time to time.

You can’t just leave the stain there, hence the need for upholstery cleaning.

Therefore, upholstery cleaning simply refers to the process of cleaning the material that upholsters our furniture. Cleaning upholstery is perhaps, one of the few thoughts that we keep away from our mind. A handful of us thinks of it as a simple task that involves just wiping your couch with a cloth and detergent.

Far from it – upholstery cleaning is a tough job. Perhaps a quotation from a cleaning service would jolt you back to reality. On the other hand, there’s no need to pay a cleaning service to do the work for you especially when you can clean it easily.

For this reason, we decided to review the best upholstery cleaner that came our way. We took time to test the products for a couple of hours and we intend to share our observations and remarks with you.

The following are our top picks for the best upholstery cleaner.

Best Upholstery Cleaner Comparison Table

Our Reviews of the Best Upholstery Cleaner

Best Overall Upholstery Cleaner

Our choice of the best overall upholstery cleaner is the Blue Coral DC22 Upholstery cleaner. Before we begin reviewing the cleaner, it might interest you to note that we selected it based on a particular user review we saw on Amazon. That user has been using it for up to eight years. This kindled our interest in the product because it made a customer loyal for almost a decade.

First of all, the Blue Coral upholstery cleaner is a great product suitable for cleaning various surfaces. It comes in a crisp looking blue aerosol container which is able to accommodate only 22.8 ounces of the cleaner. It’s quite handy to hold and on the cap is a bristle brush. This bristle brush isn’t the best of them all, so you should consider getting a better brush for your cleaning tasks. Just know that the bristle brush on the cap is suitable for mild brushing work

On the back of the container are easy to read and follow instructions for use. Anyways, it’s simply some straightforward information. First, you are required to vigorously shake the aerosol container. Next, you should hold the container about a foot away from the surface you want to clean and spray. We tested this best upholstery cleaner on our microfiber couch and it worked fine. It removed some ink stains which were hitherto visible. Initially, we thought that to spray it about a foot away as instructed was ineffective. So we brought it closer to the couch and sprayed. Guess what happened?

Globs of foam appeared on the couch! Initially, it triggered an alarm bell – of course, we thought this would stain the couch the more. However, the reverse was the case as it neither stained the couch. Instead, it helped remove the existing ink stains. It should interest you to know that the Blue Coral upholstery cleaner smells nice. Again, the smell wasn’t overwhelming given the fact that we goofed when applying it initially.

Lest we forget, we dislike the fact that the Blue Coral cleaner cannot be used on a code S fabric because it’s a water-based product. Additionally, it is not generally suitable for all leather upholstery although it cleaned some without any problems during our testing.

Best Fabric Upholstery Cleaner

The BISSEL Spot & Stain Fabric and Upholstery Cleaner is the product we crowned the best fabric upholstery cleaner. In the lines below, we shared a few reasons why we gave it that title.

For this review, we tested the Bissel upholstery cleaner on our white sofa. As usual, we picked a small hidden spot and applied the product to that area. Any negative reactions? Of course not. So we waited for half an hour and checked again – nothing. It was certified fit for use on the sofa. It’s important we mentioned that the sofa was covered with corduroy-like fabric.

We applied the Bissel to some of the stains on the fabric and scrubbed gently. It went off slowly but steadily. The Bissel container has a cap that houses an effective bristle brush.

To use the Bissel upholstery cleaner, you need to follow instructions. First, give the container a thorough and vigorous shaking. Next, spray the material you want to treat with the solution. Then gently rub the foam that appears after the spray into the area you want to clean. Don’t apply too much foam as this can cause discoloration.

Using a brush and a small vacuuming machine, we cleaned the whole sofa judiciously. Almost all the stains went away leaving a few specs that could only be seen on close observation. At this time, rehearsal realized that we needed to clean the whole surface of the sofa because the area we just cleaned appeared brighter than the other and gave it a big discoloration. So we applied the Bissel cleaner again and in a few hours, we were done with the cleaning process. The sofa looked new and honestly, the Bissel upholstery cleaner had done a great job.

Best Upholstery Cleaner For Car Seats

The Chemical Guys Upholstery shampoo is our top pick for the best upholstery cleaner for car seats. It comes in a 16 oz. green-colored bottle. It’s also available in a larger 128 oz single unit container which can seriously last for a long time. We thought the product was weird considering the fact that a skull was drawn on the product label. However, it is all a matter of looking different and being outstanding.

It is effective for cleaning car seats, mats, seatbelts, to mention a few. The Chemical Guys solution contains chemicals that are string yet nonharmful; they get the job done. Some of the ingredients used in making it include a degreaser, deodorizer as well as other special enzymes. The enzymes, we believe, soak into the upholstery material to dig out the dirt. This leaves the upholstery better than it looked before applying the Chemical Guys solution.

As with the other best upholstery cleaner solutions on this list, it didn’t quite clean some of the stubborn stains off the car seat on which it was tested. We expected that, however, as the stain had been there for long as the car owner rightly pointed out. It did make the stain look faint though.

Additionally, the Chemical Guys cleaner masked the pet odor that oozed from the car. The deodorizer present in the solution was quite effective, to say the least.

There is a 20:1 ratio for proper concentrated cleaning although you can try the 10:1 ratio. This implies 20 or 10 parts of clean warm water.

Best Upholstery Cleaner For Sofas

We tested the Leather Cleaner Nova based on the fact that it was touted as a best seller. At the end of our stay with it, we concluded that it was the best upholstery cleaner for leather sofas.

Let us point this out – if its leather, the Leather Cleaner Nova will reinvent it after a cleaning session. Simply put, it can be used to clean anything leather ranging from jackets to car interiors, shoes, purses, bags, saddles, sofas, etc. Does it clean only leather materials? Of course not. You can also enjoy its cleaning power on your faux and vinyl materials.

For our review, we used the Leather Cleaner Nova on car upholstery and we were generally impressed. Let’s start with the packaging; its black 18 oz. container has a bossy look and premium finish. That aside, at the top of the bottle, it sports an easy to control spray nozzle.

As we earlier mentioned, the Leather Nova cleaner is friendly with all and sundry. Applying it is simple. Spray generously on a dry cloth and use the dry cloth to wipe your leather materials clean. The end result is a spick and span finish that surely takes away all the stains. Aside from that, it leaves it better than it met it. Even more, you can decide to add a touch of finesse to your cleaning by wiping the leather with the Leather Nova Conditioner. The conditioner is used for making leather retain its glow, shine and retain its quality. It looks and feels like an oil and it contains high-grade polymers as stated on the product packaging. It works just as fine as the cleaner. Whilst applying the conditioner, you’ll notice a greasy appearance on your leather upholstery. This will definitely dry up as soon as possible to give you a classic crisp clean finish.

The Leather Nova Cleaner is available in only an 18 oz. container. We would have loved it more if it was available in a larger storage size.

Best Upholstery Cleaner For Dining Room Chairs

For dining room chairs, getting stained with ketchup and oily fingers is a norm. What’s not normal is the fact that after several cleaning sessions, the stains refuse to go away. But then, the almighty Mother’s Carpet and Upholstery Cleaner shows up and the rest is history.

With the Mother’s Carpet and Upholstery cleaner, moms can now take the stains off their dining upholstery. It is effective in cleaning most types of fabric as well as leather. For testing, we tried it out on grey colored fabric dining seat upholstery. The seats had some oil stains in visible places. As usual, we tested in a latent spot and there was no adverse reaction to the material, so we proceeded.

The cleaner did leave a water stain after we applied it generously on the part we wanted to clean. We finished wiping and scrubbing the area for the stains to come off. It did, but then, the water stain remained for some time. We decided to use a dry cloth in that area and it absorbed the moisture. In a few hours later, the water stains and the other stains all disappeared leaving the fabric clean and new.

Next, we tried to remove some pen marks from the other dining seat. It went off smoothly and it removed that too. Surprisingly, no stains were left – incredible, right? We also tried it on a car carpet and it took away some greasy looking stains off the carpet in a jiffy. In all, the Mother Carpet and Upholstery Cleaner solution is as effective as they claimed it is.

We only dislike the small 24 oz container it came in. More sizes to choose from like the Chemical Guys Upholstery cleaner wouldn’t have been a bad idea.

Best Upholstery Cleaner For Leather

We picked the Leather Cleaner by Leather Honey because it was touted as a best seller. After trying it out for a couple of hours, we couldn’t help but agree with everyone else that had given it that title. Below, we shared our experience with this awesome leather cleaner.

One interesting thing about this cleaner is that you need to dilute it with water using. A little amount of it is enough to clean a whole lot of leather items. After we diluted it, we were ready to use it on a leather bag, leather shoe, and leather upholstery. These three items were specifically handpicked for testing the product’s efficacy. They had collected quite a sizeable amount of dust from the place where they sat. We dusted the three items well before cleaning with the Leather Honey Leather Cleaner.

Upon application, we took time to clean with the lint-free cloth. Leather cleaner suggested this so we complied. It was quite uneasy albeit cumbersome task but it was worth it. At the end of the cleaning session, we were left with a high-end leather shoe and bag that shone like new not to mention the leather upholstery that was in a better state than it was before – not the best state but much better.

So based on our experience with it, we give it a thumbs up for cleaning leather. The Leather Honey Leather Cleaner also has a conditioner that can be used to condition leather. Although the conditioner appears to be sticky during application, it does a great job at the end of the exercise.

This leather cleaner can be used to clean leather interiors, shoes, leather accessories, furniture, vinyl, to mention a few. Another benefit of using it is that you can dilute a small solution to do a sizeable amount of leather cleaning work. In essence, the 32 oz container will last longer than you want it to. Unfortunately, this cleaner isn’t suitable for cleaning suede material. So you should abort your decisions of cleaning your suede items with it.

Best Upholstery Cleaner For Microfiber

Finding the right cleaner for your microfiber couch can be tough considering the fact that microfiber is a synthetic material. For most people, microfiber is the line in between leather and suede. It’s attractive and affordable but cleaning it can leave you in a fix because you are unable to find a dedicated product to use.

The Alcantara, on the other hand, is also a suede-like material like microfiber. People usually think both are the same thing. However, they are not. Again, cleaning the Alcantara is also a task as there are no dedicated cleaners. It was in the course of our search that we stumbled upon it.

For this review, we tested the Sonax Upholstery and Alcantara Cleaner. The Sonax cleaner comes in a miniature non-inflammable 8.45 oz. pump container. Pretty small, if you’d say. To be honest, the small-sized container it came in disappointed us. We overlooked the appearance – after all, they say “don’t judge a book by its cover”.

To use the Sonax cleaner is pretty simple. Just spray the cleaner on the dirty areas you intend to clean and use a damp sponge to rub that area. Next, leave it to sit there for a few minutes before you use the sponge on that area again. After this, get a handheld vacuum and use it to finish up the work.

The Sonax cleaner left us pleased at the end of the whole cleaning process. Next, we tried it on an Alcantara Surface Pro 4 keyboard case. There were a handful of stains and grime that needed to get off. We applied the solution in a hidden area to test its ability. Next, we applied it to the whole keyboard case and it removed all the stains that were hitherto there. Not one was left; talk about being effective.

Best Upholstery Cleaner For Carpets

The best upholstery cleaner for carpets is the Scotchgard Fabric and Carpet Cleaner. It’s an effective product which comes in a small friendly 14-ounce container. The cleaner is notorious for its deep foaming action which is tough on stains on fabric materials.

According to Scotchgard, the cleaner is able to yank off oil, mud, and dirt stains off your carpet. Additionally, it sports a protective content that ensures your carpet materials don’t change color again. For the review, we tried out the Scotchgard on a carpet, some beddings, a sofa and throw pillows. We didn’t get to see any stains left behind although the task was a tough one.

Unfortunately, we found out that one couldn’t use the Scotchgard to clean materials like velvet as well as faux, suede and some thick leather types. Of course, we learned the hard way. We used the cleaner on a velvet material which it stained. Thank goodness we tested it in a hidden spot. Instead of using it on velvet or leather materials, you can use them on curtains, carpets, beddings, table linens, fabric purses etc.

Best Colorless Upholstery Cleaner

Last but definitely not the least on our review list is the best colorless upholstery cleaner. We picked the Chemical Guys transparent upholstery cleaner. A no-nonsense cleaner at that – at least, that’s what they captioned it.

For many of us who are skeptical about using a colored upholstery cleaner, this cleaner takes away all our fears. We didn’t test it on all surfaces, however, given the fact that we had mostly run out of test surfaces.

The cleaner has a balanced pH as indicated by the producer. Additionally, it’s devoid of any ingredients that can make your upholstery to smell. In addition to this, it’s quite gentle on and gets grime and it’s counterparts off your materials.

Before using this cleaner, you should, first of all, dilute it. It has a dilution ratio of 20 to 1 – 20 parts of water to 1 part of the cleaner. However, you can bring down the ratio to 10:1 depending on what you intend to use it and clean. To be honest, it’s going to make the product last long but then, it increases the time you spend cleaning your upholstery.

Using the No-Nonsense Chemical Guys cleaner is a pretty straightforward process. First, you dilute it as instructed. Next, test it in a hidden spot to ensure that it doesn’t react negatively with your material – of course, it won’t. After applying the solution to the area you want to clean, allow it to stay for St least 60 seconds. Then use a clean absorbent cloth to wipe the area away.

Best Upholstery Cleaner For Pet Stains

In the course of our search for the best upholstery cleaner, we came across the Hoover 2X cleaner which also doubles as a pet stain and odor remover. Without mincing words, it’s a great product – we are sure of that. After all, we spent roughly half a dozen hours testing it on the piece of upholstery in our office and homes.

The Hoover 2X upholstery cleaner is designed to work with all the full sized spot cleaning machines. For testing, we used the Bissel Spotbot Pet Deep Cleaner. Our Hoover 2x best upholstery cleaner worked flawlessly with it. As stated on the product packaging, the cleaner is suitable for cleaning carpets, rugs, car interiors as well as upholstery. We didn’t get to use it to clean any car interior because we saw the magic it did on a home furniture it was tested on.

Hoover suggests that the product should be used alongside the PreTreat spray. Thus, if you intend to achieve greater results, that combo might be just what you need. We recommend that especially if you want to clean your carpet.

The Hoover 2X PetPlus upholstery cleaner is available in two sizes – 32 oz and 64 oz. The 32 oz bottle is surely going to last for up to 10 uses; that is if you use 3oz per 1 gallon of water. Additionally, we noticed that the Hoover 2X was pet-friendly. One of the team members that tested the product said his two dogs weren’t disturbed by the cleaner. A big kudos to Hoover. Furthermore, the product is has a way of covering pet odors in your home. It is, however, not a substitute for a good home fragrance spray.

We did notice one thing – some stains were still slightly noticeable on our test carpet on closer observation. Thus, it may take several scrubs for the stains to completely go away. Also, the Hoover 2x is more suitable for carpets and leather surfaces.

Factors To Consider When Shopping For The Best Upholstery Cleaner

In this section of the article, you’ll find tips to consider when looking for the best upholstery cleaner to buy.

What Type of Upholstery Material Do You Intend Cleaning?

This is arguably the first thing you should consider. It’s important because it directly affects every other factor we might mention in this section of the article.

According to Wikipedia, there are 3 types of upholstery namely

1. Commercial Upholstery.
2. Traditional Upholstery.
3. Automobile Upholstery.

This clearly indicates the categorization of an upholstery based on what it is used to cover. However, it is important to note that upholstery is one – the only difference being the type of material used. This is what brings about the distinction.

Upholstery can be done using several materials such as leather, polyester, wool, cotton, acrylic, silk, acetate, linen, olefin and rayon as the case may be. Each of these materials requires special attention when cleaning them.

For instance, the way you clean a leather upholstery is different from the way to clean a fabric upholstery. We suggest looking out for labels that state the cleaning agents required for your upholstery.

• Water cleaning – W
• Solvent cleaning – S
• Solvent + Water cleaning – SW
• Professional cleaning – X

This label may be conspicuously hidden in a safe place.

Get Eco-Friendly Products

This type of upholstery cleaner consists mainly of organic ingredients. Need we reiterate on how suitable it is for homes with pets and small children. As a matter of fact, most professional home cleaning services use eco-friendly products. Thus, doing the same is advisable.

Mind the equipment you use

You might need to clean your upholstery with an equipment at one point in time or another. Make sure the equipment is designed to work with the upholstery cleaner you have. Again, you should take note of any other requirements needed for the cleaning. This can include wipes, stain removers, as well as hand-held vacuums, to mention a few.

Size of the upholstery cleaner

Some of the best upholstery cleaning products on the market come in sizable containers. The rest, on the other hand, come in smaller containers. You should get an upholstery cleaner in a larger container if you intend to do a large upholstery cleaning job. You can equally get a set of small-sized cleaners sold in packs of 4 or 6 as the case may be.

All Round Cleaning Or Spot Cleaning

If you intend to clean the whole upholstery in your house, then you’ll have a lot of work to do. We suggest testing the upholstery cleaner in a hidden spot to see if it reacts badly with your upholstery.

Furthermore, you don’t need to do total upholstery cleaning if your aim is to remove a particular spot. Instead, use a spot upholstery cleaner to clean the place where the spot appears on your furniture.

Final Words

We’ve come to the end of our review of the best upholstery cleaner. There’s no doubt you’ve chosen which cleaner to use for your wide variety of upholstery materials. Always remember to test the cleaner in a hidden spot and look out for any discolorations before using it on a large scale on your upholstery.

Additionally, don’t fail to check your fabric type as some fabric cleaners don’t clean all types of fabric. And lastly, you should know that for a cleaner fabric, a few repeated cleaning sessions can be the secret to removing the stubborn stain.