Means17TL

How do you guys clean the floor mats in your cars?

BEETROOT

washing machine, and I do them with a steam cleaner when I do my carpets at home.

DarkSithCL

iTrader: (1)

does the machine washing tear them up?

then how do you dry them...

exceldetail

Beet, be real careful with the washing machine...They may look great now but over time, all that agitation will, ummmm, agitate the backing......
I give a good thorough vacuum first and foremost. If I need to hit them with hi-pressure, then I'll use some laundry detergent, at a proper ratio, scrub with a nice stiff nylon brush, then take down to the self serve wash place, and put them on the clips, and from a distance, wash the soap out. Laundry detergents are good because their low sudsing, and if they didnt work, we wouldnt be washing our clothes with them.....Only use a hose or hi pressure, if you have the thick matts, with the rubber backing....
Now if there the thin type, with heavy matted backing, well, again, thoroughly vacuum, then use a upholstery cleaner, with that stiff nylon brush. USe the directions stated on back of product, and start scrubbin. Up/Down, then Side to Side......Vacuum one more time after they have dried, then using a dry stiff nylon brush, make some "new carpet sweeps"..... I like BlueMagics carpet cleaner/deoderizer....excellent stuff.....

BEETROOT

washing machine always worked fine for me, but I was never all that picky, and exceldetail is right, I doubt it was that good for them long term.

smr2112

I soap them up with a decent carpet cleaner, scrup with a floor
scrub brush, then power wash them with my TroyBilt 2600PSI
and that works well. Then let them dry. Once or twice a year.

No matter what you do with the carpeted mats, they start
to look bad after 2 years or so.

Anybody using a cheaper 3rd party carpeted map that actually
fits the space well? Other than having the TL logo, I don't
think the mats are anything special.

slobeatz

I use 303 carpet cleaner, agitate with a carpet brush, then just use a hose to spray the carpet cleaner off and my wet/dry vac to pull the rest up. I always use my all-weather mat on the driver side and place the other all-weather mats on top of the other carpets when I know it's going to be crappy and I'll have passengers.

TOGWT

Carpeted floor mats:
Floor mats take a majority of the wear away from the interior carpet. However, this leaves floor mats with soiling as well as oily stains. Inspect for oily stains. Use a solvent-based spot remover to remove oily stains. Spot treat really bad stains (303TM Cleaner & Spot Remover or Woolite® Heavy Traffic Carpet Foam)

Pour a small amount of cleaner onto a terry towel and wiping toward the centre of the stain to remove the spot. Clean normal to heavy soiling as described above. Floor mats may get as wet as necessary to properly clean them.

Normal cleaning- brush loose dirt/dust with a stiff brush, lightly spray surface with a carpet cleaner (Woolite® Heavy Traffic Carpet Foam) and let the foam dwell for 5-10 minutes and then remove residue.

Heavily soiled- brush loose dirt/dust with a stiff brush, use a citrus-based pre-cleaner P21S Total Auto Wash 10:1 distilled hot water, let solution dwell for 5-10 minutes to enable cleaners to react, and then use a carpet extractor

The rubber backing and the ability to relocate them to a warm place (not direct sunlight) for quick drying aids their cleaning. After mats are clean and dried, brush them to raise the fibres and apply stain guard (303 High Tech Fabric Guard) to repel grease, dirt and oil based stains and provide UV protection against fabric fading.

Use caution- if using Oxy-Clean™ is an oxygen bleach that is also a strong alkaline ( pH 10) as it may discolour or leave a ‘bleach’ type stain if not thoroughly rinsed / removed as its active ingredient is hydrogen peroxide which is considered a corrosive.

Pet hair- remove pet hair with a rubber bristle brush (Groit’s Red Rubber Detailing Brush PN 9349) or a lint roller brush and then vacuum to remove any pet hair loosened by the brush

JonjM