1001 Carpet and Upholstery Cleaner

We have our carpets cleaned about once a year by a company that comes in and does them all in a day. Inevitably over the next 12 months we will get the odd small stain caused by; dirty shoes (forever reminding my son to take them off at the front door), food spillages (eating front of the telly) and drink spillages.

For these small stains we use 1001 mousse.

It comes in a 300ml aerosol tin (as shown in the picture). What the picture does not show is, as you take off the lid there is a handy plastic 'scrubbing' brush attached to the tin, just above the apeture where the foamy mousse is released.

I am not a fan of chemical cleaners at all, so it is just as well there is a not a long list of ingredients, though the tin does state that there are leass than 5% anionic surfactants and 5-15% polycarboxylates. I thought i had better look these up as I was writing about them.

Anionic surfactants are basically negatively charged ions that make a detergent work.....actually the explanations I found were much more lengthy than that, but the point is they are relatively harmless.

Polycarboxylates disperse dirt and are chemicals, which is not good, but they are deemed to be safe to use.

~~~~~How to use~~~~~
Just a small squirt on the stained area, this is important; as a mousse the product swells dramatically on release from the tin, so really, you only need a small amount, which you should spray from about 12 inches.

Once it is on the affected area and being absorbed use the attached brush to gently (again important) rub the mousse in and work gently away at the stain. If you brush too hard you will be left with a patch of carpet that is artificially lighter than the sorrounding area.

Wait. When it is dry, simply vacuum over it. Sometimes you need more than one go at a stain, especially if you do not get to it fairly soon after it occurs.

~~~~~Does it work~~~~~
In the main yes. What I have found is, the quicker you get to a stain the better this stuff works. I have also found that good old damp cloths applied before using this help a lot, for instance, a wine stain will only get bigger if you use this without trying to 'mop up' a bit first.

I have also found, as alluded to earlier, less is more. Try a little of this first, you can always use more, use too much and you could end up with an artificially bright patch on the carpet as well as a great pile of foaming mousse that you don't know what to do with.

~~~~~Value for money~~~~~
At around a fiver it is not the cheapest product on the market, but as we use less than a tin per year, to me, that makes it very cost effective. Some of the cheaper carpet cleaners out there are frankly inferior and risk damaging your carpets.

~~~~~Final Thoughts~~~~~
As I have said, I am no fan of chemical cleaners, yet the amount of this used makes it okay in my eyes. It works, it is cost effective and it has never irritated my skin, eyes nose or throat, and that makes it a good product.

There is a useful 'Carpet Care Advice Line' telephone number listed on the can which is a fre 0800 number.

There is also a website which is not listed on the can, this is an error in my opinion: http://www.1001carpetcare.co.uk/product-​range/spot -stain-removal/mousse.html
The website is actually quite useful and includes safety information.

Also posted on Dooyoo, same member name.