The Best Upholstery Cleaners
This Old House Reviews Team
Upholstery is typically used on house furniture and car seats to provide padding and comfort. This review examines the best upholstery cleaners on Amazon.
No matter if you prefer a spray cleaner, steam cleaner, or vacuum cleaner, there are products out there to help you keep your upholstery in pristine condition. To guide you in your search, the This Old House Reviews Team researched the best upholstery cleaners on Amazon. Here are our top recommendations.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B008DBRFBK
Bissell Portable Carpet Cleaner
What We Like: This machine has the power of a deep cleaner but the portability of a handheld cleaner. It maneuvers easily with its 13-pound frame, reaches far with its 20-foot power cord, and cleans various surfaces with its six-inch stair tool and three-inch tough stain tool.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00CKFL93K
Rocco & Roxie Stain and Odor Eliminator
What We Like: This spray cleaner is made with natural enzymes that activate when they make contact with stains or odors. The enzymes feed on the ammonia crystals and organic matter until they’re gone. Though effective on multiple surfaces, this formula is non-toxic and safe to use near pets and children.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01KIMOEW4
Hoover Portable Carpet and Upholstery Spot Cleaner
What We Like: This thoughtfully designed machine has several useful features and functions. It has two tanks to separate the clean and dirty water, an insert to flush grime out of the hose, and a lightweight frame with a handle to carry it from room to room. For tougher stains, you can also use the included bottle of solution.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0000DF0RB
McCulloch Steam Cleaner
What We Like: Built with power in mind, this steam cleaner holds 48 ounces of water in its tank that turns to steam in eight minutes and keeps producing steam for 45 minutes. Though bulky, it has wheels to drag it across your floor. It’s also sold with a jet nozzle, water funnel, measuring cup, and 15 other useful accessories.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08HDKZKHK
Bissell Pet Stain Eraser
What We Like: This convenient cleaner is handheld, lightweight, and cordless. It uses a rotating brush to fight tough stains on your carpet and upholstery. It also comes with a solution that pours directly into the machine’s chamber without dilution until you’re ready to use it.
Buyer’s Guide
As you can tell from our review, not all upholstery cleaners are created equal. To make sense of the specifications and features an upholstery cleaner can have, read our guide below.
Type
Upholstery cleaners fall into one of the below categories.
Spray
Spray cleaners are applied directly to a stain and wiped away with a cloth or paper towel. They’re specifically formulated to clean upholstery and carpet. Though inexpensive, you have to buy more bottles down the road.
Wipes
Upholstery cleaner wipes don’t provide a deep clean. Instead, they remove dust and debris. Like sprays, they are inexpensive but require frequent repurchases.
Vacuum Cleaners
Cleaning upholstery with a vacuum is another option. These machines typically operate like a normal vacuum cleaner except they have an upholstery attachment that treats the material gently to avoid damage.
Carpet Cleaners
These cleaners look like vacuums. However, they use a mixture of water and solution to treat tough stains before sucking the remnants into a dirty water tank. Though they’re advertised as carpet cleaners, they’re usually also safe to use on upholstery.
Steam Cleaners
Instead of mixing the water with a solution, steam cleaners turn the water into steam. The powerful steam blast pulls dirt and grime to the surface.
Portability
Some upholstery cleaners, such as spray cleaners and handheld cleaners, are easy to transport from one place to another. If you plan to use your upholstery cleaner in both your home and vehicle, this portability is useful. It’s also helpful if your children or pets wreak havoc in several rooms around your home.
Versatility
While some cleaners are specifically formulated for upholstery, many work on carpet as well. Steam cleaners, vacuums, and wipes also work on hard surfaces, such as hardwood floors and concrete countertops.
Frequently Asked Questions
How is upholstery cleaning different from carpet cleaning?
The major difference is that upholstery cleaning can’t use an excess amount of water, as this can cause bacteria and mold to grow in your furniture. You also have to be more gentle, or you risk tearing or otherwise damaging the fabric.
How do you clean leather upholstery?
Leather upholstery can be cleaned with leather-specific wipes or sprays. Don’t use too much moisture on the leather, and wipe off the solution after you’re done.
How do you clean upholstery in cars?
First determine whether your seats are made of nylon or polyester. You can clean nylon seats with a mixture of hot water and mild detergent that you scrub gently on the surface. For polyester seats, use microsuede-specific cleaning solution on a cloth. Steam cleaning is also an option for polyester car seats.
Why Trust The This Old House Reviews Team
This Old House has empowered homeowners for more than four decades with top-notch home improvement content in the form of television programs, print media, and digital content on its website and social media platforms. The This Old House Reviews Team focuses on creating in-depth product and service review content to help inform your purchasing decision for just about any item or resource that you might need for your home. The This Old House Reviews Team has written over 1,000 reviews on products in the home space, from cordless drills to kitchen trash cans, lawn mowers, and dining room decorations.
We recommend products in each review using an intensive research process, spending hours combing through the best available models on Amazon. For a product to make our list of top picks, it must hold a solid sales record on Amazon, have consistently positive customer reviews, and offer unique features, among other factors. After narrowing down our list of recommendations, we conduct additional research and sometimes in-person testing to ensure that the products meet our standards. Once we conclude the research phase, we craft a well-rounded, user-friendly article that includes our recommended products and additional information to help homeowners like you make the right purchase.
The This Old House Reviews Team provides overviews of select products that are top-selling on Amazon and/or popular in consumer searches. Our team evaluates the products based on industry research, consumer reviews, pricing data, hands-on testing in select cases, and other objective criteria unique to a given product line. Unless otherwise noted, these product reviews are intended to help inform buying decisions for DIY or other non-pro users only. Editor’s picks are made by members of the This Old House Reviews Team.