We Tested the Top Car Upholstery Cleaners to Find the Best

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Keeping the interior in top condition is essential to maintain your vehicle's resale value. This includes the carpets, trim, and especially the upholstery, which is pivotal in comfort for you, your children, pets, groceries, and everything you transport daily. Given its constant use, it's inevitable that the upholstery will get nasty. Let us guide you through the best practices for keeping your upholstery in prime condition, ensuring you'll have enough money for that dream supercar when you sell your van after the kids have flown the coop.

We got our hands on 10 of the best car upholstery cleaners. We tested them on stained upholstery and found that each offers the everyday car owner the ability to clean with the speed and efficiency of a detail shop. Some products work faster than others; others are easier or require less elbow grease, but all were effective at lifting stains and grime from cloth and vinyl.

To be clear, the products on this list are intended to clean cloth and vinyl upholstery; a few here will also clean leather.

Upholstery Cleaning Tips & Tricks

• Begin by thoroughly vacuuming the interior of your car. Before vacuuming, use a dry, soft brush to help dislodge any stubborn or deeply embedded debris. Your car vacuum will likely come with attachments appropriate for different creases and crevices, so be wise and use them accordingly.

• Maximize the cleaning by revealing all surfaces of the seats. Folding them forward, reclining fully, and other adjustments help dislodge materials and expose hard-to-reach places.

• Before a general cleaning, you should do spot stain cleaning with an appropriate stain remover. Always remember to test in an inconspicuous area first.

• When cleaning cloth seats, be cautious with liquids. Excessive moisture can enter foam padding beneath the upholstery, potentially leading to mold and mildew.

• While certain products claim to clean leather, fabric, and vinyl, it's advisable to use a specialized leather cleaner and condition for your car's leather interior. This helps maintain the material's quality and longevity.

Nifty Interior Detailing Brush

Don't forget the tools! This Chemical Guys Interior Detailing Brush will adgitate and release tough stains and debris that has nestled deep into the fibers of your upholstery. If you want the deepest clean possible, clearing the peskiest of stains, you'll need some elbow grease to achieve results. This brush will help get you there!

Bissel Little Green

Look, all these cleaners are great. But do you want to elevate your cleaning? Get yourself a Bissel Little Green upholstery cleaner. This machine, combined with any cleaner listed below, will elevate your cleaning to the next level. The best part of these cleaners is that there is a clean and a dirty side, so you can see the dirty water shooting into the discarded reservoir, which is satisfying on so many levels. Trust us, this little machine is a game changer when used with any cleaner.

Chemical Guys Nonsense Invinsible Super Cleaner

In recent years, Chemical Guys has elevated itself to one of the premier automotive-detailing companies on the market. The Nonsense cleaner is odorless, pH balanced, safe on all surfaces (minus infotainment and gauge clusters), and dries with zero residue. The combination of these traits, in tandem with its high-power stain lifting, makes this cleaner arguably the best all-around product on the list.

Meguiar's Carpet & Upholstery Cleaner

Car and Driver has a long history of using Meguiar's products. In that time, we've grown fond of their exceptional quality, and this carpet and upholstery cleaner holds true to those expectations. Its best features include an ergonomic spray-nozzle design, a pleasant citrus scent, and a dual-action trigger (offering a wide-angle spray for large areas or a precise stream for spot cleaning).

CarGuys Premium Super Cleaner

CarGuys is a fairly new brand to the world of automotive detailing, offering uncompromising quality. Though it claims to be more affordable than competitors, the Super Cleaner checks in as one of the most expensive on this list. However, this premium isn't an arbitrary one. Super Cleaner is both biodegradable and eco-friendly and is safe for cleaning leather as well. With no need to rinse or vacuum, a neutral smell, and no residue left behind, Super Cleaner is truly an all-in-one product.

Mothers Carpet & Upholstery All Fabric Cleaner

Starting off from humble beginnings with only aluminum wheel polish, Mothers now offers the car community a comprehensive lineup of detailing products. Mothers Carpet and Upholstery Cleaner offers a gentle, pH-balanced formula that greatly aids in preventing colors from running. In our sampling of this product, we found a like-new finish and no trace of residue. We should also note that this product works well around the house, so take advantage of its massive 24-ounce capacity.

Tuff Stuff Multi-Purpose Foam Cleaner

With "tuff" in its name, we expected great things from this multipurpose cleaner, and it didn't disappoint. Since it's more utilitarian than others in this roundup, we decided to test this product on a large 10-year-old coffee stain on a chair in a staffer's cubicle. We were shocked to find zero trace of said stain after scrubbing with Tuff Stuff, although we did need a vacuum to assist with the drying process. In addition to cleaning car upholstery and furniture, Tuff Stuff can be used around the house as a bathroom, carpet, and appliance cleaner.

Armor All Oxi Magic Carpet & Upholstery Cleaner

With the help of Oxi Magic, Armor All's Carpet and Upholstery Cleaner is a more narrowly focused cleaner than some of the others on our list, specializing in fabric, vinyl, carpet, and non-clear plastics. It leaves behind a bright clean-linen scent and zero residue. It's easy to use, too: Just spray it on, let it sit, and blot it dry.

3D Upholstery & Carpet Shampoo

Some people prefer value and quantity over quality. Thankfully, with 3D's carpet and upholstery cleaner, you won't have to make that compromise. The shampoo comes concentrated in a 16-ounce bottle and requires that you dilute it: one part shampoo to 16 parts water. It also means that you aren't buying the water that is typically mixed into cleaning sprays, just the shampoo.

Chemical Guys Foaming Citrus Fabric Clean

A concentrated shampoo from the vaunted Chemical Guys lineup. Using naturally occurring microbes, Fabric Clean breaks down stains and odors at a microscopic level without using harsh chemicals such as bleach and ammonia, thanks to its eco-friendly biodegradable formula. After use we found no trace of residue or stains, just the scent of a freshly squeezed lemon.

Things to Consider

• Before using a new cleaning product, it is best practice to conduct a color fastness test. A color fastness test involves testing the product in an inconspicuous area to ensure it doesn't cause fabric dye, bleeding, or running.

•READ THE LABEL. All cleaners are different, so you must read the instructions carefully to ensure the best results. Pay close attention to recommended techniques and methods, and confirm materials are compatible with the cleaner.

• If applying the product and wiping it away isn't working, consider purchasing a detail brush. The detail brush helps to agitate the cleaner, working up a lather and offering deeper penetration into the target area.

FAQs

Are car upholstery cleaners safe to use?

Yes, most car upholstery cleaners are safe to use. However, it is essential to remember to read the label, paying particular attention to instructions and cautionary messaging.

Are upholstery cleaners safe for all fabrics?

Upholstery cleaners are not one size fits all. Check the label to ensure it is safe for your car's specific type of fabric. Also, as always, do a test in an inconspicuous area first.

How often should I clean my car's upholstery?

How often you clean your car's upholstery depends on how on personal preference and how frequently the cabin is soiled. However, a quarterly scrub down and clean should keep your car in decent maintenance.

Can upholstery cleaners remove odors?

Depending on the source and severity of the odor, some upholstery cleaners may be able to remove or mask odors. If you want to do a deep clean to address severe odors, we recommend trying the Bissel carpet cleaner+ your cleaner of choice.

Why Trust Us

With a combined 206 years of automotive publishing experience, Hearst Autos—Car and Driver, Road & Track, and Autoweek—knows cars better than just about anyone, and the Gear Team delivers honest evaluations, hands-on tests, and product reviews driven by decades of knowledge and experience. We get our hands on almost every product, tool, and piece of gear we feature; we evaluate gear on its own merits, and tell you the truth.

If we can’t get our hands on the gear, we rely on the combined wisdom of our writers and editors, as well as auto experts we trust. We’ll never say anything is “the best” if we wouldn’t recommend it to our friends or buy it ourselves, and we won’t tell you we’ve tested something if we haven’t. Learn more about our product testing here.

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