How to clean your couch with a steam cleaner

Watching TV, streaming, playing video games, chatting on the phone, reading, relaxing, eating, spending time together – a lot of these activities take place on the couch. But the more often your couch is used, the more it begins to show.

Are soda stains, cookie crumbs, and chocolate smears sharing the couch with you? Or do you have one or more four-legged roommates who love this piece of furniture as much as you do? Then treat your beloved couch now and then to a pampering session – a steam cleaning! Hot steam penetrates deep into the couch’s fibers and removes not only superficial stains from the cover, but also odors, dust, and deeper-seated dirt.

Here are the following benefits for cleaning your couch regularly with a steam cleaner:

• Fresh stains as well as older stains and soiled areas can be removed easily and thoroughly.
• The hot steam not only cleans the cover, but also penetrates deep into the upholstery, removing dirt, dust, and odors.
• Dust mite matter doesn’t stand a chance.
• Pet hairs or stains caused by pets can be removed.
• The upholstered furniture can be freshened up and look like new.
• Cleaning with steam is environmentally-friendly since less water is used and no or very little cleaning agent is needed compared to other methods.

Caution: Be careful with leather or velvet couches or armchairs – the material is sensitive and therefore steam cleaning is not ideal. The hot steam damages the leather's natural elasticity and can make it look rough and dull after a while. It is therefore better to use a vacuum cleaner and a damp cloth for leather upholstered furniture! This also applies to couches made of microfiber.

Dust, crumbs, and pet hair – if your couch is superficially dirty, then just make sure to vacuum it regularly. Steam cleaning the whole couch, which cleans deeper into the fabric, is a good idea from time to time, but for a quick cleaning, a vacuum cleaner and a damp cloth is more than enough.

For an extra  refreshed look, you can regularly steam clean upholstered furniture, as well as carpets, mattresses, and even car seats! If you want to clean your couch with a steam cleaner, it’s important to do it properly to achieve the desired effect. The best thing to do is to remove stains from your couch while they are still fresh!

Before you begin, make sure that the label on your couch says it can be steam cleaned. And if it can, always test a small spot in a hidden area first.

• A “W” means that the fabric is safe to clean with water.
• An “S” means that it can only be cleaned with a dry cleaning solvent and should not be cleaned with water.
• An “SW” means it is solvent and water safe and can be steam cleaned.
• An “X” means that water will damage the fabric, so it cannot be steam cleaned and will need to be cleaned by a professional

• Step 1: Vacuum the couch before steam cleaning
  By vacuuming your couch before steam cleaning, you will prevent surface dirt from being pushed down into the fibers. In addition, loose particles such as crumbs or pet hairs are also removed.

• Step 2: Set up the steam cleaner correctly
  Always follow directions according to the product usage instructions. So that your couch doesn’t get completely soaked after steam cleaning, work with as little steam as possible. You can adjust how much steam comes out and the strength of it on most appliances. Depending on how stubborn the stains are, you can also use a special cleaning agent for upholstered furniture, which you add to the water in the tank. And depending on whether you want to clean the whole of your couch or just concentrate on one stained area, there are many different attachments for each situation.

• Step 3: Cleaning
  As soon as the steam cleaner has reached the correct temperature, you can start! When cleaning the couch with the steam cleaner, make sure that you do not stay too long in one place otherwise your couch will get too damp. Depending on the type of cover and how deep the stains are, you can also steam the seat, back, and armrests several times to achieve the desired cleaning effect.

Allow your couch enough time to dry before you make yourself comfortable on it again! Only place pillows or blankets back on it after a few hours, so that the deeper-lying fibers also have enough time to dry.

Both wet vacuum cleaners and steam cleaners work on the same principle – the appliance heats water and vaporizes it through a cleaning hose, at the end of which is a cleaning attachment with a nozzle. Depending on how deeply you want to clean, you can also add a special cleaning agent to the water in the steam cleaner to clean the couch. This enhances the cleaning effect and helps to treat stubborn stains.

A wet vacuum cleaner sucks the moisture directly out of the fibers again, which shortens the drying time. Cleaning with a wet vacuum cleaner is also more thorough than with steam alone.