What NOT To Do

What NOT to Do - DIY Stain Removal - How To Clean Pet Stains

As a home owner the most important thing to consider when choosing a product to remove pet stains & odor should be its effectiveness. However many homeowners turn to DIY Stain Removal Solutions concocted from information they find online before you make this mistake read on..

What NOT to Do - DIY Stain RemovalVINEGAR

Too often, people recommend vinegar to remove urine smell. While it is in fact a good, natural cleaner, it should NEVER be used for pet stains. While vinegar has a pH level of 2, urine has a pH balance of 6. Both cats and dogs urinate where they smell they have gone before. Cleaning with vinegar does not remove that odor. Instead, it simply enhances it by adding another compound with a similar acidic base. This can be further verified by The Humane Society where they agree that products like ammonia and vinegar encourage your pet to mark in that area.

What NOT to Do - DIY Stain RemovalBaking Soda

As with Vinegar, Baking Soda features front and center in many Do It Yourself Pet Stain Removers.

Baking Soda can absorb odor, but does nothing to remove the root cause of the urine smell. Sprinkled on dry carpet and vacuumed up it may freshen the room for a period but the odor will return unless the offending urine is removed from deep within the carpet & padding.

Although an obvious issue, many DIY pet stain concoctions end up with a wet paste of Baking Soda smeared on the surface of the carpet. Not only does this not even get close to the source of the problem, you now have the issue of trying to remove it.

Don’t clog your carpet fibers with baking soda use the right tool for the job – Genesis 950

HOUSEHOLD CLEANERS

In line with the DIY recipes are those that call for various household cleaners such as laundry detergent or dish soaps. NO! Just don’t do it. Soap based cleaners work on the principal of attraction.  Dirt, dust and other staining agents, including urine, are pulled toward the soap. When used in carpet, as the soap travels downward, it takes the stains with it. When this happens, what might have been a simple surface stain now becomes embedded in the padding. As you rinse, you might notice the surface becomes clean, but in time, everything that has seeped into the padding will resurface. This results in “phantom stains” that come back after the carpet has been cleaned.
Soap does not have the power to kill odor, especially if it seeps into the padding. You are only intensifying the urge for your pet to urinate on the same spot again.

Oxidizing agents (Hydrogen Peroxide) can cause discoloration to carpets, when carpet becomes discolored, this can’t be easily reversed.

Other household cleaners are recommended as pet odor neutralizers. When cleaning pet stains you do not want to simply neutralize dog urine, you want to break it down and remove it!!

ENZYMES

Enzymatic cleaners dominate the aisles of almost every pet store. Many claim to be environmentally friendly, which is a huge factor in their popularity. A closer look at Safety Data Sheets can reveal the products contain some of the most dangerous chemicals. One common chemical is 2-Butoxyethanol, a horrible chemical that can cause skeletal defects and weight loss in mammals. The last thing you want to do is place toxic chemicals on your carpet where it can affect your pets and children.

Aside from the health risks of some enzymes, there is also a specific science to the way enzymes work. The idea is that enzymes will interact with urine to promote its breakdown. However, for the enzymes to work many factors need to be just right. A few factors that can affect enzymes from working are temperature, , acidity of urine, age of th Save & Exit e enzymes and the diet of the dog. Often, people find that the enzymes may have appeared to work, only to find the stain returns in a few days or the odor becomes overwhelming.  This is often a result of proteins being broken down and settling back into the carpet, or the enzyme not actually having the power to clean into the padding of the carpet.

WHY GENESIS 950 IS THE BEST PET STAIN REMOVER

As a surfactant based cleaner, Genesis 950 works with water to break the bonds of stains. When stain bonds are broken, the stain becomes water soluble and can be flushed clean from surface.