Light Grey Carpet just won't come clean.

B

biff

In Exile
Having a hard time getting a light grey carpet clean:

There really aren't any stains just some heavily soiled areas.

1st attempt:

Brushed thoroughly with a stiff brush, vaccumed.
Sprayed with simple green 1:5 ratio and brushed again.
Let set for 10 minutes and extracted with hot water.
Vaccumed again with a shop vac.

Carpets looked OK, but the next day when they dried they had a brown dirty haze to them. I wonder if I just moved the dirt around with all the brushing?

2nd Attempt (next day)

Brushed again, vaccumed again.
Sprayed with Bissell presoak (for use with extractors)
DIDN'T brush this time.
Let it set for 5 minutes.
Extracted again with a LOT of hot water.
I still picked up a quart of very dirty water (this is only the driver's side - front that I'm doing)
shop vac again.

The next day, they look cleaner but still have some brown haze. Is this "Wicking"?

For comparison, I took the floor mat (same color carpet) which was VERY heavily soiled. Sprayed it with Bissell presoak (No brushing) and blasted the hell out of it with 1900 PSI from the pressure washer then extracted. I got a ton of dirty water out but the next day the whole thing looked very brown.

What am I doing wrong here? Brushing? Wrong Chemicals? Too much water?

I'm going to pick up some AutoMagic #8 E-Z Clean-HD tonight and try again.

Thanks in advance, (I am learning...slowly).
 
The AutoMagic Easy Clean HD will do the trick. I believe you have soil that is wicking back to the surface as the carpet dries. To prevent this, try not to get the carpet so wet.

I assume you are using a heated extractor right? If so mix the HD into the solution tank and get the water as hot as the extractor will produce.

Move the detail wand at an even pace as you spray the hot solution down THEN without pulling the solution trigger give the area two more DRY passess. Continue this process using overlapping strokes until the complete area has been done. The carpet should be damp to the touch, not wet. I usually do many dry passess.

To speed drying, point a fan at the interior or leave the windows slightly open if the car is garaged.

I hope this helps. Grey carpet can be very difficult for some reason. Good luck, let us know how it comes out.

Matt
 
light gray carpets can be tough try some folex (available at sears) lightly mist carpet and work it in by hand let it set for a few minutes then scrub with a brush or bug pad thentowel and vac or even better extract with plain hot water an vac again. you could even try wesleys blech white tire cleaner but make sure you rinse
 
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