Hi i have a vauxhall corsa and live in England. Last week i went on holiday and parked my car on the road, when i returned the carpet in my car was soaking wet.
I need a vaccum cleaner/carpet cleaner so i can suck the water up and clean them. Do you have any suggestions of what i could buy?
You might want to consider how the water got in there. Was a window left down? Or was the road flooded? If the road flooded it would be wise to get the engine and transmission and all critical electrics inspected. A few ounces of water can trash an engine or transmission quickly while water in electrics can become a pack of gremlins later on.
I’m not familiar with your car, but I assume it has padding under the carpeting. If it really is thoroughly soaked, you’ll won’t get all of the water out with just a vacuum. You’ll need to pull out the carpet and padding and work on them separately. Don’t wait too long, as mold starts quickly.
You probably want to pick up a small wet/dry vacuum to help with this cleanup and to vacuum your car in general (especially in your rainy climate). That’s what most people use here.
Along with the other comments, don’t wait too long.
I had that happen once as well.
Take the seats out so you can remove the interior and let that dry separately and vac the water off the floorboards and padding best you can. Then let that dry out. I used ran an extension cord to a portable dehumidifier that we commonly use here to lower the basement’s humidity.
This is a bit unconventional but to make sure it was all dry, I also spread a large bag of rice on the floor to dry it all out. Rice being a natural desiccant, it will quickly dry whatever it will gets in contact with. Just vacuum that up quickly because it will make an unholy mess if you leave it for any appreciable time.
… that, and don’t eat it. Not that I’ve tried that but no doubt it will not taste right afterwards. Perhaps save it for the next time you attend a wedding or something like that.
A 5 gallon wet/dry shop vacuum is a godsend tool to have in the house for all kinds of things.
( don’t know the type of stores avilable in england, but around here a shop vac can be easily bought at any hardware/home improvement store and most walmart & target style mass merchandisers. )
You can get that wet carpet in your car to a dang near dry state just with the vacuum.
At home you can get up any spill immediately without piddling around with sponges and towels…even staining spills like spaghetti and wine will not stain when vacuumed up asap with a jug of hot water and the shop vac.
Ditto on the padding. I had a serious water leak once and vacummed the carpet dry. Then I removed the sill and lifted the carpet to find gallons of water still in the padding/footwell. The carpet had a somewhat rubberized backing so vacumming from the topside did nothing to suck up the vast majority of it. I pulled out most of the padding and wrung out the rest, then propped up the carpet and ran a fan on/under it for several days until dried out completely. The padding and mats took a couple days hanging in the sun to fully dry out.