I’ve accepted the job of vacuuming & shampooing the carpet of my elderly friend’s small car. (The smell is due to neglected food crumbs over many years; she’s lost her sense of smell.) After the carpet dries I’ll lay down new floor mats. Question: What’s a good brand of shampoo for this “heavy duty” job?
I’d be incline dto pay a detailer to do it. They’ll have industrial strength equipment and chemicals that will do a much better job.
Gasoline and a match?
Just be careful that you get the carpets thoroughly dry before putting mats in. Do you have something that can blow hot air, rather than simple air drying? You don’t want to contribute to a chronic mildew stench! If one cleaning cycle doesn’t do the trick, do as suggested before and take it to a detailer.
Having done this a few times, I’ll say this: vacuum, vacuum, vacuum. Vacuum the living daylights out of the carpet before you start cleaning. Otherwise, you’re just going to wet-down the junk that’s buried deep deep in the pile of the carpet and it’ll never look clean.
That said, I have had good luck with Bissell’s hypoallergenic carpet shampoo. Go light on the shampoo, so that you don’t have to use too much water. Water under the carpet is a bad thing. Make sure to lift as much moisture out of the fabric as you can, and do it on a warm day where it will dry quickly. As was said, don’t put the mast back in until it dries.