Carpet cleaning question
 

I recently purchased a Hoover "SteamVac" to clean my carpets. It did a
superb job, making 17 year old carpet look like it is only about 1 year old,
except for a few really bad stains.

There's a mystery, though. After cleaning the carpet, there were several
bad stains that appeared. In other words, the carpet was so dirty
previously that the stains just blended in with the dirt, so they weren't
visible until the carpet was cleaned. I recleaned and recleaned those
stains, but they just would not go away. In fact, they seemed to become
even more obvious. In desparation, I sprayed some "Goof Off 2" on to the
persistent spots. I thought that maybe the "Goof Off 2" would loosen the
stains and I would be able to blot them up, like the directions say.
Instead, the stains just disappeared in about a minute without a trace.
There was nothing to even blot up. The carpet has dried and the stains are
still gone.

Can anyone tell me why the stains disappeared? This was totally unexpected,
although I'm pleased, of course.

Some of the new oxygenated spot removers (Woolite makes one) are good at
getting out old stains. Bissell has a new 2 part aerosol that works well
too. Your Goof off probably bleached the stain out. If it isn't
recommended for carpets you are probably lucky you didn't ruin the backing.


"Intrigued" wrote in message
...
I recently purchased a Hoover "SteamVac" to clean my carpets. It did a
superb job, making 17 year old carpet look like it is only about 1 year
old,
except for a few really bad stains.

There's a mystery, though. After cleaning the carpet, there were several
bad stains that appeared. In other words, the carpet was so dirty
previously that the stains just blended in with the dirt, so they weren't
visible until the carpet was cleaned. I recleaned and recleaned those
stains, but they just would not go away. In fact, they seemed to become
even more obvious. In desparation, I sprayed some "Goof Off 2" on to the
persistent spots. I thought that maybe the "Goof Off 2" would loosen the
stains and I would be able to blot them up, like the directions say.
Instead, the stains just disappeared in about a minute without a trace.
There was nothing to even blot up. The carpet has dried and the stains
are
still gone.

Can anyone tell me why the stains disappeared? This was totally
unexpected,
although I'm pleased, of course.