What is the difference between an upholstery extractor and a steam cleaner?
An upholstery extractor sprays a mix of water and cleaning agent onto the fabric and sucks it back into the machine right away together with the dissolved dirt. A steam cleaner uses only hot steam, with no extraction: the steam softens the dirt, but the dirt mostly stays in the fabric and dries back into it.
Why do you use an upholstery extractor instead of a steam cleaner?
With an upholstery extractor we can properly get rid of stains and odors and truly extract the dirt from inside the sofa. In our experience, this gives a more reliable and thorough result than a steam cleaner.
Is a steam cleaner suitable for a sofa?
A steam cleaner is used more for refreshing a sofa than for deep cleaning. Hot steam can damage some fabrics, for example by shrinking them, if used wrongly.
Is there a fabric that suits a different kind of cleaning better?
An upholstery extractor suits most fabrics. We clean a leather sofa with a different method, see leather.
How do you clean a sofa?
We use hot-water extraction cleaning with an upholstery extractor: we spray the product onto the fabric and extract it with the machine right away together with the dirt. You can find the whole process on the sofa cleaning page.