Remove smell of Smoke

[mb]

Can anyone suggest how to remove the smell of smoke from upholstery etc. - does it need shampooing or are there any other tricks - just a good reduction would do ?

Thansk

Martin

[NeilB]

Try some Groom and an upholstry brush on it, that may get rid of the smell.

If not then it maybe a wet/dry vac job.

[VW_Bora]

Something that worked for a friends car was the Odour Killer you can buy in Halfords, pine fresh or something it was,

He used a foam cleaner on it first though going over it a few times, and then the Odour Spray. Took the worst of it away a.f.a.i.r

[hotdog]

If the car has air-con, run a couple of those cleaning packs through. Halfrauds sell 'em. That should help freshen the interior.

[OGWT]

Smoke- a contact odour eliminator for all organic odours that eliminates the proteins that the odour causing micro organisms feed on quickly eliminating unpleasant odours. Odor Terminator is not a perfume or fragrance and leaves no offensive "cover up" aroma but effectively eliminates bad smoke odours. I would also suggest a very thorough cleaning of the interior (inc. the headliner) and all surfaces.

Odor Terminator (PN SKU: S-128), Automotive International http://www,autoint.com

JonM

[cleanimage]

As it says on the Autoint web site, any smell you have to eliminate has to be delt with at source... unless you are using enzymes (which don't work on tabacco tar) you need to get right on target.

For this reason, the best method applying any chemical treatment is by wet or dry fogger (we prefer wet foggers and have five of them), if you turn the heater or air-con on it will disperse the chemical all arond the car, under the dash, up into the wiring loom, under seats, and in all the air vents. If the car was heavly smoked in, a fine layer of tar and ash will have got just about everywhere, and inf you are a non-smoker, or worse still an ex-smoker you will always be able to smell it unless you get chemical contact to every area.

There are various chemical methods of tackling any smell. The first is enzymes which can deal with bacteria.

The second method is to use chemicals which break down the protiens of any offending substance, these are most often used as cleaning fluids, for example, some chemicals are formulated to break down fats and would be used to takle rotten meat and dead bodies...!

Another method is to use a chemical which seals in the smell by coating it. Obviously this is not an ideal solution as if you disturb the sealed area the smell returns... so this is usually a final stage for sealing areas that are unaccesable for cleaning. And this sealing chemical is usually formulated to break down whatever it is designed to cover(as above).

The final method is my masking. Smell has something which can best be described as a frequency rather like sound. And as with sound waves you can disrupt the signal by playing an opposite sound which will cancel it out. So if you want to cancel out the smell of tabacco smoke, you can introduce a specially formulated citrus smell, it will work well but will do nothing to mask the smell of rotten milk.

And despite all this, you can never totally get rid of certain smells, including smoke. The reson is this, you have already smelt it an your nose has tuned into it. Smell is one of the keenest senses, especially amoungst women. It also prevokes memory, once we have experience of a smell we never forget. So if you were to treat your car with every possible method, and were then to sell it, the new owner would never guess it had been smoked in, but for you, you would always catch a wiff now and again. Does that make sense? But unless you are a non-smoking nazi, you will probably be able to live with it.

There are a number of companies around the country who can do it - usually called something like Smell Doctor... which is a good name! Getting rid of smells isn't so much a science as a 'practice'. We certainly tell our customers that it may take a number of attempts to cure the problem (although you only get charged the once).

My best advice it to look in the Yellow pages (or yell.com) for somebody to come do this for you. You could phone around some of the larger valet companies to see if they have somebody they use. Unfortunately, the retail products don't really work - if you clean your seats and carpet with a proper extractor it will help, but much of the smell will be in the headlining, and unfortunately, often these cannot be shampooed to that degree... they will get so heavy they will sag, stretch, and even pull away from the roof. This is why special treatments are needed. It is also difficult to get into the vents with retail products. Thats the bottom line.