What No Foam? (Vanish Carpet & Upholestery Shampoo)

Member Name: Emmald

Product:	Vanish Carpet & Upholestery Shampoo
Date:	12/02/09 (127 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: A good quality brand name carpet and upholstery cleaner.

Disadvantages: Nothing major.

Underneath my sink I always have a bottle of 1001 carpet cleaner but a month or so ago I completed a product test on a Vanish product for a survey company. Although I had seen and heard of Vanish I had never used it before, choosing to stick to 1001 the product I know best.
1001 carpet cleaner comes in a bright yellow plastic bottle, a colour that makes itself noticed! Vanish have the same theory and their product range comes packed in a shocking pink which is hard to mistake too.

Fashion dictates that plain carpets are the `in thing`, up until a few months ago I had a patterned carpet in my lounge but have recently replaced it with a plain wool Berber.
The patterned wool carpet accepted anything and always bounced back, muddy paws, dirty shoes, squashed biscuit after my little nephew had visited, you name it and I scrubbed it off!
After having tried the Vanish Laundry product instead of replacing my 1001 I decided to try some Vanish carpet cleaner.
One of the first things I checked was that it was suitable for wool carpets which it was, but they do advise you to check for colourfastness first.
I was surprised to learn that you cannot use Vanish cleaner on a suite with a velvet pile, I often rub my three piece suite over with 1001 to keep it as free from marks as possible so it was a disappointment that I couldn't use Vanish for the same job.


Vanish describes itself as being good for cleaning large areas of carpet by hand. It is very rare that I do anything but wipe away a mark or just clean a small patch. Before trying it on my lounge carpet I thought I would clean the bottom two or three treads of the stairs, so I vacuumed them and then ran some warm water into a bucket and added a small amount of Vanish.
It doesn't have that good build up of foam that 1001 gives, so when you apply it with a sponge or a brush it seems to be `wetter`, of course that means it takes longer to dry out.
The bottom three treads of the stairs came up well, the pile on the carpet was clean and had raised up well, giving the carpet a new and fresh look.
The Vanish had a reasonably pleasant smell and applied easily.
When the shampooed area has completely dried then you vacuum as normal.

You only need a spot of Vanish to make up a small amount for small stain removal so the bottle will go a very long way.
The end results were pleasing but I wished I had noticed before I bought it that it couldn't be used on upholstery with pile.
One thing that I missed was the foam that you get when you use 1001 carpet cleaner, it does dry quicker using that method.

Vanish cleaner is effective and copes admirably with the task but given the choice I will continue to use 1001 because that way I can clean both my carpets and upholstery with the same product.
Vanish also do a Powershot cleaner, an Oxi Action carpet and upholstery cleaner, a high traffic area powerfoam and acleaner that can be used in machines.
A 400ml plastic bottle of Vanish cost me £1.56 from Sainsburys.

Summary: Vanish copes well with everyday cleaning.