1. The purpose of this fair test was to find
out which brand of carpet stain remover
removes stains the most effectively.
There were four brands of carpet stain
remover used in this fair test; White
Wizard, Cavalier Bremworth, Preen and
Chem Dry.
2. Why I decided on this fair test
After many years of trying to get stains out of
my carpet and also having my bedroom
recarpeted twice in the past 5 years. I decided
now was a good chance to see whether the
money I was spending on expensive carpet stain
removers was actually worthwhile, or if the
cheaper brands were just as good, if not better!
3. Chem-Dry Stain Eliminator
This was the most expensive brand of the four,
retailing around $25-$30 per can.
This product is sprayed onto the carpet, left for
30 seconds, and then blotted up with a clean dry
cloth.
4. White Wizard
The next most expensive brand of the four
products, retailing $20 - $25.
This product claims to be an all round spot
remover for every type of surface/fabric. Which
is apparantly popular with many hotels.
It is a paste-like substance which is applied to
carpet and rubbed off with a damp cloth.
5. Cavalier Bremworth
This brand was the next expensive, retailing
around $12 a bottle.
This product is sprayed onto the carpet stain
and left for several minutes until white powder
appears and then is vacuumed off.
6. Preen Vanish Oxi Action
This was the cheapest brand of the four,
retailing $8 for the bottle.
This product is sprayed onto the stain and has to
be left 5 minutes before removed by rubbing
with a clean, damp cloth.
7. Materials required:
Strip of carpet
4 different brands of carpet stain remover
Stain #1: Red food colouring
Stain #2: Makeup (foundation)
Clean White Cloth
Paper towel
8. Procedure:
1. Spill 10ml of red food colouring onto a section of
the carpet and leave for 1 minute.
2. Dab excess liquid with dry cloth/paper towel and
apply Chem-Dry carpet stain remover to stain.
Follow directions on the products instructions for
removing stain.
3. Record how long it takes to remove stain and
take photograph of end result.
4. Repeat steps 1-4 on different sections of carpet
for White Wizard, Cavalier Bremworth and Preen.
5. Dab a small amount of makeup (foundation)
onto another section of carpet and leave for 1
minute.
6. Repeat steps 2-4 for each brand of stain
remover.
9. Controlled variables:
- Same carpet.
-Same mediums for the ‘stain’, e.g. same red
food colouring and makeup.
- The same amount of stain each stain applied
to the carpet.
10. Results:
According to my testing, the Preen Vanish Oxi Action removed
the red food colouring stain the best out of the four brands;
leaving the least amount of stain behind. Preen Vanish Oxi
Action and Chem-Dry both removed the makeup stain
completely, in the same amount of time.
White Wizard removed the makeup stain, but it took
significantly longer than both the Preen and Chem-Dry. Cavalier
Bremworth was not able to remove this stain after over 10
minutes of trying. Both of these products significantly improved
the red food colouring stain but were not able to remove the
stain completely after 10 minutes of application. Cavalier
Bremworth also left a white ring around both stains which I was
not able to get out.
11. Brand of Stain Red Food Colouring Revlon Makeup
Remover
Chem-Dry After 4 minutes of blotting this product After 5 minutes of blotting this product
was able to remove the majority of the seemingly removed the whole stain.
red stain. It left a very small area of pale
pink stain.
White Wizard Spent 10min+ trying to remove the stain Spent 10min+ trying to remove the stain
with this product and was unsuccessful. with this product and was unsuccessful.
The stain is still visible. The stain is still visible.
Cavalier Bremworth After spending 5 minutes rubbing this Spent 10min+ trying to remove the stain
product into the carpet the vast with this product and was unsuccessful.
majority of the stain disappeared. This product also produced a white ring
However, it did leave a white ring around the stain which I was not able to
around the stain which I was unable to remove. It also seemed to enhance the
remove. stain.
Preen After 1 minute of applying this product After 5 minutes of blotting this product
to the stain the majority of the stain seemingly removed the whole stain.
disappeared on it’s own. After spending
a further minute blotting the stain I was
able to get most of the stain out.
19. Conclusions:
My hypothesis was that the most expensive brand; Chem-Dry, would be the
best stain remover. Although Chem-Dry was a better stain remover than both
White Wizard and Cavalier Bremworth, and removed the makeup stain as well
as Preen, the preen stain remover was able to remove the red food colouring
stain better than Chem-Dry. This overall made Preen the best stain remover
for these stains out of the four brands.This shows that you don't always get
what you pay for, as Preen was the cheapest brand out of the four. Cavalier
Bremworth is more expensive than Preen, yet was overall the worst stain
remover out of the four.
This test also showed that some stain removers work better on different types
of stains than others. For example, Cavalier Bremworth was not able to
remove any of the makeup stain, but was able to lift a lot of the red food
colouring stain. An interesting future study might involve testing these
products with a larger range of stains, e.g. dirt, coffee, chocolate, grass etc.