Recently, my cousin very generously gave me her used Pottery Barn area rug that matches Izzie’s new big girl room. It is a beautiful 6 foot, round rug with butterflies and flowers. Unfortunately, while my cousin was using the rug, they had an older dog that had many accidents on the rug that were never cleaned. Now, several years later, the stains were very difficult to remove.
The Cleaning Process
Steam Cleaning
I borrowed my friend’s Bissell Steam Cleaner (a great product) and used the hand tool to work on the individual stains and then steam cleaned the entire rug using Bissel’s Fiber Cleansing Advanced Formula. No change in the appearance of the urine stains.
Spot Remover
I used a carpet stain/spot remover we already owned, first spraying the stain itself and the area immediately surrounding it, then using one of Pampered Chef stone-scrapers to agitate the stain and work the product into the carpet. I let the carpet sit for 1 hour and used the hand tool of the steam cleaner to remove the cleaner and hopefully the stain. Again, there was no change in the appearance of the urine stains.
Nature’s Miracle
After a quick trip to Pet Smart and conversations and recommendations from several employees there, I purchased Nature’s Miracle Advanced Stain and Odor Remover. Following the same process as before, I sprayed the stain itself and the area immediately surrounding it, then used a scraper to agitate the stain and work the product into the carpet. I let the carpet sit for 1 hour (as recommended on the directions for more difficult to remove spots) and used the hand tool of the steam cleaner to remove the cleaner and hopefully the stain. After this, the stains appeared less pronounced than before, which I took as a sign of hope! 🙂
Repeat
I repeated step 3 twice more. The second time, letting the remover sit in the carpet for an hour, and the third time letting the remover sit in the carpet over night. After each of these spot removal attempts, I steam cleaned the entire carpet again using Bissell’s Fiber Cleansing Advanced Formula. After the third round with Nature’s Miracle, the stains looked visibly better and at some angles and lighting were not visible at all!
Nature’s Miracle Stain Remover Review
Nature’s Miracle Advanced Stain and Odor Remover, a 32 oz. trigger spray bottle cost $12.99 (about $10.50 on sale) at Pet Smart. It was recommended as the best option by two different store employees and I have a pet-owner friend who uses it in her home with lots of success. Even with the recommendations, the Pet Smart employees were skeptical that any product would be able to remove urine stains that were several years old. The product claims to “permanently remove organic stains and odors including urine” and in the small writing on the back of the bottle states it will work on older, set-in stains. In addition to the recommendations and these claims, I chose this product because it is also safe for use around children, a necessity given the rug will be in Izzie’s room.
Did they live up to their claims? Probably so. The stains were visibly reduced and have not returned as the spots dried and as time has passed. Overall, I was pleased with the product and felt it was worth the cost, especially given that the rug was free! The one big down-side was that the stain remover left a very strong odor behind that has taken almost a week is dissipate. I’m not sure this would deter me from future use since I can’t imagine using the same volume of product on one place (this time, using ½ – ¾ of the bottle on one rug to remove 9 large stains).
What do you think? Ever use Nature’s Miracle? Can you suggest other carpet stain removers?
I use Nature’s Miracle when my cat pees on the rug once in a while. It is the ONLY chemical on the market that eliminates the odor vs. covering it up. There is nothing else that can hold a candle to this stuff. Once applied, it takes time to begin to work but you have a noticeable results right away and 100% odor elimination 1 month later. This chemical actually eats the bacteria in the pee that causes the smell. Thanks for the great review and pictures.
We use Nature’s Miracle in our home as well. Our 16 year old lab started having “accidents” in the house overnight. All of the spots that we used them on were never more than about 8 hours old or so, but Nature’s Miracle worked well at removing the urine and odor.
Unfortunately, we ended up having to put Nikki down due to health reasons about 1 1/2 months ago. However, she live a long and healthy life with us.
We still keep about a half of a jug of Nature’s Miracle in the laundry room just in case one of our other pets have an “accident”. Thankfully, we haven’t had to use it in a while.
Jocie,
I have had decent results removing cat pee stains and odors with Nature’s Miracle, and even better results with the one gallon jugs of Petco brand enzyme stain and odor remover. The Petco brand also smells a little more like shampoo when it’s drying, which is a major plus when you have to smell it for a while.
Bissell Steam Cleaner is great product for home. Nature’s Miracle is also great product. But I prefer bissell steam.
we use natures miracle and fell they more than live up to claims. with 3 older cats the bissell cleaner filled with natures miracle is used daily. by far the best product we have found
Thanks for the product reviews. Someday my wife hopes to have a puppy, and every little bit of help convincing me it would be acceptable to have it in a house gives her encouragement!
We frequently dog-sit my brother-in-law’s 13 year-old Beagle. He’s a great dog and tries to wait until we get home from work, but it just doesn’t always happen. Thanks for review. I think I’ll try both the Nature’s Made and Petco stuff to see which one we prefer.
We recently rented a Rug Doctor to clean the carpets in the house that we rent. Unfortunately, the previous tenants seemed to have animals that were not house trained and our animals ‘recognized’ this for themselves and had to claim their own territory on a couple of occasions.
Needless to say the carpet cleaning adventure brought up more pet stain and soil from the padding. We were in desperate need of finding a solution to our carpet woes. We found a miracle cleaner at our local Lowe’s. Capture, which uses a polymer, goes down with ease and even easier removal. You simply vacuum the polymer after 30 or so minutes. This stuff is crazy! I’ve never seen an easier product to use with the level of efficiency