Spot Shot Hotshot

Mom Central asked if I wanted to test out a new carpet-stain remover that is non-toxic, biodegradable, and environmentally friendly (that is, it contains no phosphates and no VOCs, or volatile organic compounds). Of course I said yes—I mean, what sane person with three kids, two cats, and lots of carpeting would refuse?

Yesterday my free stain-removal kit arrived. Inside was a full-size bottle of Spot Shot (made by the WD-40 people), along with a swatch of carpet and two bottles of "mess"—one contained chocolate and one contained ammonia:

I followed the instructions and "painted" some chocolate goo onto the carpet with the enclosed brush:
 
Then I blotted up the excess with the white cloth:

and sprayed on some Spot Shot:

(The photo's blurry because I was spraying righty and photographing lefty—not the best idea I ever had.)

Then I wiped up the rest with a clean area of the cloth:
Here's how it looked after very little wiping:

Pretty impressive, eh? You'll have to take my word for it that the rest of the brownishness went away after another wipe; the final "after" photo didn't come out!

I started to repeat the experiment with the ammonia sample, which came with explicit warnings about not inhaling the stuff, but it was indeed too strong-smelling, so I didn't do that part of the experiment.

The enclosed brochure said that Spot Shot is also effective on old spots, so I headed to the basement, where the cats and kids do some of their best work. This unidentified series of spots has been there for years:

And here it is after one spritz of Spot Shot:

Whee! I really went to town down there, scrubbing away until my elbow gave out.

I'm really impressed with this product—it works and it's non-toxic! I've often found that the toxic stuff doesn't even do the trick, and I don't like to use it anyhow because of the little ones (both two-legged and four-legged) running around here.

The information they sent me said that there's also a Spot Shot Pet version, which I think will be my next purchase as soon as this bottle is empty.

Comments

[Di]

Wow...the people who sold us the carpet and flooring strongly recommended that stuff too.

[lis]

I use the aerosol Spot Shot spray and had pretty good luck with it - with cats, kids and now dogs... but this looks even better.

[Katy]

FYI - this product's safety data sheet lists butoxyethynol as a primary ingregient (<10%). Butoxyethanol is on the California OSHA list of hazardous chemicals: http://www.dir.ca.gov/title8/339.html (as is Butane). Butoxyethanol was also previously listed on EPA's list, but it was removed upon request from the American Chemical Council, a chemical industry trade association. Just be cautious about the word "non-toxic", as it falls under marketing terminology and not a regulated category of chemicals.