How-To Videos

White clothing looks great—until winter or mud gets to it. If you’ve ever worn a white dress, sweater, or pair of pants outside in snow, slush, and dirty sidewalks, you already know how quickly it can go from bright and fresh to dull and dingy. Dirt splashes, grime, and sidewalk residue can make white fabric look much worse than it really is. The good news is that winter mess doesn’t have to ruin your favorite clothing.

It may not be the most exciting job on your to-do list, but cleaning the siding on your house is important not only for looks but also to improve the lifespan of your home! Luckily, with Stain Solver you can turn this job from something you dread doing into a quick and easy process.

It's the worst fear of homeowners everywhere... large mold colonies growing in their houses! Mold stains can be one of the most frightening stains to fix in your house, for all sorts of reasons. Not only can it damage the property, but it can also be hazardous to your family's health. In this Stain Solver Cleaning Tip, we're going to do a deep dive into what mold is, why it grows in your house, and how you can use Stain Solver as a safe and effective mold remover all over your home. How and Why Does Mold Grow? When you discover mold growing anywhere, one of the first things to do is to see if you can identify the source of the mold problem. This requires a little bit of understanding of how mold forms, and where it's most likely to grow. It all comes down to one main thing: moisture. Mold forms when spores, which are always present in the air, land on a surface that is moist and warm. The spores can then multiply and grow, leading to the formation of mold. Common sources of moisture in a home include leaks, flooding, high humidity, and condensation. Mold can grow on a variety of surfaces, including walls, ceilings, floors, and even furniture. How to Prevent Mold Growth in the First Place The best way to keep mold from growing in your home is to make sure that you're keeping the humidity levels of your house in check. The best ways to do this are by keeping your HVAC system well maintained, promptly fixing leaks that you find in your house, and doing your best to make sure that any mold growth is caught early. But if you've found some mold somewhere in your home (perhaps bathrooms with poor ventilation, laundry rooms, or other warm, moist environments) don't worry, Stain Solver is here to help you get rid of mold around your whole house! Different types of Mold and Mildew Mold and mildew are both types of fungi that thrive in damp environments. However, there are some differences between the two. Mold is usually fuzzy or slimy in texture and can come in a variety of colors, including black, green, and white. Mildew, on the other hand, is typically white or gray and has a powdery texture. While both can cause health issues, mold is typically more dangerous than mildew, especially black mold. Stachybotrys chartarum, also known as black mold, is considered one of the most dangerous types of mold. It produces mycotoxins that can cause severe health problems when inhaled, including respiratory issues, headaches, and fatigue. If you suspect that you have a substantial amount of black mold in your home, we recommend consulting a professional remediation service, so that they can remove it safely and entirely. Black mold removal and mold remediation is a job best left to the professionals! For less dangerous types of mold, or getting rid of mildew, Stain Solver is your mold removal solution! Mold Removal Safety Precautions Most of the jobs that you'll tackle with Stain Solver are just a little gross, but with mold removal, it can be more than that. It's especially important that you take proper safety measures when working to remove mold. Personal protective equipment, or PPE, is something that you should strongly consider when taking on moldy areas. Here's the PPE that we recommend: Rubber gloves. Safety glasses. A well-fitting mask. These things will help protect you from any mold spores that get released over the course of your cleaning project. How To Use Stain Solver to Solve Your Mold Stains Mold is one of Stain Solver's specialties! The chemical reaction that occurs when Stain Solver is mixed with water removes the mold from whatever surface it is clinging to, allowing you to go in and turn the mold prone area into a fresh and clean zone in your house. We're going to go over a few common mold removal projects, but first, we need to talk about how to mix and use Stain Solver most effectively. Before you Start your mold removal process, you should get all of your mold removal products together and ready to go. Here's what you'll need: Stain Solver Hot Water A Sponge or Scrub Brush (depending on what you're cleaning) A Spray Bottle PPE (as talked about above) Once you have everything together you can mix your Stain Solver solution. You can either mix it in a spray bottle, or in a bucket, just ensure that the powder is completely dissolved for best results! Check out our How-To page for specific mixing guidance, or you can just mix one cup of Stain Solver with one gallon of hot water. Once your solution has been mixed and your PPE is on, you're ready to attack your project of choice! We're covering five of the most common mold scenarios in this article, bust Stain Solver will work wherever mold appears in your home! How to Clean Mold in Bathrooms As you may have guessed, the Bathroom is one of the most common places where mold can grow. All of that moisture along with warm temperatures and limited ventilation makes this room the ideal place for moldy surfaces. Luckily, we have some guides to make sure you can get rid of all of the mold you might find in your bathroom. How to Get Rid of Mold from Plastic Shower Curtains and Liners Your shower curtain is one of the most common places to find mold in your house, especially if it doesn't dry completely. Luckily it's one of the easiest fabric items to get rid of mold on. There are two options. First, if there's only a small amount of mold, you can use your sprayer to apply the Stain Solver solution to the moldy curtain. Let this sit for a half hour to an hour, then scrub with a brush or sponge and rinse with warm water. You can let the affected area air dry. If mold has grown on a larger portion of the curtain, we recommend giving it a full soak. First, prepare a sink or bucket full of Stain Solver solution, then remove the curtain from your shower, and fully submerge it in the solution. Let it sit for an hour, and then rinse it off. All the mold will be gone! How To Remove Mold From Shower Tiles and Grout Often you'll find mold growing in the nooks and crannies of your bathroom, especially in places like shower tiles, grout, or around the bathroom door. Removing mold in these tough-to-reach spaces can be tricky, but with Stain Solver it'll be done in no time! Mix up your solution in a sprayer, and apply it to the affected area. Let it sit for an hour, then scrub with a stiff-bristled brush and rinse with water. You can also check out our article specifically on grout cleaning! Pro Tip: Check Your Bathroom Ceiling Fan! This is one place where mold can really build up in humid rooms, and maybe not the first place you'd check! Take a look at your bathroom ceiling fan to ensure that there is no dangerous mold hiding up there. If there is, use your sprayer with Stain Solver to attack the surface mold that's growing up there. If there is a lot of build-up you may want to take the fan out and scrub it off. How to Remove Mold from Walls and Ceilings Removing mold from the walls of your house is an easy job with Stain Solver, but there is a caveat here... if you're finding mold on the baseboards of your wall, you might have a bigger issue. Moisture stuck inside of your walls can cause mold to appear on the outside, which is bad enough, but it also can cause much more serious degradation of your wall framing. If you're having recurring issues with a moldy area in a place you don't expect it, you might want to consider calling in a professional to take a look. The same thing goes with ceilings, but even more so! If mold is affecting the structural integrity of your home, you might have bigger concerns than allergic reactions and runny noses. If it's only a little bit of mold and you want to take care of it yourself, grab that spray bottle and go to town! Use the same process as above: spray, let sit, scrub, and rinse. Removing Mold from Leather This is a project that we took on here when one of the back seats in the Stain Solver-Mobile (the trusty Negen Family 2006 Toyota Sienna) had grown some gross mold after not being used for a long time. Here's what it looked like before: Super gross, and a nasty shock when I unfolded them for the first time this spring. Luckily Stain Solver is a great mold remover, and took care of it with a minimum of fuss! Here's what I did: Filled a Sprayer with Stain Solver solution. Applied liberally to the moldy surfaces. Waited an hour. Used paper towels to wipe off the first layer of mold. Check out this photo of where I had wiped off versus where I hadn't: After I had wiped off the seat for the first time I needed to repeat the process to get the rest of the mold entirely gone. After another round of Stain Solver, the seat looked good as new! I rinsed off the seat to keep any residue from sticking to it, and it was like the mold was never even there! Here's the after photo: This process will work on leather of all sorts! Just make sure to test the Stain Solver on an inconspicuous spot first to ensure that no discoloration occurs. How to Get Rid Of Mold From Wood Oftentimes mold can grow on wood or other organic surfaces. To use Stain Solver on moldy wood we recommend applying the solution with a spraying bottle as outlined above, or for bigger jobs use a garden sprayer. Once the Stain Solver has done its work on the surface, rinse with plain water. We also recommend using mold-resistant paint for surfaces that are particularly mold prone. When is Mold Remediation the Answer? Sometimes a mold removal job is too big for you to take on on your own, no matter how good of a mold remover you have. This is when it's time to call in the pros and have someone perform professional mold remediation on your mold problem. The people who do this specialize in removing mold safely and effectively. Here are some examples of situations where mold remediation is a good idea: You find more than two square feet of mold, especially black mold, in your home. You find mold growing out of the base of a wall or from the ceiling. You think that mold might be growing inside of your walls. This is not an exhaustive list, but in general, if there's a lot of mold, someone in your home is particularly sensitive to it, or you think it's affecting something structural in your home, it's time to call in an expert and have it removed immediately. How to get rid of mold spores in the air While this isn't our area of expertise, and there's no way to entirely remove all mold spores from the air, using a HEPA filter can help trap spores and keep them out of your home's air. The best way to prevent mold spores from becoming a problem in your home is to make sure that you have adequate ventilation in humid and warm areas. Does Stain Solver Kill Mold? Technically, no, Stain Solver removes mold. Because Stain Solver isn't a toxic chemical like bleach, it won't kill the mold spores immediately. BUT it will remove them from where they're growing, which will cause them to die, and most importantly, not cause any more damage to your health or property. Final Thoughts Whew! That was a lot! As you can see, Stain Solver is excellent at removing mold all over your home. Best of all, it does this without releasing any toxic fumes or other harsh chemicals!

If there was one room in your house that takes up an outsize portion of your cleaning energy, it’s probably the bathroom. For a room that’s dedicated to keeping you clean, it can sure get dirty! One common (and unsightly) issue that can arise in a bathroom is toilet stains, especially yellow toilet bowl stains. These pesky stains can resist the efforts of traditional toilet bowl cleaners, and leave you scratching your head while you try to keep your toilet clean. Luckily, Stain Solver has you covered. We’ll go through the causes of these yellow stains, and how you can use Stain Solver to easily remove them. Let’s get started! What causes yellow stains in toilet bowl? There are a few things that might cause a yellow stain on your toilet bowl, but it’s actually very unlikely that urine is one of them. Urine Stains might cause issues on clothing or other fabrics, but they’re unilkely to get left behind on your toilet, despite how similar in color they are to the stubborn stains that you may be seeing on your toilet bowl. The yellow staining that you’re noticing is likely something else! In fact, one of the most common causes of yellow stains in a toilet bowl is hard water. Hard water contains high concentrations of minerals such as calcium and magnesium, which can accumulate in pipes and fixtures over time. When these minerals are present in the water, they can leave a yellowish residue behind on the surface of the toilet bowl. Another cause of yellow stains is iron deposits, which can occur naturally in well water or because of corrosive metals or plumbing materials that have begun to break down over time. When these deposits accumulate, they can leave behind a yellow hue on the surface of the toilet bowl. In some cases, this hue may be a sign that bacteria are growing inside your pipes as well. Finally, yellow stains in toilets may be caused by mold and mildew accumulation beneath the rim or underneath the surface around seals and joints due to moisture build-up from frequent flushing. The growth of mold and mildew can contribute to an accumulation of yellow film on your toilets surfaces. Okay, now that we know why these yellow stains occur, we can figure out how to get rid of them! How To Remove Yellow Stains From your Toilet Bowl Luckily, with Stain Solver it’s not very difficult to remove yellow stains from your toilet bowl. All it takes is a little bit of patience, and a very nominal amount of elbow grease. Follow these steps and you’ll have a clean toilet bowl in no time! All you need is some Stain Solver and a toilet brush. Here’s what a toilet bowl in our basement looked like previously: Not a pleasant sight! These hard water stains were well stuck on there, and our normal cleaning routine didn’t get rid of them. Step-By-Step Process To Remove Toilet Bowl Stains Here’s the cleaning method we used to remove the stubborn toilet bowl stains. Fill the Entire Toilet Bowl with Stain Solver Powder We used around a cup of Stain Solver and found that it yielded excellent results, but you could use more if you felt so inclined. Once you see the bubbles forming in the toilet water, you know that the chemical reaction has been initiated, and that Stain Solver is working to clean the stained areas! Be Patient! Now you simply have to hang tight and let the Stain Solver do its work. We let the solution sit for three hours, but leaving it up to six hours will further reduce the effort you have to expend to remove the yellow stain. Use a Scrub Brush to Finish The Job Once the Stain Solver has had a chance to loose all of the hard water stains and other ickiness on the toilet bowl, you just have to give it the final push it needs to make the stains disappear.   A quick scrub with a stiff bristled toilet brush should remove all of the stains, and get your toilet back to tip top shape. Here’s what our toilet looked like after all the stains were gone: To remove the stains from the toilet rim we would use a spray bottle to apply the Stain Solver solution to that part of the toilet. Other Considerations For Cleaning Toilet Bowls We’ve found that this is the best way to remove yellow stains from toilet bowls, but there are still some things to be aware of. First, if you have brown or red stains in your toilet bowl, they’re likely the result of rust stains, which is not something that Stain Solver is good at getting rid of. In this case we recommend muriatic acid. But this is a MUCH more dangerous chemical than Stain Solver is, and it’s critical to use PPE like rubber gloves when dealing with that sort of cleaning product. If you’re regularly seeing this sort of staining it could mean that you have very hard water, or even pipe corrosion. If this is the case, we recommend talking to a qualified plumber to see if they can help you get your plumbing fixtures up to snuff. Finally, regularly cleaning your toilet properly is the best way to avoid this kind of buildup, so make using Stain Solver on your bathroom surfaces a regular part of your routine. Final Thoughts Stain Solver is an excellent toilet bowl cleaner, and can be use to whiten surfaces all over your bathroom, and elsewhere in your home as well. Check out our full library of cleaning tips to see how it can help to amplify your best cleaning efforts and make your whole home sparkling clean!  

Red wine stands at the top of the mountain when it comes to notoriety. Not only is difficult to get out, it always seems to find its way onto the white fabrics in our lives! Well have no fear, Stain Solver is your silver bullet when it comes to getting rid of your toughest red wine Stains. In this article we have a video about how to get red wine stains out of napkins, and a case study for how to remove them from a white shirt.

It’s Joe from Stain Solver here, and I’ve got a story for you… one that’s important if you wash your dishes in a dishwasher. I moved into a new apartment recently, and was on the lookout for places where I could use Stain Solver to keep things sparkling. One of the places that I knew food debris and grime could get trapped was in the filter of dishwashers, so I went to check it out. It was so much worse than I thought it would be. Brace yourselves… I was horrified! The plates, pans, silverware, and glasses that I eat off of go through that dishwasher, and who knows what kind of germs were growing in there. It was a hardened mass of food particles, dirt, hair, detergent residue, a banana sticker, and who knows what else. Be glad that the geniuses over in silicon valley haven’t figured out how send smells over the internet because it was… not nice. Luckily, here at Stain Solver we figured out the best way to clean your dishwasher filters, so you’ll never need to worry about food bits, calcium deposits, unpleasant odors, or other grossness lurking in your dishwasher. So without further ado, let’s talk about how to clean your dishwasher filter with Stain Solver.   Do Dishwashers Have Filters That Need To Be Cleaned? As you can see from the above photos the answer to this question is a resounding YES! Dishwasher filters are a critical part of the appliance, and are what makes it possible for it to get rid of the left over bits of food that stay on plates when they go in the dishwasher. Just like any other part of your home, a little bit of maintenance goes a long way, and staying on top of keeping your dishwasher filter clean can help you avoid a situation like the one that I encountered with a truly disgusting filter that I had to clean. A Telltale Sign Your Dishwasher Filter Needs Cleaning Luckily, you’ll get a big clue that it’s time for a cleaning. It’s pretty obvious when your newly cleaned dishes aren’t getting as clean as they used to. If your glasses are starting to look cloudy, or food debris isn’t coming off of plates, it might be time clean the filter. The filter is a big part of how your dishwasher cleans your dishes, and if it’s not cleaned properly it can impede the ability of the machine to clean dishes. Why Is It Important To Clean Your Dishwasher Filter? It’s important to clean your dishwasher filter for a few reasons, but the most important one is cleanliness and safety. The warm, moist environment full of food particles that a dirty filter creates is the ideal breeding ground for bacteria and mold. Not the kind of things you want near plates and glasses you eat and drink from. Outside of the health concerns, we’ve already mentionde how a clogged filter can seriously impede the cleaning ability of your dishwasher. If your dishes aren’t coming out as clean as they used to, a dirty filter could be to blame. Finally, a dirty filter can small BAD! If there’s a nasty odor coming from your dishwasher, a gross filter might be the cause. How do I know what kind of dishwasher filter I have? Dishwashers will have one of two kinds of filters in them, a self-cleaning filter, or a manual filter. Older dishwashers (those made before 2010) will have the self-cleaning variety. There is one pretty important caveat here, as the self cleaning filters don’t really do that good of a job of cleaning! The dishwasher that held the mess you saw above was a self cleaning one, so even if that’s the kind you own, you should still clean your dishwasher filter. Newer models will have manual filters that are explicitly designed to be taken out and cleaned. Manual filters require cleaning on a regular basis to keep your dishwasher working at top capacity, it’s just a part of the routine maintenance of those appliances. If you’re not sure what kind of filter your dishwasher uses, a quick google search or perusal of the owner’s manual should be able to help you find out. Finding and Accessing The Dishwasher Filter For self-cleaning models you’ll have to remove the spray arms in order to get to the filter. Here is where I located mine: In newer models with manual filters you should be able to see it at the bottom of the dishwasher when you pull the lower dish rack out. Take the filter out of the dishwasher (in some older models you’ll have to remove the center part from the circular plastic grid that surrounds it) and get ready to clean! How to Clean Your Dishwasher Filter Now for the fun part, the cleaning! When I first pulled the filter out I tried to take a sponge to the outside of it and break up some of that dense junk on the inside with dish soap, but to no avail. This is where Stain Solver came to the rescue. Step-By-Step Instructions to Clean a Dishwasher Filter Here’s how I used Stain Solver to give my dishwasher filter a thorough cleaning. Filled up a large bowl with hot water and added a half cup of Stain Solver, and stirred until completely dissolved. Removed the center portion of the flat filter from the apron and submerged it in the Stain Solver solution. Let sit for an hour, then removed from the solution. If your filter isn’t as gross as mine was this might be all that you need to do, but this first soak was enough to get the gunk loosened, but not removed. Here’s what I did next. Used a sponge, hot soapy water, and the end of a fork to dislodge some of the debris from the center of the filter. I also was able to use a soft bristle brush (you could probably use an old toothbrush if you’d like) to start to remove some of the gunk stuck on the outside. Avoid using a wire brush here as it could damage the filter. Poured out the old Stain Solver solution and made up a fresh bowl, and put the filter into the new solution. Periodically rinsed the filter with warm water as new debris got dislodged, until all of the gunk and foreign objects were gone. Used a sponge with dish soap to gently scrub the remaining bits of gunk off (sometimes a little elbow grease goes a long way!) and then rinsed with warm water. The Results It’s a few more steps than some folks might like to take, but once you see the results I think you’ll agree it was worth it! Check out how clean the filter looks: It looks like a brand new filter! I’ve noticed a serious difference in the cleaning performance of my dishwasher as well. More Dishwasher Cleaning Tips While this article focuses on a deep clean of your dishwasher filter, there are some other things that you can do to ensure that you don’t have to do this sort of manual cleaning as often. Scrape food left over off of your plates before you put them in the dishwasher. This helps avoid the kind of buildup that you saw in my filter! Extra points if you rinse your dirty dishes completely! It takes just a few minutes, but can really make a big difference in getting your dishes clean and and keeping your dishwasher running at its best! We might sound like a broken record, but rinse your dishwasher filter often! A little bit of effort every few weeks helps you avoid a big job like the one I had. Give your dishwasher a vinegar bath! Fill a bowl up with distilled white vinegar and place it on the top rack of your dishwasher, then run a wash cycle using hot water. Final Thoughts We hope that this helped you figure out how to clean the filter on your dishwasher, or maybe just inspired you to take a look under the hood and make sure there wasn’t a gross mess lurking there!