At some point in your life as a homeowner, it’s going to happen to you if it hasn’t already: someone’s going to spill something on your carpet. It might be wine, orange juice, coffee, or something else, but it’s something. Like a good homeowner, you’re going to clean it up. The stain will appear to disappear, but all of a sudden, three or four days later, it’ll be back, as if risen from the dead (or at least the carpet backing). What happened? How it did come back? Barring paranormal activity, you’re either dealing with soiling or wicking. We’ll explain what both are and, more importantly, how to get rid of recurring stains and spots in your carpets so you can get back to the rest of your life.

What are soiling and wicking, and how do they lead to reappearing carpet and rug stains?

We’ve written a full explanation of soiling here, but here’s a one minute summary: soiling is the name for the process of residue adhesion to dirt and grime in a carpet. In simple English, if you clean a carpet with a carpet cleaning solution but don’t fully rinse and blot it out, the residue will act as a dirt magnet, and any other particles that land on the residue will cause the original stain to appear to have returned, even though you’ll actually be dealing with a new stain. The residue can also come from the oils on the soles of our feet and the palms of our hands.

Wicking is the other main reason stains reappear, and it’s essentially a form of osmosis. Let’s say you spill something on your carpet. If the liquid is large enough, and you don’t clean it soon enough, it won’t just soak through the fibers; it’ll reach the carpet backing, and perhaps the underpad too. At this point, cleaning the stain itself will clean the carpet fibers, or surface, but it won’t clean the remnants of the stain left in the backing or underpad. With time, the fibers can reabsorb the still-liquid stain and bring the stain back to life, much like a flame relighting a candle after burning through the wick (which is where the name comes from).

As noted above, for wicking to occur, you’ll need a wet carpet. Your carpet might be wet if you steam clean it (a form of hot water extraction) but don’t fully dry the carpet after you clean it. If you use a cheap rental steam cleaner to perform a DIY steam clean, you’ll have a high risk of wicking since a lot of inexpensive rental units won’t have the necessary power to fully extract liquid from wet fibers.

How do you keep carpet stains and spots from reappearing?

To keep stains and spots from reappearing, you need to treat the spills as soon as possible–ideally the moment they occur. This keeps them from soaking into the fibers, the backing, and the underpad. Once you treat the stains, you’ll want to use paper towels or white, clean towels to further absorb any remaining moisture; you can weigh them down with books, furniture, or other heavy objects. Leave the weights in place overnight for maximum effect.

If your reappearing stains are due to soiling, you’ll want to use lukewarm water (a quarter cup at most) to clean the spot. Once you’ve rinsed the fibers, dry them to the greatest extent possible to keep wicking away. If the spot’s reappearance is due to wicking, you’ll still want to treat the spot and dry it as outlined above.

If none of the above methods work, or if you want to simply skip to the most effective steps, you’ll want to use a good carpet cleaner to take care of the stain. We share our recommendations below. If that doesn’t work, you’ll need to hire a professional carpet cleaning company to use hot water extraction. This should always be a last step, as it’s going to be the most expensive and require the most time to schedule and complete.

Which carpet cleaners and vacuums best deal with reappearing carpet and rug stains?

While no cleaning tool is guaranteed to keep recurring stains from reappearing in your carpets and rugs, using good tools combined with good technique can reduce the likelihood of having to clean the same stains over and over again. We recommend a dedicated, lifelong carpet cleaner for deep cleaning and a capable vacuum for day-to-day (or, depending on your lifestyle, week-to-week) maintenance. Remember: the more you stay on top of spills, the less likely they are to turn into stains to begin with.

For carpet cleaning, we’re fans of the  Bissell 86T3 Big Green. It packs industrial strength into a home-friendly package at a family-friendly price. For vacuuming, we recommend machines capable of tackling hardwood floors and all carpet styles and piles without a struggle. Two great candidates are the Miele Complete C3 Soft Carpet or the Miele Compact C2 Electro+. We’ve repeatedly reviewed the Soft Carpet (e.g., here, here, and here) and Electro+ (e.g., here and here) and found them to be among the best vacuums on the market right now.

You can buy the Bissell 85T3 Big Green carpet cleaner here on Amazon. You can buy the Miele Complete C3 Soft Carpet here or buy the Miele Compact C2 Electro+ here.

Canadians can buy the Miele Soft Carpet here, the Compact Electro+ here, and the Bissell Big Green here.

If you find our research on PMC helpful, you can follow our efforts to keep maniacally reviewing home cleaning tools by shopping through our links above. We promise to keep fighting the good fight against every horror children, animals, and grown, yet messy humans can inflict upon a clean home.