Best Stain Remover

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Updated 11:35 pm

In order to bring you this list of the best stain removers on the market, we’ve done extensive research on stain removers for carpet, laundry and fabric, as well as the best overall on the go stain removers and odor removers for pet owners and parents. All the options on our list effectively get out grease, oil stains, and set in stains, and offer good value for your money. To that end, we favored products that offered natural or non-harmful ingredients as safety among pets and children was paramount. So, it is up to you to get the best prices on appliances.

Our top pick, the Puracy Natural Laundry stain remover is a hypoallergenic non toxic stain remover for clothes, and it gets rid of odors too. Keep reading to learn more about this and our other top picks.

Top 7 Best Stain Remover Compared

 #1  Puracy Natural Stain Remover

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Award: Top Pick

WHY WE LIKE IT: Effective stain removal on clothing, carpets, floor mats, car seats and more, plus natural, hypoallergenic ingredients, make this a top pick among home stain removers.

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  • Natural & eco-friendly
  • Safe for colors, and works on grass, berries, sweat, oil and more
  • Hypoallergenic and deodorizing

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  • Doesn’t come in stain remover pen form
  • More expensive than some on-the-go stain removers

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This natural stain remover is effective on an enormous variety of stains, using natural enzymes and non-toxic compounds to break up grease, pet stains, food and beverage stains and more. It’s free of irritating dyes and is one of the best performing non-bleaching stain removers on the market. It works as a stain remover for carpet and car seats, floor mats and linens, too.

Related: If you want to enjoy music in your room, get the best speaker shelfs.

This hypoallergenic stain remover gets great reviews from pet owners and parents of young children. It not only removes visible stains from white clothing, bedding and furniture, it deodorizes, too. It does like a longer soaking-in period than some stain removers, and it’s a spray formula, not a “pen” so it may not be the most on-the-go stain remover. If you’re interested in looking at “pen” stain removers, check out Tide to Go – a quick on-the-go stain remover for fresh spills and stains. The best washing machine is a powerful ally against stains in its own right.

 #2  Biokleen Bac Out Stain Remover

Award: Honorable Mention

WHY WE LIKE IT: A great botanical, eco friendly stain remover for carpets and clothing that uses no artificial fragrances or dyes, it works well on pet stains, grease stains, wine and coffee stains and more.

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  • Best odor remover
  • Fragrance-free & hypoallergenic
  • Great for pet stains

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  • More expensive than the other stain removers on our list
  • May require soaking in and then blotting

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An advanced, all natural formula helps this enzyme and botanicals-based stain remover from BioKleen dissolve the toughest and grossest pet stains, food stains and grease stains on your carpet, upholstery and clothing. It works as a stain remover for laundry or on its own along with carpet or floor cleaning products making it an essential addition to your laundry room.

Related: If you want stainless steel to shine again, use the best stainless steel cleaners.

The Biokleen Bac Out stain remover also deodorizes effectively, without using artificial fragrances or bleach. Therefore, it is one of the best laundry stain removers available and it makes a good stain remover choice for those with chemical sensitivities or who might be allergic to common artificial fragrances or dyes. It comes in a ready to use formula, with no mixing or diluting required. The best laundry detergent will go a long way toward fighting stains, but sometimes you need more.

 #3  Oxi Clean Versatile Stain Remover

Award: Best for Laundry

WHY WE LIKE IT: Oxi Clean’s time-tested oxygen based formula helps dissolve tough, set-in stains on your clothing without damaging colors.

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  • Chlorine free & color safe
  • Removes grease stains
  • Chlorine-free

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  • Requires warm to hot water
  • Not for use on wool or dry-clean only items
  • Stain Remover Oxiclean may not work well on all types of upholstery

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Oxi Clean is the standard for laundry stain removers, and with good reason. This chlorine-free formula works in tandem with laundry detergent to get out tough grease stains on most kinds of fabric. As long as you’re washing your clothes with hot water, you don’t need to dilute oxi clean or dissolve it anything first, and it works as a pre-soak stain remover, too.

While it’s considered a laundry stain remover and mainly designed for clothes and other laundry items, you can use oxi-clean to remove stains on some carpets and upholstery as well. Some caveats with oxi clean are that you should check to make sure your clothes are color fast, and it’s not to be used on wool or any “dry clean only” fabrics. You can also check out the best detergent pods.

 #4  Shout Advanced Foam Aerosol Stain Remover

Award: Best Budget

WHY WE LIKE IT: A budget spray on stain remover for laundry, it does a good job dissolving grease and set in stains and helps the wash do its job.

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  • Super concentrated for spot set-in stains
  • Safe for all colorfast machine washable clothes
  • No 24-hour pre soak required

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  • Contains fragrance
  • Not as hypoallergenic as stain removers from Biokleen and Puracy
  • Not as deodorizing as Puracy Natural stain remover

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Shout Advanced stain remover for laundry does a great job getting rid of stains from grease, tomato sauce, red wine, and other notoriously hard to remove substances making it one of the best laundry stain removers for common food stains. It works on pet stains as well. You can use Shout advanced stain remover on colors as long as they’re colorfast and labeled machine washable. As with oxi clean, Shout advises using the hottest water the fabrics will tolerate, for best stain removing results.

Another advantage of Shout, aside from its spray-on convenience and bargain price, is that you don’t generally need to soak the stained clothing for very long. The product calls for a five minute soak, though many users find slightly longer works better. This and the best front load washing machine will keep you stain free.

 #5  Spot Shot Professional Stain Remover

Award: Best for Carpet

WHY WE LIKE IT: This professional stain remover for carpet comes in a convenient spray bottle and safely, quickly cleans and deodorizes carpets.

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  • Works almost instantly
  • No scrubbing or extra steaming/ vacuuming needed
  • Safe for most kinds of carpet fabric

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  • Not recommended as stain remover for laundry
  • Not as hypoallergenic nor as versatile as Biokleen (our #2 pick)
  • Not for those with sulfite sensitivity–may cause reaction

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If you’re mainly looking for a heavy duty stain remover for carpet, the Spot Shot Professional is definitely worth a look. It dissolves grease, oil, wine and other common types of stains, and is safe for use on virtually all common forms of carpet fabric. It works on deep pile carpets as well as fine textured carpeting, and is designed for fast, convenient stain removal.

The Spot Shot stain remover for carpet doesn’t require scrubbing or vacuuming afterwards, and it also works to eliminate odors from pet accidents, food spills, and more. It even works on old, set-in stains, making it a good thing to have for home renovation. Stain removers are a must for the kitchen, just like any kitchen gadgets.

 #6  Resolve Max Spray and Wash Stain Remover

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Award: Best Spray-on Laundry

WHY WE LIKE IT: A spray on stain remover for laundry that cuts set-in stains using an effective, advanced, chlorine-free peroxide-based formula. It works wonders on grease and other organic stains.

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  • Fast acting formula
  • Convenient spray on bottle
  • Usable in any water temperature

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  • Less friendly for those with chemical sensitivities than Puracy (our top pick)
  • Not as versatile as oxi-clean
  • Only for colorfast, machine washables, not for silk or wool or fluorescent fabrics

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While there are some limits to what you can use it on, this highly convenient spray-on stain remover for laundry works very well at getting rid of tough grease stains, food stains and more. It requires no lengthy pre-soak period and is free from chlorine bleach. Packed in a ready-to-use spray bottle, it gets to work in as little as five minutes.

Resolve’s max strength stain remover uses a peroxide based formula that’s safe for most machine washable laundry, but it’s not designed to be used on wool, washable silk or fluorescent clothing, and it may cause colors to run if not colorfast. You can also check out our best home appliances products for machines that are powerful.

 #7  Grandma’s Secret Laundry Spray Stain Remover

Award: Best Quality

WHY WE LIKE IT: A versatile spray stain remover that gets rid of tough grease stains, coffee, wine and ink stains on most kinds of fabric, it’s among the best and quickest stain removers on the market for removing old, set in stains.

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  • Removes deep set-in stains
  • Biodegradable and free of chlorine and phosphates
  • Efficient–one bottle can last up to a year

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  • More expensive than Shout or Oxi Clean
  • Less deodorizing than Biokleen

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One of the most concentrated stain removers for clothes, this spray on spot remover from Grandma’s Secret is easy to recommend. It lives up to its billing as the “washing machine in a bottle,” and can really save the day when it comes to on-the-go stain removal. It works fast, and a little of it goes a long way. One 22 oz bottle is claimed to last up to about a year. Unlike with oxi clean, there’s no need to let it soak for long periods of time.

Grandma’s Secret works very well on grease stains, food and wine stains, urine, oil, armpit stains and more. It even removes some ink and paint stains. Plus, it’s biodegradable and eco friendly, made without phosphates or halide compounds. It should easily clean up the best shop cloth after they get dirty.

How We Decided

In order to round up the best stain removers you can buy, we narrowed down the field and only considered those spot cleaning products that were chlorine-free, so as not to bleach everything in sight. We also awarded bonus points for hypoallergenic stain removers and those that dispensed with environmentally harsh or polluting chemicals.

We selected only stain removers with proven effectiveness on grease stains, common stains like food stains and pet stains. Odor-destroying action, as you can get with the Puracy Natural stain remover (our top pick) was a bonus.

Among carpet and car stain removers, we looked for spray on products to determine the best on-the-go stain remover that worked quickly on fresh stains and didn’t require extra vacuuming or scrubbing. For laundry stain removers we looked for those that were safe on at least colorfast machine washable clothing.

Stain Remover Buyer’s Guide

Features to Consider

  1. Natural and Hypoallergenic Formulas
    If you have chemical sensitivities or are allergic to sulfites you may get a reaction from many common stain removers. Therefore it’s especially important to look for stain removers with natural and hypoallergenic ingredients.
  2. Powder vs Spray On
    For laundry stain removers, consider whether you’re looking for a product to add to the regular detergent and use in your washing machine or an on-the-go spot remover. A powdered stain remover like oxi clean works great as a pre-soak or in the laundry, provided the water is hot enough. For on-the-go stain removing, consider a spray like the Puracy natural or Grandma’s Secret.
  3. Odor removal
    Some stain removers also do a great job at getting rid of odors. If you’re buying a stain remover for tasks like cleaning up after pets and getting rid of food stains, you may want to look at a stain remover with enzyme-based deodorizing, such as the Biokleen (our #2 pick) or the Puracy Natural (our top pick)

Stain Remover FAQs

How long do you need to soak a stain remover for clothes?

It varies by type, but for best results with soak-in stain removers like Oxi Clean, soak as long as you can if you aren’t planning on washing in hot water. Other stain removers, like the Resolve Max and Grandma’s Special spot removers, advertise as little as five minutes of soaking time.

Do these work on old stains?

All the stain removers on are list advertise at least some capacity to get out old, set-in stains, and in particular old pet stains or old food stains. The enzyme-based Puracy Natural and Biokleen should be able to break down any biodegradable or organic compound stains, no matter the age. You may find that the older the stain, the more soak-in time is required.

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