How to Clean Office Chair Smell? – My Chair Reviews

A new office chair comes with a specific smell of materials, but it gets worst with time due to the dust and sweat of users. But if you want to get rid of that awful smell, you need to know how to clean the office chair smell.

Home and office chairs are an essential part of the furniture that we all have in our offices. Like all other furniture, these office chairs also get dirty. If you want to keep the chair in the best condition, you need to do proper cleaning and maintenance. 

Chairs made up of plastic and foam have a unique odor. Once you are using it for a long time, it will pick up other smells, and it is pretty embarrassing when the office chair emits an awful odor. 

The chairs are both brand new or older, need proper maintenance, and demand deodorization occasionally. So you can take your chair easily when you have to move from one environment to another.

Reason for Office Chair Smell

If you want to clean the smell from the chair, you have to know the reason behind it.

• Manufacturing Smell: VOCs are essential chemical compounds used as an industrial solvent for products like paint, office material, and furnishing. These VOCs evaporate over time and release into the air through the off-gassing process. These gases cause an awful smell from the new chair.
• Bacteria: Bacteria cause body odor, and if you spend a lot of time sitting on the chair, these bacteria will transfer from the body to the chair. The chair material will absorb it and will emit an awful smell. 
• Sweating: Most office chair users spend most of their time sitting in their offices. The chair absorbs their sweat and, over time, emits terrible fouls.
• Fungi: It causes a musty or moldy smell because of moisture on the chair’s material. If the chair is moist, molds and mildew will start growing inside and emit a scent. 
• Preserving Chemicals: This is the smell of chemicals used for manufacturing the chair. This smell, unlike fungi and bacteria, will fade away over time.

General Care Of The Chair

Whenever you are testing a new cleaning method, try it on the hidden spots of the chair. Try it either on the backside or anywhere else that does not show. 

Every chair material is different, so you don’t know how a single cleaning method will affect another. Testing in the hidden part ensures you that you are not going to damage the critical part of the chair.

• Remove Stains

Wipe it as soon as possible whenever you notice a stain on the chair. The longer it will stay, the harder it is to remove. 

• Check The Tag With Cleaning Instructions

Before you begin, you must check the instruction tag your chair contains to avoid any damage. This tag has clear instructions about how you can clean your chair. Usually, these tags have the letter code to guide you on how to care for your chair.

These codes could be:

• W: Water-based cleaning is fine
• S: Solvents are OK, but don’t apply water 
• WS: Both Solvent and water-based cleaning are fine 
• X: Don’t try to clean the chair by yourself 

Read the instructions properly to ensure that you’re not damaging the fabric anyway. 

• Avoid Breathing Harsh Chemicals

Apply any chemical with a pungent smell in well-ventilated areas or use a respirator to avoid breathing in the harsh scent of the chemicals. It affects people who are suffering from asthma.

Related article: Remove Smell from Leather Office Chair

How to Clean Office Chair Smell

There are a lot of methods to clean the smell from the office chair. Here are some of them to consider:

1. Fabric

Chairs with fabric upholstery need dry cleaning; it requires no-water base cleaning to remove the smell.

Vacuum Cleaning

The first step to cleaning any fabric chair is to vacuum up all the debris and dust particles trapped in the chair. This vacuum cleaning will help accumulate any dust and debris placed on the chair’s surface and improve the odor.

A strong suction vacuum can suck out all the deeply penetrated dust particles from the chair that cause the smell. You can go over the chair more than once, depending upon the time you last cleaned the chair and the strength of the chair. 

This vacuum cleaning alone is not enough to remove the smell from the chair. Still, it is an excellent start to cleaning the chair’s dust, debris, and other particles.

You can use a duster if you don’t have a vacuum cleaner. It will not work the same as a vacuum cleaner, but it is also effective in wiping out the powder from the chair.

2. Genuine Leather

Suppose you have a leather chair in your office. In that case, you can use three methods to clean leather upholstery, i.e., leather cleaner, baking soda, and vinegar.

A. Use the Vinegar to Treat the Chair

Vinegar is another powerful method to remove the odor; it can kill off smell-causing bacteria. Vinegar by itself is too strong to use, as it can treat or damage the chair’s upholstery. You have to use it properly while applying vinegar to the chair’s fabric. Always mix it with water to lower its acidity and then use it. 

Here are a few steps to remove the office chair smell by using vinegar:

• In the spraying bottle, put one part of vinegar and one part of water 
• Spray the solution onto the material you want to moisten
• Let it dry 
• Then, use a small cotton ball or a piece of cloth to wipe the vinegar out. 

Keep in mind that all office chairs’ materials are not the same; some work fine with vinegar while others get decolorized. If you are unsure, try it first by spraying it on the hidden spot and waiting for a day to see the results. 

B. Leather Cleaner

Leather chairs are less prone to absorbing smell while it’s in use. They have a leather scent and proper care instructions with a chair to care for it. Usually, you have to follow whatever the instructions are to handle the chair. 

To care for leather chairs, using leather conditioner is the best option. It helps maintain a protective coating and ensures that the leather does not crack or dry out. You have to use a leather conditioner regularly to avoid any problem with the chair and remove any smell. 

C. Apply Baking Soda

Baking soda is one of the old and most potent household cleaners available. There is common thinking that baking soda can absorb the odor of bacteria; that’s why it is effective at removing foul smells. 

What Can Baking Soda Do?

• It reacts chemically with odor-causing particles to break them down 
• It works exceptionally well as a scouring paste
• It also can respond with vinegar for better results.

Place your chair somewhere out and sprinkle baking soda over the chair’s surface. Let it sit for hours, and leave the chair for a day or two. Chemical reactions take time to happen; once they react, vacuum up the powder from the chair for a clean smell. 

3. Faux Leather and Vinyl

It is easy to care for Vinyl and Faux leather office chairs. You can clean these chairs using water-based cleaners and Bleach solutions. Before applying these solutions, you have to double-check the tag instructions to ensure that there will be no damage. 

A. Commercial Cleaner

If you are working for longer to remove the smell and your home remedies are not working effectively, you need a commercial cleaner. Commercial cleaners are the big guns that you buy from the stores as commercial chemicals.

They are cleaning products that are usually solvents mixed with water, allowing them to penetrate the surface. There are a lot of products like Bissel cleaner, Scotch guard, and many others. You have to pick up the best cleaner in your experience and test them on different chairs. 

B. Alcohol / Bleach Cleaning 

Alcohol as a cleaner is somewhat more potent than vinegar. It has a long-lasting, pungent odor. It helps to denature any organic and synthetic particles that cause a smell. Apply alcohol in a well-ventilated space and use a respirator when applying it. 

You have to soak a cotton ball or cloth in alcohol and rub it on your chair’s surface. Let it dry and wait for a while until there is no longer a smell or odor. 

4. Mesh 

Vacuum mesh chairs daily. You can also remove the dust or stains using a damp cloth, but don’t drag it across the mesh. You can also place a mesh chair under the sunlight to remove the smell.

A. Leave the Chair under Sunlight

Ultraviolet radiation of the sun has the power to break down organic compounds, synthetic and natural particles. Place your chair under the sun for very little time to avoid the unpleasant smell. 

Just be sure not to leave it for a very long time; a couple of hours is more than enough. 

B. Steam Cleaning

Steam cleaning is another essential method to clean and maintain furniture. You can use a steam cleaner to avoid the smell from the chair, but you have to ensure that water will not damage your chair. 

You can use heated water for steam cleaning to infuse the surface with hot moisture. Once you treat your chair with steam, use suction to pull all the grime, dirt, and odor-causing compounds out. This powerful combination will improve cleaning fabric and upholstery.

5. Plastic

Plastic chairs can be cleaned with water and soap but be careful about using chlorine or bleach. Vinegar and baking soda on a wet sponge remove stains without causing any damage but are mildly abrasive.

A. Deodorizer 

Nowadays, people use deodorizing products to remove the odor and clean the furniture. Febreze is a deodorizing brand that helps you remove the smell from office chairs. It makes you feel comfortable sitting with a pleasant aroma. Most people use Febreze as a deodorizing product that covers up all other odors, and you will feel free to give it a try. 

B. Water and Soaps 

You can clean plastic chairs with water, so take a bucket of water and a scrub brush to wash your chair thoroughly. 

Mix some soap with water, soak chair upholstery, scrub the surface and thoroughly soak the foam by pressing it down. This treatment is helpful in releasing odor-causing particles, dirt, and grim. Use something absorbent like a sponge, rag, or towel to press on the chair to remove water. 

Repeat this process of releasing water until the chair is clean and clear. Press the absorbent repeatedly to remove the moisture as much as possible, then let it air dry for a day or two. This method removes the smell-causing agents and makes your chair fresh and clean.

6. Wood

Wood chairs need regular cleaning too. Wipe down your wood chairs regularly with a lint-free cloth.

A. Dryer Sheets

Wipe the chair with a dryer or fabric softener sheet to improve its scent. Take a dryer sheet, wrap it around some object to make it easier to handle, and rub it along the chair. 

This dryer sheet will help to wipe out all the odor-causing chemicals and leave it smelling great. 

These are thin layers of the fabric-coated sheet with fabric-softening compounds. It helps soften the chair’s surface fabric when you rub them through the dryer. It also fights a foul odor and leaves a pleasant smell behind. 

7. Metal 

Metal chairs relatively need no maintenance. You can wipe out metal chairs with a damp cloth with mild soap or without soap. 

A. Dry Cleaning Solvent

The chairs that you cannot treat with water or other water-based solvents treat them with dry cleaning. Dry cleaning of the chairs is a safe option to remove the smell and clean the chair properly.

In dry-cleaning solvents, you can use baking soda but on steroids. You can also use something like perchloroethylene, a liquid cleaner that is not water-based. It is safe to use such chemicals on non-water chairs. 

Same as commercial cleaners, there are dozens of dry cleaning solvents. Many of them are just with different brand names with the same chemicals. You can use any of them to dry clean your chairs.

B. Professional Cleaning Service

Some office chairs demand professional cleaning services only. Otherwise, there are chances of getting some damage. This professional cleaning is somehow more expensive than cleaning a chair by you. Cleaning a chair with an experienced guide gives it a cleaner look. The professionals use all tricks to remove the smell from the office chair without damaging the chair. 

How to Prevent Odor from Coming Back in Office Chairs

Once you have removed the awful smell from your chairs, you will never want this embarrassing smell to come back. If you can keep the reasons mentioned earlier away, your chair will stay clean and fresh throughout. 

You have to clean your office chair regularly because there will be no growth of bacteria and fungi inside the material if it is clear. Another method is to keep moisture out to avoid the smell.

Conclusion

Office chairs, either new or old, require proper maintenance. You have to clean your office chair daily and deodorize them occasionally.

Office chairs of any material that emits an awful smell are pretty embarrassing, so you have to clean your chairs regularly. Try the methods as mentioned earlier to keep your chair clean and odor-free.

We hope that the methods, as mentioned above, are great to help to clean office chair smell.