Best stain removers for clothes and fabrics

Removing stains from clothes, fabric and upholstery can be a nightmare to remove. However, whether it's red wine or turmeric-flavoured curry on your tablecloth, or blood on your favourite white shirt, we've found the best stain removers.

We've put the most popular stain removers for clothes and upholstery cleaners from Dr Beckmann, HG, Vanish and others to the test on the hardest-to-shift stains. We've also tested six popular home remedies, including baking soda, lemon juice and white vinegar to see how easily they tackle these stains.

We found two standout Best Buys that did best at shifting more stains. Our testing also revealed that paying more doesn't necessarily get you the standout results and that some stain removers are better than others for a particular stains or spill.

The best clothes and fabric stain removers

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The fabric and clothes stain removers we tested

All the clothes and fabric stain removers we tested are listed alphabetically below.

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Ace Stain Remover Spray   

Available from The Range (£3.49), Morrisons(£3.75), Amazon (£3.99)

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Need to know: Can be used as a pre-wash stain remover on clothes and as a spot cleaner on upholstery

Ecover Stain Remover

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Need to know: Moisten fabric with water, apply liquid to stain sparingly and work in liquid with built-in-brush. Afterwards, hand wash or place in normal washing load. 

Pink Stuff Stain Remover Spray

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See our suite of tried and tested cleaning solutions: Best kitchen cleaning sprays, best bathroom cleaning sprays, best all-purpose cleaning sprays and best oven cleaners, 

Shout Triple-Acting Stain Removing Spray

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Tesco Oxy Stain Remover Spray

Available from Tesco (£1.50)

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Vanish Oxi Action Spray

Available from Asda (£5.45), Tesco (£5.45), Amazon (£5.99)

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We've got all your laundry needs covered - see our best washing machines, tumble dryers and washer dryers. And for ironing, the best steam irons, clothes steamers and ironing boards

The best upholstery cleaners

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The upholstery cleaners we tested

All the upholstery cleaners we tested are listed alphabetically below.

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Ace Stain Remover Spray

Available from The Range (£3.49), Morrisons(£3.75), Amazon (£3.99)

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Need to know: Can be used as a pre-wash stain remover on clothes and as a spot cleaner on upholstery

Armor All Carpet and Seat Foaming Cleaner

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Astonish Specialist Carpet & Upholstery Spray

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Dr Beckmann Upholstery Cleaner

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Need to know: Before first use, unscrew the brush head and pierce a small 2mm hole in the seal

HG Stain Spray Extra Strong

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Spilt on your carpet too? See the best carpet stain removers and best carpet cleaners

Best stain remover home remedies 

As well as testing commercial products, we also tried out some of the most commonly suggested home remedies we found on the internet. Read on or watch our video below to see which was the best at cleaning stains. 

Not all home remedies work on all stains. We tried each one on the stains it's meant to shift and found just one that stood out from the rest.

Editor's Choice: washing-up liquid

Easily the best home remedy we found. This method quickly and easily cleaned up everything. The only downside was the amount of elbow grease you needed. 

Stain types: Red wine, curry, chocolate, tomato ketchup and blood

How to: Squirt a small amount of washing-up liquid on to the stain and leave for about 20 seconds. 

Then with a cloth, hot water and plenty of muscle, work the liquid into the fabric. 

You may need to wash the fabric in the washing machine as well, but you should find it's as good as new afterwards.

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Baking soda

Stain types: Red wine, curry, chocolate, tomato ketchup and blood

How to: Make a thick paste with baking soda (bicarbonate of soda) and a little water, and apply to the stain. 

Leave to work for a bit and then use plenty of elbow grease. 

On tougher stains, you may need to do this more than once, but you should see a stark difference even after the first application.

Lemon juice

Stain types: Red wine, curry, chocolate, tomato ketchup and blood

How to: For this home remedy, you want to coat the stain with lemon juice and leave it for 30 minutes, before popping it into the washing machine. 

Lemon juice can bleach, so it's best to only use this method on white fabric you can wash in the washing machine. 

White vinegar

Stain types: Curry and blood

How to: Mix some vinegar with warm water, then apply to the stained fabric with a cloth. 

Once you've seen the stain fade away, you will need to put the fabric in the washing machine to get rid of the strong vinegar smell. 

Salt

Stain types: Red wine, curry and blood

How to: Pour enough salt to completely cover the stain, then leave it for 15 minutes. Wipe away with a damp cloth. 

Avoid using salt on delicate fabrics as the granules can pull on them and cause damage. 

How to remove bloodstains from fabric

Meat tenderiser powder works by breaking down the proteins in meat, which helps to give you a more tender steak. This same process can be used to break down protein-based stains such as blood or vomit. 

To remove the blood stain, use a cloth or sponge, dampen the stain with water. Apply the powder, leave for 30 minutes then wipe away with a damp cloth. 

In our fabric stain remover tests we found meat tenderiser powder to be the most effective product for removing bloodstains. We also found one stain remover that did a good job of getting rid of bloodstains from clothing. 

If you aren't sure where to find meat tenderiser powder, it can often be picked up in the world food aisle of most major supermarkets. In our tests, we used this meat tenderiser powder from Amazon.

How we test stain removers for clothes and upholstery

We test the most popular stain removers for clothes and upholstery and buy all the bottles we test. 

Each stain remover from our selection is tested on one tablespoon of the following stains:

• Red wine
• Curry
• Blood

Each upholstery cleaner is applied to the stains above on cotton blend and wool fabric. The cleaned stains are left until touch dry and assessed for the following factors:

• Cleaning Each product is given four chances to remove the stain. After each clean, the zone is examined to see how visible the stain still is. The cleaned stains are also checked once dry to see if any have reappeared.
• Ease of use We record how much elbow grease and repeat applications are needed to clean off the stain with each of the products and home remedies. 

Each stain remover for clothes and fabric are applied to the stains above on a white cotton T-shirt:

• Each stain remover is left on the T-shirt for five to 10 minutes, depending on the instructions
• The T-shirt is washed using laundry detergent and assessed for how visible the stain still is.