Printing toner (dry black powder) on/in carpet

[PhotoMan]

A former tenant in a rental unit I'm working on left several spots in two rooms, and before I try a random shot at it, I'd appreciate any advice from someone who's been there and done that. TIA Joe Arnold

[jim]

its a dry power?? try to vacuum it out, might need a more powerful vac???

[Bob]

For laser printer toner, try to vacuum it out. If you try any liquid type cleaner, do not use any hot water; the toner melts under heat and you may set it into the carpet.

The only times I've had toner spills I've had luck with a vacuum cleaner.

Bob.

[PhotoMan]

It's a powder, but as fine as soot. It feels like talcum powder. Joe

[John McGaw]

I worked for a governmental agency which had hundreds of laser printers of various sorts. And spills of toner were pretty frequent. Normally extreme vacuuming would get out the marks although most vacs did not manage to trap the super-fine particles in their filters very well. I can remember one case in which a full toner cartridge from a large network-type printer was dumped and I believe they finally had to call in a commercial cleaning company to get the residue up. The company knew what to do since, with so many copiers and laser printers in use, such cleanups aren't so uncommon.

[jim]

use a heppa filter and keep on emptying the bag or canister and eventually it will go away.. if you use a reg. vacuum it will probably go right though the bag filter and you have the mess all over the place... we pulled out the cartrige on a very large copy machine one night at work.. about one gallon of the powder wall all over the place.. lucky the floor was a smooth tile.. a shove and broom got most of it up.. and later some water sprinkled on the floor and a wet mop and bucket got the small residue after about twenty moppings, and going outside a hosing the mop off alot of times..... if its on a carpet you got to go for the vacuum, how about a wet vac???

[Paul A]

It can be vacuumed up, but the manufactures of toner recommend only using vacuums designed for toner. This is for two reasons: It is a very fine powder that can blow past a standard filter and then you end up with a bigger mess and it can get in the bearings of a vacuum and damage it. However, if the spots are small, it should not be a problem.

It can be washed out with *cold* water. Any heat will melt it and set the stain.

[MrAoD]

If you haven't already tried the other methods, use a wet-dry shopvac with about 2-3" of water in the bottom. When the shopvac takes up the toner the particles will adhere to the water surface and won't escape the filter. This should get up the bulk of the toner.

After you've gotten most of it up and residual toner can be deal with by dampening the surface and vacuuming.

Marc