car seats still lets liquid in even after two coats of scotchgard

[FardinA]

Hi there, I have asked my car dealer to give Scotchgard coating on my car seats and floor mats. While the shop was coating my car interior with ScotchGard, I was watching them so that they cannot skip any part. They did it well. Then I dropped drops of water, and water just soaked in. The dealer could not explain it. I have got a call from dealer another day explaining that liquid (milk, coffee, and...) can get into the fabric BUT it can be "blotted out" easily using a paper towel. That's the advantage of using Scotchgard. I am suprised because I think scotchgard never lets any liquid gets into the fabric at the first place. Any idea?

thanks Fardin

[jim]

Schtguard just blocks the fabric, it does not make it a single coat of material like a sheet of plastic... its the threads in the material thats blocked, so the liquid does not go into the thread and just goes past it like you said.. so the seat does not rots or the roachs dont eat it up trying to get to the sugar in the liquid that will settle into the fabric.... so the dealer is right and the expectation of scotts guard making the seats somthing that they are not is a problem that alot of people have with it... and if you paid $500 for it on a new car, they they took you to the cleaners... the cost of this should be like $15 for a can of the stuff at the grocery store and you do it yourself....

[norminn]

Scotchguard is not water proofing - it is merely soil retardant (and very expensive).

[Joseph Meehan]

As the others have said. It does not make anything waterproof. On some fabrics it will make the water bead up, but even then it can get into the fabric. If you want total waterproof, put plastic covers on it, but that is sure to be very uncomfortable.

[BinaryBillTheSailor]

Scotch guard and similar products waterproof/seal the yarn, but does not seal the spaces between the yarn in loose woven cloth. This means that stains cannot penetrate the yarn and set. If the treated fabric is a very tight weave, than yes, water will bead up and run off. On a loose weave, it just prevents stains from soaking into the threads. It is not usually a completely waterproof barrier.

BB

[PJx]

You should go for some of those really cool clear plastic seat covers.

PJ

[norminn]

clipped

When we bought new dining room furniture, the salesman tried to sell us Scotchguard for $10 more per chair. The chairs came with plain, black cotton fabric and I had already told him I would recover the seats. Don't like black and we had a cat at the time, so his hair would have been a problem. Sales guy just wouldn't let up - I think Scotchguard is a placebo, but that's just me :o)

[BinaryBillTheSailor]

Placebo? You can see water roll off of properly treated cotton, so it's not a placebo. I even scotchguard my winter gloves.

BB

[Joseph Meehan]

Not a placebo, it's a great profit center!

[RB]

My recollection is that Scocthguard was deemed to be toxic and 3M decided under pressure to remove it from the market several years ago. Is it possible that today the product sold under the name "Scotchguard" is a less effective material?

RB

Fard> Hi there,

[Joseph Meehan]

As I recall it was removed from the DIY market, but still available for professional application. The name when on some other products however. I don't think I have seen any of those products for some time.

You might find this link interesting:

[RB]

As I read this article I was reminded of Flemming's discovery of penicillin. I wonder how much OSHA has done to stifle innovation and "great discoveries."

RB

Joseph Meehan wrote: