Pet Baking Soda

pet baking sodaI have seen home remedies suggesting the use of  baking soda to remove pet odors. Baking soda absorbs odor molecules from the air. This is why people often place an opened box of baking soda in their refrigerators to absorb food odors.  Odor absorbing would be the benefit of applying baking soda.  Baking soda is alkaline (base). Much of the urine odor is caused by ammonia. This ammonia is alkaline (base). So adding baking soda to a situation where ammonia is already present only increases the total alkalinity. This could potentially allow the ammonia (or ammonia and baking soda combination) to do greater damage to the dyes, removing color from the carpet.

Baking soda is also a key ingredient in carpet deodorizers such as Carpet Fresh, Love my Carpet and so forth. These do not get completely removed from the carpet by vacuuming. Repeated use of baking soda or products containing baking soda will build –up in the carpet. When cleaning time comes, this can wick to the surface creating a real mess and the need for repeated cleaning to eliminate the powder.

Advantages:

Baking soda absorbs odor molecules from the air. When odor molecules are removed from the air they cannot enter our nose and the smell is effectively gone.

Disadvantages:

Increase in total alkalinity can be harmful to the dyes in fabrics.

Build up of residue in carpet or fabric creating the need for repeated cleanings to remove it.

Baking soda does not digest, break down, encapsulate or neutralize the urine residue molecules past absorbing them from the air.

Also see the advantages and disadvantages of using vinegar on pet stains.

9 thoughts on “Pet Baking Soda”

  1. I have to say that I agree with the information provided here.
    As a professional cleaning consultant I have some
    knowledge in this area. Nice read – thanks for sharing.

  2. I read this post too late…just dumped two boxes of baking soda on an area of carpet in my daughters room where the cat pee’d. I had steamed the carpet with two bottles of Pet Stain removal solution with my Little Green Steamer and to no avail it still reeks! Oh well…now I guess it’s time to rip out the corner of the carpet and make a window box seat. Thanks for the post! 🙂

  3. Ripping the carpet out and putting in a window box would certainly fix the problem. Check the wood floor under the carpet pad and make sure the urine has not gotten into and stained it. If it has you might need to treat the wood floor (or replace it) also to eliminate the smell.
    If you use a good effective urine odor neutralizer and get it in contact with the urine residue molecules you will get rid of the odor. The trouble is it is difficult to find and to be sure where all the urine residue is. Where it has soaked down too, where it has spread out too and where it has run too. Also if the spot you are working on (in the corner) is the only spot where the cat has peed. If you pull the carpet up you can usually see clearly the stain on the wood or the backing of the carpet so you know how far the urine has spread making it much easier to treat the effected area.
    The other issue is finding a good effective urine odor neutralizer. There are many on the market that are not effective. There are several type odor neutralizers also. For example enzyme odor neutralizers and polymer odor neutralizers. Enzymes take hours to digest and break down the urine molecules so if you use and enzyme type odor neutralizer you need to keep the area damp long enough for the enzymes to break down the urine to get 100 % odor removal. Polymer type work immediately on contact so they are faster and easier to use (and just as effective on the odor) but people have heard for years the best type is enzyme. They will both work as long as you get a good quality product and use it according to its directions.
    http://www.RemoveUrineOdors.com has a full line of professional grade urine stain and odor removal products.

  4. This site was… how do I say it? Relevant!! Finally I’ve found something
    that helped me. Thank you!

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  6. Hubby does dog rescue and we “foster” dogs all the time. Needless to say, we have a lot of issues with dogs peeing on our carpets. We have wood floors and area rugs that can be more of a problem than wall-to-wall carpet. if you don’t get the area rug off the wood floor as soon as possible, the urine smell can get into the wood and you won’t get it out! We have been using, with great success, over the counter stain and odor removers, like Woolite, then coating the area with baking soda. You have to roll the carpet over and GET THE BACK of the carpet, too. The fiber weave on the back of our carpets holds the urine odor much more than the front! We put quite a coating of baking soda on both sides, letting it sit for at least two days. Then we vacuum up the baking soda, sniff, and repeat if necessary (it isn’t often necessary). We have a good vacuum, and spend a lot of time getting the baking soda up. We have had the carpet commercially cleaned and really have had no issues with white areas showing up later, etc. We have had to toss expensive carpets in the past and this is the only method that has worked for us (including commercial carpet cleaning companies!).

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