Yes Essentials for the most part looks to be the best automobile fabric to reduce stains that I have used in a long while. I have two, extremely messes boys that always seem to ruin whatever they touch. Knowing how my child manages to put stains on everything we own, I took the liberty to create my own toddler scenario with a couple of fabric samples that yes sent out to me.

I have one carpet sample and two seat cover samples. The mess was created with a packet of soy sauce, relish, and ketchup. The first sample I tried out was with ketchup and a seat fabric sample. I rubbed that ketchup in good just like any toddler or curious baby would. Soap and water is supposed to get this ketchup out. I used a baby wipe. For the most part the ketchup came out the majority of the way. But there is still an evident stain there and it was bleeding onto the back of the paper that was underneath the sample. If you get ketchup on this stuff it is recommended that it not be rubbed in. You could easily get it up with a baby wipe had I not rubbed it in like a typical toddler.

The next incident was a spill of soy sauce on the carpet. This was actually a tricky one because the sauce sauce absolutely refused to be absorbed by the carpet. It ran all over the place. I had to really work at it to get into to the fabric. This is really great fabric! Once I got it worked in good, it really didn’t take much elbow grease to get it back out. This is a great product. I would definitely put this carpet in my van.

The last test was with another seat cover sample and some relish. The hardest part of the relish test was getting all the little pickles up and let me tell you I hate the smell of relish. But once I got the relish up the clean up was fairly easy.

Honestly this fabric does work better than most automobile fabrics I’ve had in cars in the past, but it isn’t without flaws. Stains are possible but you really have to have the mindset to make the stain in order to get one. Does that make sense?

Overall I think this is a great product but it isn’t recommended that you rub condiments into the fabric.

Here is what Yes Essentials had to say about our test:

As you mentioned, YES Essential’s StainSmart technology repels liquids. This is why you found that the soy sauce “absolutely refused to be absorbed by the carpet.” When substances are pressed or intentionally rubbed into the fabric (activity that will happen with kids or any passenger in a vehicle), additional effort will be needed to remove the stain. After a spill, if more soap and water are used to fully saturate and blot the spot, stains and odors will be removed from the fabric.