How to get rid of fish smell in car

Feb 2, 2017

It’s fairly easy to tell if a car has an unwanted smell before you buy it. But other times, odors can creep up on you as you drive your vehicle. To get your ride in top shape for a road trip, keep its resale price high, and all sorts of other goals, you’ll need an odor-free cabin. Here are five durable ways to keep your car smelling fresh with relatively little time or effort.

Charcoal

This old home remedy is like nature’s toxin absorber. Therefore, it’s no wonder that the same thing used in water filters can also filter your air. All you have to do is leave an open bag of charcoal briquettes in your car overnight. Activated charcoal is extremely porous and absorbs anything floating around in the air. Best of all, it doesn’t use up the charcoal in any way.

Baking Soda

Few products have as many uses as sodium carbonate, or baking soda. Moreover, if you’re dealing with vomit, it should be your first choice. This abrasive and alkaline powder consumes odors and can help blanch stains. It’s simple to use: Just clean and wet down the stinky area, liberally sprinkle the baking soda on, and let it dry. Then vacuum the dried powder at least a few hours later. Similar to the charcoal treatment, you can keep some baking soda in a sealed container with a few holes in the top, which acts as a natural air deodorizer.

Vinegar

This harsh but clean-smelling liquid is ideal against overpowering smells. You can leave it in a small cup or bowl inside your car overnight. The evaporation process will greatly limit even the strongest of odors. You can also try spraying and rubbing a stinky area with a mix of vinegar and water and a wet cloth. Just be sure to never pour pure vinegar anywhere in your car, because it’s strong enough to damage materials such as carpet or leather.

Carpet Cleaner

Almost any spill or mess in a car will eventually find its way to the carpet. When you find a problem area, it’s best to try and attack it at the source with a specialized product, so use a carpet cleaner like those you’d find at an auto parts or a department store. There are many types, so be sure you are using the type that works best for your odor and that you follow the usage directions. Some cleaners are as harsh or harsher than vinegar, requiring dilution before use.

Air Fresheners

Air fresheners, fragrances, and other things that add a certain smell to your car are a final step to enjoy that clean air after you deodorized it. Never use pleasant smells merely to cover up the bad ones. You can use one of these once you’re sure the bad smell is gone, but no sooner. It’s a lot better than smelling a bizarre combination of old cigarette smoke and lemon zest.

The next time you have to battle against a fierce car odor, run straight to the tools that work. Follow these guidelines and you’ll have your cabin back to normal as soon as possible.

Fish odours might be among the most difficult to get rid of, especially once they have been embedded in your car’s upholstery. And it is more common than you think. It tends to be just below the surface, so you might not immediately detect it. But once it’s there, it’s there, and detergent scents can’t disguise it.

This issue typically affects fishermen or people who enjoy seafood, although it can affect anyone. This odour may occasionally even make you hesitant to drive.

The best thing you can do to prevent your car from being permanently contaminated with the odour of fish is to act quickly.

Air out your car

You can start by letting your car breathe. Open all the windows and let the breeze carry the odour away. This rapidly allows the airflow in your car to eliminate the odour. This can do the trick if you need to fast get rid of the smell, however, in many cases, the odour will still linger.

Use an enzyme cleaner to eliminate the odour

Once you have aired out your car there still may be a strong smell. This may be because the smell is old, or bacteria is trapped in your car’s interior. Therefore, for a permanent solution, you will have to clean the source of the smell.

1. Remove excess liquid
   If there is fish liquid or residue, make sure you wipe this up first. You can do this by simply wiping the mark with a clean towel or paper towel. Always lightly wipe the stain rather than rubbing it into the leather or cloth interior to avoid the odour spreading.
2. Clean with an enzymatic solution
   To get rid of any bacteria, an enzymatic cleaner like Bio one™ will break down the bacteria in the fish odour/stains. Because of this, enzyme cleaners are far more efficient than other types of cleaning supplies. However, because these cleaners work by dissolving the stains, always make sure they are suitable to use on cloth or leather before applying them to avoid leaving a watermark. You can test the product on a concealed portion of the car interior, to ensure it doesn’t leave any marks.

How to remove fish odour from your car using Bio one™

1. Before treatment, read the Bio one™ directions.
2. If your car’s interior is leather, please read any instructions that apply to your leather interior.
3. Find the odour or stain. Remove any extra liquid and residue by wiping it off if it’s still damp.
4. Make sure the stain is directed at the contaminated area and spray until it is damp.
5. We recommend leaving the cleaner to work for 5 to 10 minutes. However, the cleaner will continue to work for up to 24-48 hours once spritzed
6. With a damp cloth, remove any extra product.
7. Open the windows to let the car interior completely dry.
8. Reapply Bio one™ as necessary to treat tough odours and stains.

How does Bio one™ combat smells?

A crucial step in the cleaning process is getting rid of the bacteria from the car interior. This is what also aids in eliminating any lingering unpleasant odours, such as fish residue. Some products or air fresheners only cover up odours, but Bio one™ gets rid of them by fighting the nasty bacteria that is the source of the odour. Additionally, it has neroli flowers and natural lemon and orange oils to leave your couch and home feeling delightfully fresh.

Bio one™ safe?

Yes, our odour remover Bio one™ enzyme cleaner is indeed completely harmless. Enzymatic cleaning Bio one™ was created to be non-toxic for all people, including children, adults, and pets. It has a neutral pH, is organic, eco-friendly, pet-friendly, and chemical-free. It helps to get rid of 99.9% of bacteria, clear tough stains, and get rid of odours while doing minimal damage to our beautiful planet by utilising only natural enzymes.

Something smells fishy in your car? Spilling stinky things in the car is an unfortunately common problem, but some odors tend to linger a lot more than others.

Fish smell is easily one of the most noticeable odors that are very difficult to remove. Luckily, you can learn how to get fish smell out of a car without any special equipment, just a few helpful ingredients, some elbow grease, and time.

Odors from spilled fish juices tend to be very difficult to remove. But, why is it harder to get them out than other smells? It’s not just fish that can cause this problem; pet urine is the other well-known offensive odor that is very hard to remove. These types of scents usually have high levels of certain natural chemicals that that can difficulty cleaning.

Unless you get every drop of fish juice cleaned from the car, even those that have soaked deep into the carpets or seats, it will be difficult to get rid of the smell. Unlike some other types of messes, fish does not clean easily and requires special cleaning methods. That’s why there are a few specific methods you may need to try, and you cannot do just a regular spot cleaning like you might for other spills.

Try as many of these methods as you need to until you have eliminated the fish smell from your car:

1. White Vinegar and Baking Soda

Vinegar is a natural cleaner, and both vinegar and baking soda work to eliminate odors. Mix up white vinegar and water and apply it liberally to the entire area that the fish smell is coming from.

Leave it to sit for some time, then soak up whatever you can that remains. Then, apply baking soda to the area, rub it onto the spill area, and leave it for 8 hours or more. Vacuum it up once the entire area is dry.

If it’s a smaller area on the carpets, you may be able to remove the smell by detailing the carpet yourself. Remove the carpeting from the foot bed, vacuum any dry particles away, and use a steam cleaner to deeply cleanse the interior fibers of the carpet.

Clean the entire carpet, not just the spilled area, as it may have soaked down and spread around further than you can see from the surface.

3. Charcoal

Charcoal of any kind can help to absorb smells from your car. It can be cooking charcoal, activated charcoal, charcoal pellets for fish tanks, or practically any other kind at all.

This material is excellent at absorbing smells, so you can place it around the area that the fish spilled and have some success in drawing out the odors. It’s best to place the black charcoals into a small container before leaving them around, as they will leave marks around the car if they make any contact.

It’s also possible to use cat litter the same way. You can even leave it laying directly around the spot, as it isn’t likely to leave any stains or marks. Vacuum up the litter once the litter is the smell starts to dissipate. Charcoal and litter are most effective if you’ve already cleaned around the area.

4. Enzyme Cleaners

Some cleaners are made with enzymes that break down materials which can cause odors. These are usually applied with a spray bottle. Many enzyme cleaners must be applied and left for hours before they will effectively soak into the deep fibers and work wonders.

5. Coffee Beans

Coffee beans, not grounds, can be mixed with some water and applied around the area of the spilled fish. The water will help particles from the beans soak further into the fibers and reach the areas where the fish smell is coming from to help clean it out and remove the odor. Leave the beans in the car for at least a week or as long as possible to absorb any residual odor coming from the area.

6. Hydrogen Peroxide

Peroxide works well to break down odorous materials, similarly to white vinegar. It also won’t discolor your carpets or seats covers, even if they are fabric. Mix the hydrogen peroxide with a little water before applying it. Rub the area of application with a rag to get the cleaner as deep into the material as possible. Once you’ve applied it, leave it to sit until it dries. You may need to do something else to help rid some residual fish smells.

7. Professional Detailing

If there’s nothing you can do on your own, if you don’t have the time, or if the area of the fish smell is hard to reach or too large, you can always take your car to get professionally detailed. This is not the best option or everyone, but it can be a good last resort or a somewhat quicker option. Most detailing services are also surprisingly inexpensive.

Note: Don’t Use the AC!!

If you haven’t gotten rid of the fish smell in your car yet, don’t use your AC! Air conditioners in cars recirculate air from around the car, meaning you will have fishy smelling air coming from the AC for a long time even after you clean up your car! Try to use just your windows to help new air clean out the stinky fish odor and cool down the car.

Conclusion

It may take a little work, but learning how to get fish smell out of your car is not impossible. Try a few of the methods I’ve talked about and see if you can get the right results!