Faux Leather – Cleaning and Maintenance
Its composition makes artificial leather much less susceptible to soiling than natural leathers. Grease, water or juice spots – all the things that will almost certainly ruin sensitive real leather are generally harmless for easy-to-clean artificial leather. Even so, depending on the type of use, we recommend regularly cleaning skai® artificial leather surfaces – or disinfecting them if their use requires.
The brochure on cleaning and maintaining upholstery materials tells you what you need to bear in mind for many trouble-free years of enjoyment with your skai® artificial leather surfaces.
How do you clean artificial leather properly?
As a general rule, you should always remove impurities on skai® artificial leather as quickly as possible. Substances that have dried on or worked in over an extended period are very stubborn and take effort to clean. Use a warm, mild soapy solution and a damp microfiber or cotton cloth. For heavier soiling, you can also use a soft hand brush, applying as little pressure as possible. Important: When using normal commercial cleaners, always follow the manufacturer’s dosing instructions and test the cleaner on a non-critical area.
Do not use cleaners which contain oil or grease. In principle, skai® artificial leather can even be cleaned in the washing machine at low temperatures, although we do not recommend this. Dry cleaning is totally unsuitable for skai® artificial leather.
skai_ artificial leather surfaces are not resistant to solvents, chlorides, polishing agents, cleaning polish and aerosol sprays. For particularly high resistance to soiling, use special skai® artificial leathers such as skai® Toronto EN with staynu-technology.
How do I remove stains from artificial leather?
The following cleaning instructions apply to all skai® artificial leather materials, regardless of color and purpose.
To remove stains on skai® artificial leather you need:
1 - skai® cleaner or a mild soapy solution
2 - sponge (for light to medium soiling)
3 - soft hand brush (for heavy soiling)
4 - microfiber or cotton cloth
5 - clean water
Cleaning Procedure
1 - Spray cleaning agent directly onto the surface of the material and leave it to work for a few seconds before cleaning.
2 - Work the cleaning agent in evenly with a sponge or brush, using light pressure.
3 - Then wipe off the wet surface with a dry microfiber or cotton cloth.
4 - Finally, carefully remove any remaining cleaner with a clean, damp microfiber or cotton cloth and plenty of clean water.
For particularly stubborn soiling, repeat the procedure until the soiling has been completely removed.
NB: In the worst case, poor or incorrectly performed cleaning can irreparably damage the surface. Such damage appears as a hardened, cracked or brittle coating.
Can artificial leather be disinfected?
Regular surface disinfecting is mandatory, particularly for artificial leather for medical areas and other hygienically sensitive applications. There are specialized skai® artificial leather variants for such applications, which do not lose any of their product properties even with regular disinfection.
skai® with staynu technology – the artificial leather with special properties
If it still looks new after years of intensive use, then it’s staynu. This revolutionary newly-developed technology makes skai® upholstery materials and artificial leather particularly resistant to soiling and easy to clean. A special coating seals the surface so that dirt particles don’t stick to the material, or if they do, can’t penetrate deep into the coating. Whether permanent markers, foodstuffs, cosmetics or even discoloration of jeans and shoe creams: With suitable cleaning agents even stubborn soiling can be completely removed from skai® surfaces with staynu technology.