How do I get old red kool-aid stains off of my tan carpet?

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I recently moved into an apartment and found red kool-aid stain on the carpets. They were professionally cleaned the day before I moved in and I have used Kids N Pets cleaner on them, used my shampooer at least 3 times and used my Bissell Little Green with Mr. Clean in it. Nothing is getting them out. I’m looking for cleaners from the store or home remedies, anything to get these hideous stains out.

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  1. John W says:
    September 22, 2010 at 2:08 pm

    If it has already been professionally cleaned, chances are that the stain has set. Kool-aid stains are particularly bad because they use food coloring to give them that color. There isn’t much that will dissolve food coloring.

    You could try ammonia, that seems to liquefy a fair amount of dyes, maybe mix up some of Aunt Heloise’s 1 2 3 stain removal formula but go heavy on the ammonia. The Aunt Heloise fourmula is one tablespoon of laundry detergent, two tablespoons of ammonia, three tablespoons of vinegar and enough water to make a quart. Trying using one tablespoon of detergent, two tablespoons of vinegar, three tablespoons of ammonia and enough water to make a quart. Use a spray bottle to soak the stain for a few minutes and then blot it up with paper towels or a terry cloth towel and repeat. It’s the blotting that’s the secret to removing stains, the wicking action will get stuff out that the wet vacuum couldn’t and rubbing would just spread the stain.

    You may want to try and bleach it out, it’s already stained, how much worse can it get? Just start with a small concentration of bleach and work your way up. Hydrogen peroxide also has a bleaching action and it may be safer to start with that instead of bleach but Hydrogen Peroxide works best on organic compounds like pet stains, I’ll often load up my Hoover steam vac with hydrogen peroxide when I’m cleaning up pet urine. You can also get higher strength hydrogen peroxide, I think 35% is easy to find at the pharmacy.

    A last ditch effort may be to use some of the color removal products used to dye clothes with and perhaps re-dye the carpet to hide the stain.

    Since, it’s an apartment, why don’t you just complain to apartment management? Most apartments here would’ve replaced the carpet between tenants.

  2. Amelia says:
    September 22, 2010 at 2:08 pm

    you could possibly try getting a sponge and a bottle of white spirit. that helps get paint stains and all sort of stains out, its not expensive at all so maybe give that a try.
    or vanish, or shout but it sounds like you have tried pretty much everything
    and if the white spirit doesn’t help then maybe try a sponge and nail varnish remover, that gets rid of everything lol.
    hope that helped.

  3. ♥ †@ÿŁƏƏ♥ says:
    September 22, 2010 at 2:08 pm

    Ammonia and hot water.(do not mix ammonia with anything other than water, as it will set of toxic fumes.=)

  4. idontgivafork says:
    September 22, 2010 at 2:08 pm

    id really be way more concerned with the big hole kool-aid left in the wall, than the spill.what a horrible guest!

  5. Brenda G says:
    September 22, 2010 at 2:08 pm

    Use a non chlorine bleach like you use on your colored clothes. It will work great. After the spot is gone, pour a pitcher of water over the area and use bath towels to bring the water up.

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