How to Clean Perforated Leather Seats?

We will teach you how to keep your perforated leather car seats perfectly clean and do it easily!

Written by Olivia Paxton. Updated on How to Clean Perforated Leather Seats,

Having leather seats in a car has always been a symbol of prosperity and a posh add-on that many car owners were dreaming about. And when perforated leather seats appeared on the market, folks went even crazier about them!

However, pretty soon, everyone realized that, in order to clean perforated leather seats, they need to make use of a bit different approach than they use for cleaning “normal” leather seats with no holes.

So if you are also wondering how to clean leather car seats with holes, this article is exactly what you need!

Read on and you will find out how to clean leather car seats with holes. Also, we will explain how to clean clogged perforated leather seats so that you could get rid of those tiny particles of dirt and dust that often get stuck in the holes of your leather seats.

With all this in mind, keeping your car’s leather perforated seats clean and good-looking will hardly ever be a pain in the butt for you!

All You Need to Know About Cleaning Perforated Leather Seats

Those who have perforated leather seats in their cars often end up wondering how those tiny holes in leather should be cleaned. For some reason, most car owners believe that such seats require a completely different cleaning approach than the plain leather seats need.

All You Need to Know About Cleaning Perforated Leather Seats
Arthur Vechovetskiy via VistaCreate

However, the truth is that you should clean your car’s perforated leather seats almost the same way as you would do with plain leather seats.

You will only need to pay more attention during the vacuuming and brushing stage of the cleaning process. It will allow you to take every piece of dirt out of the tiny holes in the seats.

Below, we have prepared a complete guide for you regarding the cleaning procedure. Read on to find out how to clean leather car seats with holes, and what you will need for that.

Start With Vacuuming

Just like if you would clean plain leather seats, you should start by vacuuming the perforated leather seats thoroughly. There is going to be the only difference from vacuuming regular leather seats: you will have to pay much more attention to the tiny holes!

As you have already guessed, those tiny holes tend to attract all sorts of dirt and dust like nothing else. Even worse, once the dirt sits on the perforated leather surface of the seats, it sticks inside of those holes. As a result, you will hardly be able to get it out when you are vacuuming.

That is why you will need to clean more thoroughly when using a vacuum cleaner. Like this, you will be able to clean most of the dirt out from perforated leather seats.

So, we recommend you make use of your vacuum cleaner and try to vacuum the seats as thoroughly as possible. Don’t rush, since it may affect the quality of your cleaning not in a good way, leaving particles of dust and dirt behind. Instead, take your time and let the vacuum suck the dirt out of every single hole inside the seats.

And don’t forget to be gentle! Leather is quite a delicate material, even though it doesn’t seem so.

That way, when being gentle, you will avoid scratching the seats with your vacuum nozzle.

Proceed With a High-Quality Leather Cleaner And a Leather Brush

After you are done vacuuming, it is time to thoroughly clean the leather surface of the seats. This can be done by spraying some high-quality leather cleaner on a leather brush and working that into the leather. Leather cleaners will soften the dirt inside, so it is easier to brush out with a leather brush or detailing brush.

There is one nuance that should be considered. Usually, leather cleaners can be sprayed directly on leather and then agitated with a brush. However, you should avoid doing that when you clean your car’s perforated leather seats.

See, if you use too much of a product, chances are that it can get into those tiny holes on the leather surface. As a result, it will be much harder for you to remove it later.

So for cleaning your perforated leather seats, just make sure to use a dedicated leather cleaning brush. Such brushes are sensitive enough but they are also still strong enough to clean car leather seats.

Proceed With a High-Quality Leather Cleaner And a Leather Brush
welcomia via VistaCreate

And remember that you don’t want to damage anything! When you are cleaning perforated parts, feel free to use detailing brushes as well. They will clean those tiny holes more quickly than a standard leather cleaning brush.

Wipe The Excess With a Clean Microfiber Towel

When you are finished brushing the car seats, and after you are sure that the perforated leather parts are also properly cleaned out, everything should be wiped thoroughly with a clean microfiber cloth.

Sometimes, you might realize that you used too much of a leather cleaning product and that it is stuck inside the holes.

Should this happen, together with wiping everything with a microfiber towel, you will also need to vacuum perforated parts again. Like this, you will make sure that there is no product stuck inside the seat.

Also, if the seats of your car were extremely dirty, when wiping them down, try to use a bit more of a product on your microfiber towel. It will make sure that you cleaned every single piece of dirt.

So, this is how you should clean your car’s leather perforated seats. If you are already experienced in cleaning plain car seats made of leather, you could notice that the cleaning process we described here is not much different from another cleaning approach.

Just make sure that you follow all the instructions precisely, and your perforated leather car seats will be easy to keep clean no matter how dusty they are.

Extra Tips For Cleaning Tiny Holes Full Of Dirt In Your Car’s Perforated Leather Seats

The information that we have shared with you above is just the general cleaning perforated leather car seat guide. However, it often happens that you will find that those tiny holes inside perforated leather seats still have some stubborn dirt stuck inside.

Extra Tips For Cleaning Tiny Holes Full Of Dirt In Your Car’s Perforated Leather Seats
NomadSoul1 via VistaCreate

This often happens if the seats have not been cleaned for quite a while.

When that happens, there are several more steps of cleaning them that should be taken. And below, we would like to share those techniques with you. Also, please note that you will need to use the methods described below only for the dirty parts of your seats! There is no need to clean the entire seat.

Use Air Compressor

An air compressor is a perfect tool to have at your disposal if you are an auto detailer. It can be helpful and beneficial in many different situations, especially when you need to clean perforated leather seats.

So, if you see that the dirt is still stuck inside those tiny holes in your car’s leather seats, it is time to use an air blower gun. Just connect it to your compressor and try to get that dirt out by using compressed air. Most of the dirt will go out quite simply.

Of course, you need to note that this method will work for solid specks of dirt, for example, rocks, pieces of food, dust, etc.

After using an air compressor, remember to wipe the seats again or even quickly use the vacuum to clean the potential mess you might have made by using compressed air.

Toothpick, Interdental Brush, or Gum Stimulator

A toothpick, an interdental brush, and a gum stimulator are not only used for cleaning your teeth and keeping your gums healthy, did you know that? In fact, they are also fantastic tools to clean every hole on the perforated leather seats of your car!

This is why should you notice that there is still some dirt stuck inside those tiny holes of your car seats, we suggest you remove those clogs by using either a gum stimulator or an interdental brush.

Speaking of interdental brushes, they tend to do a better job indeed. But you should be extremely careful when using them since they have metal parts! It means you need to be very cautious not to damage the leather.

Furthermore, wipe the interdental brush or gum stimulator with a microfiber towel whenever you take some dirt out of the holes. Just to make sure that you don’t stick that dirt back in the seat.

Steam Cleaner

Steam cleaner is one of the most essential auto detailing tools, even though many car detailers still don’t use it. It is a piece of equipment that can help you when nothing else can. For example, if you need to clean spills on perforated leather seats.

Should there be any old spills like milk, chocolate, ice cream, juice, etc. inside your perforated leather seats, you will find it hard to remove them without using a steam cleaner.

Use Very Thin Vacuum Nozzle When Vacuuming
dimarik via VistaCreate

This tool will help you soften and break them down easily, so you can clean them later using a brush, vacuum, or a microfiber towel.

And since this tool is so handy, we would suggest you always have it at hand and use it together with some other tools in order to get better and faster results.

By using only a steam cleaner, you will most likely not get that stubborn dirt out of the tiny holes in perforated leather seats.

Use Very Thin Vacuum Nozzle When Vacuuming

Just as the air compressor uses thin nozzles for blowing the air faster, vacuums use narrow nozzles to get more suction power.

When you are cleaning perforated leather seats, suction power is critical. You only need to use a thin nozzle that will give your vacuum high suction power on a small area.

You can try to clean stuck dirt from perforated leather seats using a thin vacuum nozzle only. This is why, a thin vacuum nozzle should always be used after using an air compressor, interdental brush, steam cleaner, etc.

Well, this is all that we wanted to share with you on the subject of perforated car seats made of leather and how to clean them correctly and effectively.

Now you are informed about a few tools that can be very helpful in this process, and also, we shared a detailed guide with you that gives step-by-step instructions on how exactly you should clean your perforated leather seats.

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Olivia shares all she knows about the hotels, houses, and home cleaning with Beezzly readers. And she knows a lot! 15 years of work experience as a Manager in a former Four Season Service gave Olivia an exceptional base of professional knowledge and practical experience.
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