There’s a number of reasons why you may have blood on your seatbelt, none of which are particularly pleasant.
Whether the blood is a result of a small cut, nosebleed or god-forbid something worse, this article will tell you all that you need to know.
I’m going to to tell you how to get blood out of a seatbelt, the equipment and products that you will need, as well as possible homemade solutions.
If you believe the seat belts are too far gone, you could replace them, but it’s pretty complicated and may be too much work for the average person.
Can You Wash Car Seat Belts?
Washing car seat belts is perfectly safe.
The most common method is to use a cloth with warm soapy water. Simply wrap the cloth around the seatbelt and run it up and down. This will remove any dust, dirt and light contaminants.
Unfortunately, if your seat belts are stained or have stubborn dirt, it may take a little more time, effort and experimentation.
How To Clean Blood From A Car Seatbelt
The best thing you can do is to clean the blood from the seatbelt straight away.
If you’re quick in acting and don’t let the blood dry, you’ll have a much easier time removing the blood from the seatbelt.
The problem comes when the blood dries. You’ll find it 10x harder to remove and you may even find that there’s a slight outline or remnants left behind.
What You’ll Need
- Spray Bottle
- Scrub Brush
- Microfiber Towel
- All-Purpose Cleaner
My go to solution is to use a strong all-purpose cleaner and scrub brush to agitate the seatbelt. This will work in most cases, but, sometimes it’s not enough.
These products are nothing special, most hobbyist detailers will already have them. If not, they’ll only set you back $20 or so and can be used in many different scenarios.
I suggest buying Meguiars All-Purpose Cleaner & Spray bottle. This product is incredibly versatile and can be used at many different dilution ratios for different levels of cleaning power.
I also recommend using a brand new scrub brush. This will ensure that the bristles are hard enough to agitate the seat belt and prevent any dirt that’s lodged in the brush from making the seatbelt dirtier.
You should also have microfiber towels to dry the seat belt, this will prevent any water spotting from occurring.
How To Clean The Seat Belt
cleaning blood and other contaminants from a seat belt is straight forward and simple. Especially when using the method I’m about to mention below.
- Dilute All-Purpose Cleaner Into Your Spray Bottle – Depending on how stubborn the blood is, you may want to use more or less product. Experiment with dilution ratios and see what works best.
- Spray The Solution Onto Your Seatbelt – Grab your bottle of solution and spray it directly onto the seat belt. You can spray the whole seatbelt or just the bloodied area. It’s completely up to you.
- Scrub The Seatbelt – Once you’ve applied the solution, simply scrub the seatbelt using your scrub brush or even a tooth brush. This will agitate the product and help to remove the blood.
- Wipe The Seatbelt Dry – After scrubbing the belt, simply remove product and wipe the area dry using a microfiber towel.
- Assess – Finally, after wiping the belt clean you’ll be able to assess whether the blood is gone or not. If not, you may want to repeat the process until it is.
While 90% of the time, you’ll find that APC & some good old scrubbing does the job, there are certain scenarios where it will not.
In these circumstances, using dedicated stain removers is probably the way to go.
Using Stain Removers To Remove Blood From Seatbelts
If you’ve tried your best, using almost every cleaning product under the sun, but the blood just wont move, it’s time to use a stain removing product.
OxiClean is a stain removing product that’s commonly recommended online among detailers and forum users. It’s 100% safe to use on seatbelts, there’s no risk of discoloration or fading.
While OxiClean offer many different types of products, I believe that the best product for your seatbelt is the Carpet & Area Rug Stain remover. This is because it’s a targeted spray, and most seatbelt material is similar to carpeting.
The only issue is that it’s not to be used on leather, wool or silk.
When using OxiClean, you would clean the seat belts in the exact same way as I previously mentioned. However, OxiClean recommend vacuuming the area after, to completely remove the solution.
Another method would be to use a magic eraser. I’d try my best not too, as this can lead to fading of the belt. But, depending on how much you want to remove the blood stains, you could give it a try.