# I can make red wine turn blue!



## dgerndt (Mar 1, 2011)

My dad's cat knocked over two glasses of red wine onto the living room carpet, the couch, and an armchair this evening. My dad was furious, of course. So as he stomped around the kitchen, yelling and freaking out (like always), I did what a good daughter does and offered to help. My mom and I grabbed some old towels, paper towels, a bottle of Oxi Clean laundry spray, and a bottle of Windex (we use it for everything), and got started. I used the Oxi Clean on the armchair, and my mom sprayed the carpet with Windex. That's when things got interesting.

Red wine on a tan carpet obviously would look reddish, almost purple. BUT, when sprayed with Windex, it turns blue!!! It was like watching a magic show on my living room floor! I have no idea why this happens, but it's pretty cool.


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## warpdrive (Mar 1, 2011)

that is cool. yet here are a few cool tips that I found out in life too...

1) shaving cream works wonders on carpet stains. just grab dads shaving cream and put some foam on the stain. let it sit for a few mins and then wipe it away with some wet towels. works great on my entrace way to my apartment that gets dirty from the rain and the bottom of my shoes.

2) shamwow towels realy work. tey soak up wetness like a wetvac. expencive, yes. but well worth it.

Harry


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## PhilinYuma (Mar 1, 2011)

A good observation, Deby. A lot of fruits, including grapes, some flowers, like roses,and some vegetables, like red cabbage, contain water soluble pigments called anthocyanins. When the pH is below 7, (acid) these dyes are red and when above 7 (alkaline), they turn purple and then blue. In school, you probably saw the same dyes used in litmus paper to give a rough test of pH. Wine is slightly acid, causing the dyes to be red, but Windex contains ammonia, which is very alkaline, and when it mixed with the wine, the anthocyanins turned from red to blue. Cool, huh?


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## infinite213 (Mar 2, 2011)

Next time something like this happens get a big bowl of water and pour it over the stain immediately, then soak up with a towel. It will dilute the wine or whatever you spill so much that there will not be a stain. I spilt orange soda on a white carpet one time and my brother poured a ton of water on it, I was like what in the world are you doing? Then he soaked it up with a towel and no stain! I forgot where he learned that from but it works better than any else.


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## Mr.Mantid (Mar 2, 2011)

warpdrive said:


> that is cool. yet here are a few cool tips that I found out in life too...
> 
> 1) shaving cream works wonders on carpet stains. just grab dads shaving cream and put some foam on the stain. let it sit for a few mins and then wipe it away with some wet towels. works great on my entrace way to my apartment that gets dirty from the rain and the bottom of my shoes.
> 
> ...


Shamwows really work? We use to sell those where I work, but a lot of people ended up returning them because they suck, or should i say don't suck.. get it. Anyway, it seems like those As seen on tv things are either hit or miss. I dont know, maybe my customers forgot to put in the batteries or something.


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## Mr.Mantid (Mar 2, 2011)

Deby said:


> My dad's cat knocked over two glasses of red wine onto the living room carpet, the couch, and an armchair this evening. My dad was furious, of course. So as he stomped around the kitchen, yelling and freaking out (like always), I did what a good daughter does and offered to help. My mom and I grabbed some old towels, paper towels, a bottle of Oxi Clean laundry spray, and a bottle of Windex (we use it for everything), and got started. I used the Oxi Clean on the armchair, and my mom sprayed the carpet with Windex. That's when things got interesting.
> 
> Red wine on a tan carpet obviously would look reddish, almost purple. BUT, when sprayed with Windex, it turns blue!!! It was like watching a magic show on my living room floor! I have no idea why this happens, but it's pretty cool.


Heh, heh, sounds a lot like how my father would react. One of my managers at work dropped a bunch of grape juice during work and it splattered all over her white khaki pants. She used oxyclean but all it did was make the stain turn blue.

For my carpet stains, I use ammonia, bleach and a Laser Ballistic Outserts for M40 Series Gas Mask. Sure the neighbors cat may hack up a lung or two if it gets near my window, but hey it gets the job done.

-Mr. Mantid


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## hibiscusmile (Mar 2, 2011)

Best yet! Take the drinks from him, only give him sippy cup :lol:


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## warpdrive (Mar 2, 2011)

Mr.Mantid said:


> Shamwows really work? We use to sell those where I work, but a lot of people ended up returning them because they suck, or should i say don't suck.. get it. Anyway, it seems like those As seen on tv things are either hit or miss. I dont know, maybe my customers forgot to put in the batteries or something.


here is the trick to shamwows...

new ones right out of the box will suck up wetness like it never happened. yet once you wash them or rince them in the sink, you can't put them in the dryer to get them dry. you must ring them out as best as you can, then let them air dry. but once air dry, they seem hard as a rock and take a while to soak up anything.

so what I do is get them slightly wet and ring them out until dry again...now that they are pre soaked, they suck up everything like new. the big towels will suck up a pint of liquid easy and leave your carpet DRY in the end.

Harry


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## dgerndt (Mar 2, 2011)

@warpdrive: I always wanted a Shamwow. We have a fake, knock-off version, and you can't even dry your hands on it. I'll have to remember to use shaving cream on our next disaster. :lol: 

@Phil: Thanks! I'm glad you told me why it happens. I figured it had to do with some reaction between the grapes and the chemicals in the Windex, but I'm a curious person and I wanted to know exactly why this occurs.  

@gio: The only problem with dumping water on a stain is that it soaks into the padding underneath the carpet. We've tried that before, but Windex seems to work wonders on all stains. It got chili out of my carpeted stairs (my silly boyfriend spilled it everywhere) and wine out of my living room carpet.

@Mr.Mantid: Sounds like some pretty harsh chemicals! We used the Oxi Clean on the carpet, and it didn't do squat. But when we washed our couch cover with it, the stain was gone in one wash. It worked on the armchair, as well.

@hibiscusmile: Haha! Yeah, the new rule is no more wine in the living room! It's the second time it happened this week! :lol:


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## Findarato (Mar 2, 2011)

when I last spilled red wine on our carpet, I covered the spot with salt and let it dry a while. then rub it off, took away most of the stains. cool BTW, Deby , your experiment with colors. I could once turn a bluebell (flower) red when I put it on an anthill. It is the acid doing that.


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## dgerndt (Mar 2, 2011)

That is so cool! Maybe I'll try that this summer. B)


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## kamakiri (Mar 2, 2011)

Phil, I miss having access to someone who is so generally smart!


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## PhilinYuma (Mar 3, 2011)

Back at you, Grant. Why do we see so little of you? I still remember our heated discussion of radial arrays with fondness! About two years ago, wasn't it?


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## kamakiri (Mar 4, 2011)

I vaguely remember the discussion! :lol: 

Too many distractions, I guess...but the main ones have been work and the work internet policy/provider change. Instead of going thru a local server in our office...it's piped through our HQ/parent company. Sucks really. Now, If I do any casual surfing at work, I do it on my phone. :angry:  ...and starting last year, I've been giving a little more of my free time to the garden.


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## NecroticSnail (Apr 28, 2011)

Very cool! We actually use percarbonate in wineries for a lot of the cleaning, this is very similar to Oxi Clean. The color change is actually very useful for knowing when you can finally stop scrubbing that tank and move on to yet another one


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## dgerndt (Apr 30, 2011)

Yeah, I found it was very useful for seeing where I needed to clean the wine out. :lol: 

So you work at a winery? That's pretty awesome.


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## patrickfraser (Apr 30, 2011)

anybody try shamwow as a substrate, as opposed to paper towel? Seems like a good idea. Are there bad chemicals in it to worry about?


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