How To Get Smoke Smell Out Of Car Remove Cigarette Smoke From Vehicle
When you buy a used car, there is always room for surprises. Its expected that the previous owner was a smoker and that this smell might be left behind. A faint smell of cigarette smoke may not bother you however, if it gets stronger and more unpleasant, youll need to take some action. In the following, we will provide you with some tips on how to get smoke smell out of car.
Contents
Mask Odors With An Air Freshener
How To Hotbox A Closet
Hotboxing a closet is slightly more difficult since there will inevitably be a sizable crack beneath the door, and if its a double-doored closet, another crack running between the two doors. Your primary challenge, then, is to make the closet as air-tight as possible.
If you have a single-door closet, this can mostly be accomplished with a towel. Simply roll the towel lengthwise, and stuff it into the crack beneath the door until its completely covered.
If you have a double-door closet, youll still want to stuff a rolled towel into the crack beneath the doors. But you will also likely need to take the additional measure of taping the crack between the two doors. Simply run a piece of thick tape up the crack between the two doors, top to bottom, until there can be no airflow through that crack.
If youre really serious about hotboxing, you can also tape the crack above the door. Just make sure that if youre taping the doors of your closet from the inside that you could break out easily if necessary. The last thing you want to happen while youre trying to smoke cannabis is for you to light your closet on fire while youre trapped on the inside. Thats not a hotbox. That is a chamber of fiery death. Safety first.
Before you begin the hotbox, make sure to bring an ashtrayor something to safely dispose of your ashinto the closet.
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Why Smoke Depreciates Your Cars Value
When cars are evaluated for trade-in, a number of factors affect their value, such as mechanical condition and the number of miles driven. The condition of the interior is another big factor: The smell of smoke makes a vehicle harder to sell and is expensive to recondition.
Smoke will permeate the entire vehicle interior, says Michael Stoops, senior global product and training specialist for Meguiars car care products. The odor stubbornly lingers even in areas you can neither see nor reach, such as inside the air conditioning system.
Besides reducing a cars value, it can be a deal breaker if youre trying to sell your smoked-in car and a potential buyer sniffs the telltale smoke odor, Arca says. There also might be signs of visible damage potential buyers could notice. For example, smokers sometimes drop ash on car seats, which leaves burn marks on the upholstery that would be expensive to repair.
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Clip An Essential Oil Diffuser To Your Air Vent
Get Ahead Of The Problem
Aside from not smoking in it at all, the best way to get rid of the weed smell in your car is to stay on top of the problem. Dont let the odor build up session after session until you have a serious stank on your hands. As we never say at Veil but will start saying now that we just thought of it, a spritz in time saves nine.
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How Do I Smoke In My Car Without Leaving A Smell
I like to smoke in my car while Iâm driving to and from work, but I just bought a new car. If possible, Iâd like to keep smoking without my car smelling like ash. Is there a way to smoke in my car without leaving a smell?
avoid smoking in your car altogetheranduse these tips to make sure you donât leave a smell
- Air out your car on clear, breezy days.
- Leave a small bowl of coffee grounds or baking soda under the seat to absorb the smell.
- Remember to turn off the recirculated air button in your car to prevent the smoke from seeping into the AC, heater, or cabin filter.
- Keep your windows down when smoking and hang your hand out the window.
- Use a cup or jar full of citrus fruits and cinnamon to remove the smell.
- Clean your trim and upholstery at least once a week.
- Switch to an e-cigarette.
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How To Remove Smoke Smell From Leather And Trim
If your car has leather interiors, removing the smoke smell may be more difficult. Theres a wide variety of different types of leathers used in cars, so you have to be careful to only use products that are safe and recommended for the leather you have. Consult your owners manual, or speak to a professional if you arent sure how to clean your cars leather properly and without damaging it.
For hard surfaces, like the dashboard, cupholders, around the gear shift, even the seat belt buckles use a 50/50 mix of white vinegar and water and a clean rag. The vinegar will help remove the smell. Then, if any smell remains, wipe everything down with a clean rag sprayed with odor neutralizing spray.
For rubber components, like the floor mats, smoke can permeate deeply and be hard to remove. Carefully steam clean anything made of rubber. If the smell is still lingering after a few rounds of steam cleaning, things like floor mats may just need to be replaced.
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How To Clean The Car Upholstery And Carpets
Smoke smells easily absorbs and clings to car upholstery and carpet mats, smoke can also cause discolouration so you’ll really need to ensure youre getting right to the cause of the smell, rather than just disguising it.
Wash any removable seat covers and air dry in the sun to allow them to breathe. Prepare for a thorough deep clean by vacuuming your car interior and make sure to get into the gaps between the seats and back of the seats. Then use a Rug Doctor Machine and Hand Tool attachment to finish the job. Just add the Rug Doctor Upholstery Cleaner and Odour Remover into the red tank of the machine and run the Hand Tool along the carpet and upholstery in your car for a deep clean. Hot Tip: Using Rug Doctor Odour Remover can lift the deep-rooted smells and leave your car with a pleasant fragrance. Also, slide your seats back/forward so you can get into those hard to reach places under and around the seated area. Don’t forget! Remember to clean the carpet in your boot.
See our tutorial below on how easy it is to use the Rug Doctor with the Hand Tool Attachment:
How Often Do You Need To Deodorize Your Car
If this was just a spring cleaning and you continue to smoke inside, youll likely have to repeat this process fairly often. If youre selling the car, wed recommend two cleanings, letting each sit for a few weeks so as you can determine how much of cleaning is needed during the second round to properly remove much of the smokes arid smell.
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Stub Out Stubborn Cig Smells
Once your seats are completely dry, use something thats dry and porous to soak up any pervading pongs. If you fancy another round with the vacuum, you can liberally scatter baking soda over the seats and floor and let it work its magic for a few days before hoovering it up thoroughly. Cat litter will work too just remember to close the windows or you might find next doors cat leaving an unwelcome surprise on the seat! If you dont mind the smell of coffee, lorry drivers swear by leaving bowls of freeze-dried instant coffee around the car overnight to wipe out any unpleasant whiffs.
How To Hotbox A Car
First things first: do not bring your car keys into the car you plan to hotbox. If youre about to hotbox your car, the last thing you should be doing after is cruising around your city, smoke pouring out from your windows, car smelling like a dead skunk, the world barely visible through your squinted, bloodshot eyes.
If you do this, you could end up hurting yourself, hurting someone else, or in jail. You dont want that and neither do we. So just dont bring your keys into the car, okay?
Now that weve gotten that out of the way, its time to call some friends, roll your fattest joint, pile into the car, and hotbox that bad boy.
Like real estate, the key to hotboxing your car is all about location. Once you start the hotbox, it will be immediately obvious to anybody walking by that youre smoking cannabis in your car so choose somewhere discreet. This might be in your own driveway. It could be in the back of an empty parking lot near your house.
Wherever it is, make sure that its discreet and fairly close to your house and you can legally park there overnight.
The second most important thing to remember is that hotboxing is a team sport. The more people you can convince to join the hotbox, the more fun you will have. So invite your friends, your family, your co-workers! Hotboxing is all about inclusion.
This probably is not great for your health, but it will get you very high. Very high.
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Avoiding Thirdhand Smoke Buildup
If you smoke at home, taking proactive measures to reduce the smell on a daily basis will help eliminate buildup. These measures can include:
- keeping open containers of charcoal or white vinegar in each room, to absorb the smell and changing them weekly
- ventilating your environment, perhaps by directing a fan to blow smoke out the window, and smoking cigarettes only near open windows
- running air purifiers with HEPA filters in each room
- changing filters and cleaning out air ducts of air conditioners, heaters, or furnaces as often as possible to avoid reintroducing the smell
- steam cleaning upholstered furniture, carpets, and other soft surfaces
- washing curtains, draperies, tablecloths, and items such as stuffed animals, once a week
- storing items airtight in closets
- using dryer sheets to rub down mattresses and pillows and items that cant be washed, such as books
- washing floors, walls, windows, and other hard surfaces with cleaning solutions that contain baking soda, bleach, or vinegar
- masking the smell by burning incense or using essential oils
If you smoke in your car, the smell is bound to linger. You can reduce it by:
Shower And Change Clothes
First and foremost, its important to stop smelling like weed personally. There are ways to cover up the smell in a room, but its harder on a person. The quickest method for how not to smell like weed is cleanliness. Dump your smelly clothes in the wash or a sealed trash bag, then take a shower and wash your hair. That will get rid of the evidence on you, so you can focus on the evidence in the room.
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Air Vents Needs To Be Closed
The job of all the indoor vents is to circulate the air. If youre in a room, even in a living room, smoking it up, the room will quickly be full of smoke.
Obviously, you dont want all that smoke to be circulated throughout your home via the air ventilation system. If you have a poker night and control your home , you can easily shut off the ventilation.
If you want to prevent the cigarette smell from your oom covering all of your home, you need access to that switch. If youre hiding your smoking habit from your parents, its not the best idea to just go and close the air vents cause that screams Im smoking in my room and I dont want you guys to know it.
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How To Use A Deodorizer For Smoke Smell In Cars
If you want a faster solution to the problem of how to remove smoke smell from car, then use a deodorizer. These come in the form of sprays and gels that eliminate odors in a matter of minutes. However, they arent made for specific materials like denim or cotton, so be sure not to use them on any material that isnt leather or fabric, and this will make them fail when you need them most. Also, stay away from this product if you have kids in the car, as it is very harmful if swallowed.
Clean Out Air Vents & Replace Air Filters
This step often gets overlooked, and yet this process is vital to remove the cigarette smell from a car.
First, turn your car on. Then, turn your car AC to max cold with recirculation. Once that is set up, use an odor-eliminating spray or disinfectant spray to spray into the vents.
Oftentimes, the car may need to have the AC filter changed entirely. You can find your AC filter location via your owners manual. A new car AC filter is generally inexpensive.
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Put Your Hair Up & Limit Clothing
Smoke sticks to whatever it comes in contact with. If youre trying to sneak a quick smoke, try to limit these items.
- If you have long hair, put it up in a ponytail or bun and get it away from your face.
- Take off any jackets or long pants and instead opt for tank tops, shorts, and other tighter fitted clothing.
- You will likely want to change your clothes immediately after you smoke anyway to hide the smell, so its just easier if you limit yourself to just the basics.
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How To Get Rid Of Smoke Smell In Your Car
According to research, vehicles sold by smokers sell for 7% to 9% less than vehicles sold by nonsmokers. Its not a coincidence, either, as 87% of surveyed shoppers indicated that they wouldnt even think twice about buying a smokers vehicle. If you do the math, that means only 13% of shoppers would purchase a car that smells like cigarettes. So, if youre a smoker whos trying to sell your vehicle, it only makes sense to remove smoke odors from your cars interior before putting it on the market.
Easier said than done, right? Getting smoke smells out of a car is notoriously difficult, if not impossible. Upholstery, carpets, seats, ceiling liners, and porous plastic surfaces all trap secondhand cigarette smoke pollutants that produce the infamous stale nicotine odor. While air fresheners, standard cleaning chemicals, and special car odor eliminators temporarily disguise smoke smells in a vehicle, they dont remove those bad car smells completely. So, youre probably always going to have a stinky car, unfortunately.
To deodorize that vehicle as thoroughly as possible, youll have to bring out the big guns. Here are some tactics to try and clean the smoke smell from your car.
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