Question for you guys who live in a blizzard..

[Klasse Act]

Yeah Ric I've gotta say, WeatherTech floorliners are THEE answer at the end of the day. Now some people even leave them in year round and that's cool but I like placing my feet on carpeted mats once the weather breaks, it's kind of a "treat", plus they match the rest of the interior. Also, the WeatherTechs will always cover your dead pedal and if you've got aluminum pedals across the board you wanna see ALL of them (sorry I just felt something, ohhhh, that's my OCD...never mind)

If wasn't able to have WeatherTechs for some reason though, I'd clean the carpeted mats real good and treat them with some 3M/303 Fabric protection or equivalent and hope for the best. Along the winter though, I'd take them out and give them a good vac, clean with the Bissel Little Green Machine, let dry and spray some more protection on them and put back...and count the days till spring.

I even did a full cleaning of all 3 of my WeatherTech almost 2 weeks ago and wiped in the protection, both products sold by WeatherTech and always get superior results

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[dgage]

I live in TN so it rarely snows but after going through multiple OEM carpet mats in my Acura TL, I switched to WeatherTechs and am much happier with the look. Essentially, my heel would wear a hole in front of the gas pedal so that often looked worse than any stains on the light gray OEM mats. And the OEM mats were pretty thick and felt like premium mats.

[Desertnate]

I dunno if I could live with myself if my car ever got to this point. Lol. J/k

You would be shocked how easily mats can get that clogged up with salt. If you are in-out of your car frequently during/after a heavy snow fall, it would only take a couple days.

It is not uncommon to see places where the roads and sidewalks turn white from all the salt. Combine all that salt in snow clinging to your boots or in the water on your shoes from melting snow and it builds up fast. Cleaning may not be possible when temperatures remain sub-freezing for weeks at a time.

Now some people even leave them in year round and that's cool but I like placing my feet on carpeted mats once the weather breaks, it's kind of a "treat", plus they match the rest of the interior.

This.

Normally I'll swap out carpeted floor mats for an "all weather" mats in all my cars if they don't come with them already and leave them in year round. The vehicle and it's usage will determine whether I go with WeatherTechs. My wife's heavily used daily gets them, while the daughter's "collage mobile" gets something less expensive since it's lightly driven.

My GTI came with both carpeted and custom all weather mats due to a mistake by the dealer. Swapping them out was a "Rite of Spring". I'd either swap them out when I took off the winter wheels and mounted my summers, or when I did my full Springtime detail of my car.

To answer your question about cleaning them out, I've actually used a hose (or a large bucket) to flood them with water to dissolve and "float" away the bulk of the salts. I'll lightly agitate the carpet with a brush as I'm flooding. I'll then take a shop vac and suck up what didn't rinse away with the water and any remaining water. Anything left behind gets a little carpet cleaner and agitation to clean things up.

[Klasse Act]

You would be shocked how easily mats can get that clogged up with salt. If you are in-out of your car frequently during/after a heavy snow fall, it would only take a couple days.

It is not uncommon to see places where the roads and sidewalks turn white from all the salt. Combine all that salt in snow clinging to your boots or in the water on your shoes from melting snow and it builds up fast. Cleaning may not be possible when temperatures remain sub-freezing for weeks at a time.



This.

Normally I'll swap out carpeted floor mats for an "all weather" mats in all my cars if they don't come with them already and leave them in year round. The vehicle and it's usage will determine whether I go with WeatherTechs. My wife's heavily used daily gets them, while the daughter's "collage mobile" gets something less expensive since it's lightly driven.

My GTI came with both carpeted and custom all weather mats due to a mistake by the dealer. Swapping them out was a "Rite of Spring". I'd either swap them out when I took off the winter wheels and mounted my summers, or when I did my full Springtime detail of my car.

This is what I do in the spring and fall

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[jth877]

Floor liners are the best solution. I live in upstate NY. The OPs pic is basically what one storm can do if you use your car during the "clean up" phase which is when the road crews and parking lots have tremendous amounts of salt down for liability reasons. I swear the salt usage increases every year.

The interior mess isn't what makes me cringe. It's the damage done to the outside of the vehicle. Every nook, cranny and metal fold will hold salt solution. Every time it rains it gets wet again accelerating corrosion even more.

Now the new thing to save money is to use a brine solution. It's road salt dissolved in water to it's max solubility and they usually add magnesium chloride so the crap sticks better to the road and subsequently, your car.

[Desertnate]

I think the magnesium choride is added because it's effective at lower temperatures than traditional sodium chorlide salts...but I'm no chemist.

Around here they only use the liquid stuff on bridges. It also has beet juice mixed in to make it stick better and work better when applied in already sub-freezing temps. A real mess.

[muaddba]

Yeah Ric I've gotta say, WeatherTech floorliners are THEE answer at the end of the day. Now some people even leave them in year round and that's cool but I like placing my feet on carpeted mats once the weather breaks, it's kind of a "treat", plus they match the rest of the interior. Also, the WeatherTechs will always cover your dead pedal and if you've got aluminum pedals across the board you wanna see ALL of them (sorry I just felt something, ohhhh, that's my OCD...never mind)

If wasn't able to have WeatherTechs for some reason though, I'd clean the carpeted mats real good and treat them with some 3M/303 Fabric protection or equivalent and hope for the best. Along the winter though, I'd take them out and give them a good vac, clean with the Bissel Little Green Machine, let dry and spray some more protection on them and put back...and count the days till spring.

I even did a full cleaning of all 3 of my WeatherTech almost 2 weeks ago and wiped in the protection, both products sold by WeatherTech and always get superior results

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I am far from an expert here, HOWEVER my experience with fabric protection makes carpets a lot less absorbent...it's part of how they prevent stains from setting in. I view the mats as a sacrificial layer for the stuff that's much more difficult to replace interior carpet. If the mats are less absorbent, stuff is more likely to roll off of them and sit on the interior fabrics until the protection fades and then you have stains on the carpet and not on the mats.

[57Rambler]

I think the magnesium choride is added because it's effective at lower temperatures than traditional sodium chorlide salts...but I'm no chemist.

Magnesium chloride is a desiccant, a hygroscopic material that absorbs moisture. Calcium chloride is another example.


When used to treat ice, the magnesium chloride absorbs moisture and dissolves in to a brine which then instigates the melting of the ice.


Magnesium chloride is effective at lower temps as it's hygroscopic ability to absorb moisture is pretty much unaffected by temp.


So, chemist or not, I'm going to give you partial credit for your answer ...

[Klasse Act]

I am far from an expert here, HOWEVER my experience with fabric protection makes carpets a lot less absorbent...it's part of how they prevent stains from setting in. I view the mats as a sacrificial layer for the stuff that's much more difficult to replace interior carpet. If the mats are less absorbent, stuff is more likely to roll off of them and sit on the interior fabrics until the protection fades and then you have stains on the carpet and not on the mats.

All well said, no doubt....but

IMO it's better to use the WeatherTechs because of how rugged they are, EASILY cleaned AND most importantly, are raised up pretty high all the way around to not allow much if anything to get up under them. I'm not saying something can't get under them but as far as slushy snow and ice it stays on the floorliner and that's most important!

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[ducksfan]

People in California know what a blizzard is. We have Dairy Queens here.