The Only Fabric Deodorizer That Worked in Our Lab Tests

I’ve removed the cover from my velvet couch and washed it in the washing machine a few times to rid the material of unpleasant smells. This isn’t possible with all upholstered furniture, though. For those pieces, your best bet is reaching for a fabric deodorizer.

Many fabric deodorizers have fragrances that replace the unpleasant smells on your upholstered furniture with synthetic fragrances that could be as unpleasant as the bad smells themselves. Household products with synthetic fragrances have also been shown to affect indoor air quality and pose health risks, especially for those with existing respiratory issues. For this reason, we only tested products without fragrance.

We tested five fabric deodorizers from Febreze, Hex, Jason Markk, Zero Odor, and Zorbx. We looked at how well they removed the smell of onions from velvet and polyester/linen blend pillow covers, whether they stained the material, and how long they took to dry. Our tests found that most fabric odor removers only lighten the bad smells on fabric or temporarily get rid of them while the material is wet from the sprays. Just one of the products we tested was successful in our onion testing.