If you have a van rental company, and someone has smoked in one of your vans, you need to remove the odor as quickly as you can. When you rent your van out to a new customer, this smell is unbecoming, and they may even refuse to drive it. Below are some tips to get this smell out of your van to make it smell fresh and new again.
Use Baking Soda and/or Charcoal
Baking soda will absorb the smoke odor in your van. Sprinkle it on the floorboards and in ashtray, and let it sit for six hours. After this time, vacuum it up. If you do not have baking soda, you can purchase a bag of charcoal, open it, and set it in the van. It will also absorb the odors. Leave it in your rental van for six hours. You can use both of these methods at the same time if the odor is very bad.
Clean the Duct System
The smoke odor also gets into the air duct system in your van. To remove it, purchase a bottle of odor neutralizer. Park the van outside, or in some other well-ventilated area. Set the parking brake, start it up, and roll up all windows. Turn the fan and air conditioner on full blast, and make sure the recirculate button is turned off.
Spray the odor neutralizer into the exterior air intakes. These are usually found under the windshield wipers, but it depends on the make and model of your van.
Allow your van to run for 15 minutes. After this time, turn the air conditioner off, and spray into the air conditioning vents on the inside of the van. Turn the van off, and let it sit for 20 minutes.
This works by killing mold or bacteria located in the air conditioning vents, and the vent ducts. It also gets smoke out of the evaporator and blower.
Clean the Heater
With your van still parked in the well-ventilated area, start it up, and turn the heat on full blast. The windows should still be up. Spray the odor neutralizer into the same air intakes, and let it run for 15 minutes. When the heater is turned on, the neutralizer cleans the heating core, blower, and ducts.
Now that the smoke odor is out of your rental van, keep it smelling fresh for your customers. Dryer sheets work great as an air freshener, and they are inexpensive. Purchase a box of them at a grocery store, and place a few sheets under the driver and passenger side. You can find them in many different fragrances. Replace them every few days, or when they lose their smell.
Talk to other local companies, such as Allard Rentals, for more information.
Share6 January 2015
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