Nylon, Polyester or Olefin – What’s best for you?

Choosing the right carpet can make your life easier down the road. The latest Nylon offerings provide superior cleanability which lengthens the life of your home carpet. However, the cost may be prohibitive for you landlords out there. Here is a short list of pros and cons for those trying to decide which carpet is best:

Olefin

PROS: Olefin is made from recycled milk containers and such. It is great at resisting color stains. It cleans up well. This is a common choice for offices.

CONS: It is prone to holding on to oily stains since it’s made from a petroleum product. It is susceptible to frictional burns. For example, sliding furniture across this carpet has been known to actually damage the carpet permanently. Olefin is not as soft as Nylon – for example playing on the floor on bare knees may quickly leave you feeling uncomfortable.

Polyester

PROS: It is made from plastic two liter bottles. It’s low price makes it an attractive choice for those on a serious budget.

CONS: Polyester has a reputation for its poor resiliency. Traffic patterns can develop as soon as within 6 months of installation – and with polyester, these may become permanent. The carpet will “clean,” but many times traffic patterns persist, leaving your carpet without that fluffy feel you love so much. Polyester is also not as soft as Nylon.

Nylon

PROS: Nylon is made of a polyamide polymer. It is really the most resilient of all of the fibers. This allows it to fluff back up when cleaned and it is not susceptible to oils in the same way as Olefin or polyester. The latest generation of Nylon has acid dye resistors to fight color staining from things like Kool-Aid.

CONS: The first four generations of Nylon are very susceptible to color stains. Oxygen reducing agents and heat transfer processes can usually remove the color stains, but this process can cost extra.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>