Microfiber Sofa? (sofas, heater, vacuum, couch)

[George Chong]

I am looking at replacing my leather sofa. I have 2 cats and a dog and you can see scratches in the grain of the leather and even a small tare. I was thinking about replacing it with a microfiber sofa.

However, I have been reading lots about static electricity from sitting on the sofa (microfiber is a polyester material). Has anyone had this problem too? I have also read that humidity levels in your house effect the amount of static electricity being generated from sitting on the sofa.

Thanks in advance!

[Sloaf]

I have indoor cats -- declawed front, but they still have their back claws -- and a leather sofa. The sofa is about 10 years old now, and has significant scratches on it. But I knew that and expected it.....and actually chose it because I was sick to death of vacuuming cat hair off the cloth sofa all the time.

So, I don't know about static electricity, but microfiber will attract pet hair like glue.

[Rainna]

I have the microfiber theater group for about 4 years and have never had any problems with static electricity. If you drop or spill anything on it a wet cloth will wipe it right off. Mine is so easy to keep clean. However I don't have any indoor pets so I don't know about pet hair.

[George Chong]

Thanks for the responses so far

I am use to vacuuming (or Dysoning in my case) with three pets.

I was shocked (no pun intended) about the possible static electricity issue!

Rainna - did you get your furniture applied with Scotch Guard? I didn't know if it was worth it or not.

[iceshots]

We have a microfiber sofa and I hate it. It was in our basement in the Toronto area and every time I sat in it I built up a large static charge. Touching any metal, like the receiver caused a very large shock. And I was the kid that used to love shuffling my feet on the rug to generate a shock on purpose.

The other problem I had was that it seemed to collect a lot of micro dirt in the micro fiber. It would not look dirty, but always felt gritty. And if you banged on the arm, little sand like particles would jump out. Vacuuming the arms would work temporarily.

The funny thing is that we still have it, but it is in my daughter's room upstairs in our new home in Austin, and she has not reported any problems. The basement in Toronto was drier than the interior of the house here so maybe the humidity has a large impact on whether or not the couch will generate static for you.

Good Luck.

[mawipafl]

We have a microfiber theater group and there is a level of static electricity, but because we're in a humid climate we don't get any static shocks. However, pet hair and lint stick to it like glue, and in fact it almosts acts like a lint roller - when the cat lays on it and then gets up, he leaves a ton of fur behind. Fortunately the microfiber seems to easily let go of the fur and lint when running the vacuum over it, but I just don't enjoy having to get out the vac more often now.

[GaryH3]

I believe microfiber can be made of different materials - polyester, nylon, etc. so that may affect the performance. We have two microfiber sofas and the finishes of their fabrics are very different. (Dog hair seems to stick to the smoother fabric for some reason.) We've had no static problems with either, but then we are in a relatively humid climate. We did not have any type of stain guard put on and the fabric looks pretty good even on the one that is five years old.

[1984vt]

I have a Microfiber sofa and love seat. Never have static issues, a lint brush picks up any pet hair and I can unzip the cushions and throw them in the wash and they come out looking new.

My daughter, at age two, took a permanent marker to the sofa and it came out! There was never a stain of which I couldn't get rid. Love them. The new leather sofas I have look ten years old and the micro still looks new.

[janetvj]

I have a microfiber sofa. It does attract pet hair, but a lint brush or roller cleans it up pretty easily. On the plus side, it is a great fabric for those of us who have cats who are not declawed. The fabric is very tightly woven, and does not fray easily. Cats prefer to scratch at materials that they can hook their claws into, so will leave the microfiber alone and find other, more textured fabrics to scratch.

[lovesMountains]

LOVE my microfiber sofa! It does show the cat hair, but once a day I simply wipe it off with a damp cloth and it looks great again as the cat hair comes right up. It is just so easy to clean and will not stain! In fact, I once spilled a whole plate of spaghetti on my sofa and you would never know it. A little Spray an Wash and a damp cloth cleaned the whole thing off. I will buy another microfiber in the future