How much you actually need

More than you think. Considerably more.

We read 3,983 comments from people describing what happened when they used these products. The single most common piece of advice, appearing 174 times, was some version of soak it, saturate it, use far more than feels reasonable. Comments saying the product simply did not work appeared 35 times, which is a fifth as often.

The reason is physical. When a cat urinates on carpet, the liquid passes through the pile, through the backing, into the pad, and sometimes into the subfloor underneath. The visible stain is the smallest part of the problem. A cleaner applied to the surface treats the top layer of a mess that is four layers deep, and the smell keeps coming from the layers you did not reach.

To work, the cleaner has to travel the same distance the urine did.

Then leave it. The enzymes need to stay wet while they work, so covering the area with a plastic sheet or a damp towel slows evaporation and buys them hours instead of minutes. Blot afterwards. Do not rinse it out early, and do not put heat on it.

Bottles rarely say any of this, and the reason is commercial. Telling a customer that one accident uses a third of the bottle makes the bottle look expensive.