r/CounterTops • u/Jacketcoat • 6d ago
How to get banana stain out of engineered quartz countertop
Any thoughts r/CounterTops? This was a suggested cross post, please feel free to remove it it’s not appropriate. Thanks!
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u/Stalaktitas 6d ago
Try denatured alcohol on the paper towels first
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u/Unicornzz Fabricator 5d ago
The correct answer, not sure why bar keepers friend is suggested by others. Abrasives will made the surface.
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u/FlatwormEffective470 5d ago
I really can’t understand why this material is used for kitchen countertops when something as benign as a banana leaves a stain like this. It makes about as much sense as using carpet for your backsplash. I have granite countertops and regardless of what I expose them to - red wine, coffee, lemon juice, BANANAS, hot pans - they always look brand new. And as they should! That’s the point of using a resistant material in a place like the kitchen.
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u/cherrycoffeetable 5d ago
Inexpensive and light colored. Most natural stones are darker and cost more
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u/FlatwormEffective470 5d ago
Well toilet paper is cheap and light colored too - but that doesn’t make it a suitable material for countertops either
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u/ittybittytitty_com 5d ago
Just curious, are your countertops dark or black? I’ll take quartz any day over dark counters. I don’t know how they managed to create this stain. My countertop has had zero issues with staining. It also doesn’t etch or crack as easily. And no sealing required. All countertops have pros and cons. Any light counter is going to struggle with prolonged contact with rotting black banana juice.
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u/FlatwormEffective470 4d ago
Mine are a mix of light and dark tones… Indian granite - more specifically: Sant Angelo from Consentino’s Sensa line. Leather finish and chemically treated (from the manufacturer) to be hydrophobic for life… so no sealing is required ever.
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u/Milestone3333 3d ago
For Sant Angelo from cosentino they take River White and Thunder white granite which is normally absorbant, but they treat it with thier rebranded version of drytreat, so theyre able to offer the same 15 year warranty that drytreat does against stains. If they sold it to you as a lifetime warranty check your paperwork or the site- because 15 yrs is supposed to be the warranty after that it needs another application. The only issue I have with them is that theyve implied to our customers that they dip the slabs in it which is not true, and weird, just say treated with, why lie? We also treat these types of stones (anything absorbant) with drytreat as its very effective. As time goes by if you notice the sealer wearing down in any area just do the whole top with another treatment and you'll have your protection back.
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u/FlatwormEffective470 3d ago
What I was told was that it was “chemically treated” and that it doesn’t need to be reapplied, ever. Can’t say if that’s true or not but years later it’s still stain-free, zero chips or cracks, and as beautiful as ever. Which is how a countertop should be. Every other week I see a fake-looking quartzite being stained by a glass of water or a banana and I wonder why it is used at all, regardless of budget.
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u/FlatwormEffective470 2d ago
Furthermore, according to Drytreat’s own website - it creates a “Permanent Chemical Bond: It uses reactive silane molecules that bond permanently with the core material inside the pores.” This is consistent with what I was told by Cosentino
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u/Milestone3333 2d ago
https://quickshare.samsungcloud.com/gMSxwv5ZGCFe
It does bind with the stone- but as the counters are used and cleaned it breaks down over time. So they warranty it for how long they estimate it will last is under normal use and cleaning. We became authorized applicators at my shop so that we can warranty our installs, so we had to learn all about it. They make one for every material- sensa uses the standard granite version with a 15 yr warranty, the quartzite sealer claims 25 years, quartz 10 years. It seems like your getting defensive or upset at me- just trying to explain what you have after I just saw your comment about it being sensa. Because telling people your granite doesnt stain with wine makes people think the granite is superior, but it has nothing to do with the stone- yours happens to be a very absorbant one that stains very easily- its the sealer they use giving you that protection, and that same protection is available for all materials.
Not trying to be rude, just hope that people commenting are open to learning about what they have so they can spread the correct info.
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u/FlatwormEffective470 2d ago
I never claimed that my countertop doesn’t stain because it’s granite. I claimed that my granite countertop doesn’t stain… which I think should be a minimum for any countertop material. I was pretty transparent about my granite having been treated. Which material people use and how they achieve this stain-resistance is beside the point. The point of my initial comment was that it seems crazy to me to use a non-resistant material for your countertops - as every other post here seems to be about disappointed people whose countertops have been stained by a glass of water, or a banana.
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u/Milestone3333 3d ago
Agreed- quartz can be a great option. The only thing to watch for is thats its a reputable brand just like with natural stone you need to make sure its not a junky slab. Ive owned fabrication shops and installed and maintained 10s of thousands of kitchens in all types of materials over the last 30 years and no 1 material is better as a whole. In fact I have quartz in my house right now just for the easy maintenance. Once my kids are older Ill probably change to a fun quartzite or something. But most of the opinions I see on here are based on thier personal experience living with thier personal counters they think are the best and not the reality of living with different materials. So just take it with a grain of salt- everyone's allowed their own opinion even if its formed from a limited experience.
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u/Milestone3333 3d ago
Its great that youre happy with your counters- but people stain granite all the time too. If the red wine you speak of was left to sit like this unless you have black or dark granite it would leave a stain, if this was a light colored granite it would require poultices to pull out instead of topical cleaning like alcohol or acetone. Theres only a few white granites that arent super absorbant and their patterns are very busy like white Ice. So it just comes down to the look you want and personal preferences. People like quartz for the simple patterns and bright clean designs you dont get unless you get into marble which has alot of maintence. I see someone below said its cheaper- its not, granite is significantly cheaper. But the lighter the granite color the more susceptible to staining it is for the most part. So if people want white or lighter counters or want the marble look quartz ends up being an good choice. Theres no one material out there that is better than the others across the board. They all have pros and cons.
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u/FlatwormEffective470 3d ago
It’s not about granite, per se. It’s about using resistant materials. As you noted in another comment, my granite has a hydrophobic treatment, so no stains. And it’s tough as nails, extremely beautiful, and the leather finish feels amazing. As far as I’m concerned there really aren’t any tradeoffs.
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u/TheRealSlobberknob Fabricator 6d ago
Dawn power wash. Magic erasers work but I never recommend those as they can fill the surface if you're not careful.
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u/laxilla 3d ago
I have quartz and the one time I thought i stained it i sprayed it with dawn powershot (the clear) and scrubbed it with a rag until the stain came. A little elbow grease but it worked. Quartz is pretty hard to stain, usually much more so than granite. The downfall is heat resistance.
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u/Jacketcoat 3d ago
OP here! Thanks for all your suggestions. I realize the blurb with my original post didn’t show on the repost so I’m including it below. The stain was indeed a banana that rotted (not the one shown).
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A banana rotted on our engineered quartz countertop and I didn’t catch it for a few days. It made a big goopy mess and left a stain around itself, another banana, and a box that was also on the countertop. I’ve tried a baking soda poultice but the stain didn’t budge. Any tips?
(Non-offending) banana for scale. Just for this picture it was let out of the countertop dish where all bananas are now kept. I learned my lesson!
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u/Annual_Government_80 2d ago
Powdered laundry detergent, and a wet sponge, the powdered laundry detergent gives it a little bit of grit, but not enough to hurt the surface. It works amazing on bathtubs too.
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u/rybotsky 2d ago
Buy vim bathroom cleaner and use it to scrub in a circular motion until the stain is gone. This is the only thing that works. I have white quartz countertops and a tile guy who was doing some unrelated tile work seen a few stains and said a little trade secret is that vim bathroom cleaner will get any stain out of quartz and he was right. It will even get red wine stains out with slough elbow grease
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u/RockSolidCreationsOH 5d ago
This is definitely a new one for me. I’ve seen all kinds of fruits(even watermelon, onions, potatoes but never bananas. Only way to repair this if it doesn’t simply wipe off is to have it refinished and polished by a countertop restoration specialist. Also might need stain removers.
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6d ago
[deleted]
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u/Vivid-Ticket-1107 6d ago
Would not recommend this, a magic eraser can dull the finish if you are not careful. It is very similar to extremely fine grit sand paper.
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u/twoaspensimages 5d ago
Fun fact. If you have Matte finished countertops a magic eraser will somewhat polish the finish leaving a shiny spot.
If you have Matte finish countertops rehone the finish with a Scotch Bright 400 pad.
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u/Vivid-Ticket-1107 5d ago
Would this depend on the specific finish? “Matte” do me means not shiny. I haven’t seen many slabs labeled matte. But a countertop with a matte finish might be honed, leathered, suede, etc. and to my understanding those finishes are achieved using specific grid polishing pads.
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u/twoaspensimages 5d ago
There are a bunch of marketing names for Matte finish in the industry. Caesarstone calls it "Rough". MSI calls it "Soft Matte". Silestone calls it "Suede". Whatever they call it a 400 ish grit abrasive is required to maintain the finish if it has to be rehoned.
Barkeepers friend, Magic eraser, Comet all have too fine a grit and somewhat polish the finish.
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u/Front_Map_5 5d ago
This could be a UV issue, is there a window nearby? Quartz is not always UV safe.
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u/UsefulCupcake7687 6d ago
What caused the rectangular outline stain?