A Buyer's Guide to Enthuze Floor Liners and Floor Mats
Tuesday, January 21, 2025
You have plenty of options for floor liners and floor mats. With so many choices, it’s easy to get overwhelmed. It’s not always obvious which products work best for you. Read on and we’ll break down the available options for floor protection in your vehicle.
Floor Mats vs Floor Liners: What’s the Difference?
People use the terms floor mats and floor liners interchangeably, but there are definite differences between the two products.
One difference is their shape. Floor mats are flat and only cover a portion of your vehicle’s floor. Floor mats are an affordable way to protect your interior from small spills and general wear and tear.
Floor liners are bigger and offer more protection. They often include a raised lip that contains spills. Many liners also come in custom designs that cover more of your interior.
What Are Floor Mats?
Floor mats only cover specific areas of your vehicle. They protect against minor spills, dirt and debris that can get into your carpeting.
Floor mats are made from carpet, rubber, or thermoplastic elastomer (TPE) –AKA thermoplastic rubber. If you’re interested in floor mats, you’ll want to know which material is best for your car.
We’ll explain the pros and cons of each option:
Carpet Floor Mats are designed to match the floor of your vehicle interior, which makes them stylish and comfortable. The downside is they get dirty fast and are prone to staining, requiring you to clean them often. They might not be the best option for anyone with children.
Rubber Floor Mats are easier to clean and stain-resistant. The trade-off is they are also more expensive. They usually come in universal fits that work with most cars and trucks, but universal fitting doesn’t offer as much protection for your carpet. Custom-fit options are limited, as are color options.
Thermoplastic elastomer (TPE) Mats use a plastic/rubber combo that gives them the flexibility of rubber, plus the ease of cleaning and durability of plastic. Their ability to maintain their shape without getting stretched or warped makes them long-lasting.
Installing Floor Mats
Installing a floor mat is incredibly simple and can be done without any special tools.
A floor mat set will likely include driver and passenger side pieces, plus two rear seat floor mats. The driver's side mat will have a cut-out in the far right corner to keep it from interfering with your gas pedal. It's important to position your floor mats so they don’t interfere with your gas pedal, brake pedal and clutch pedal if you have a manual transmission.
Check your mats frequently to make sure they’re staying in place. The passenger side mat won't have its corner cut out, so it’s easy to distinguish the two. The rear seat mats are interchangeable and work on either side.
Some floor mats include a small hole and a metal circle. If you have anchor hooks on the floor of your car, you can pull the hooks through this hole to keep the mats from slipping. Not every mat includes an anchor hook hole, but they will probably include additional methods to keep them secure.
Care and Maintenance
Floor mats are very durable and can last the lifespan of your vehicle. To keep them effective and looking good, you’ll have to frequently clean them. You can regularly pull them out of your vehicle and vacuum up any dirt.
If your mat is made from rubber or TPE, it can be hosed down and scrubbed with an interior car cleaning liquid, then left out to dry. Carpet floor mats usually come with special instructions for care.
Vacuuming up loose dirt and using a scrub brush will give them the most effective cleaning. They should also be left out to dry before being reinstalled.
What Are Floor Liners?
Floor liners are slightly different from floor mats. While mats might use one of several materials, liners are usually made from a plastic/rubber hybrid called thermoplastic elastomer (TPE) –one of the materials mentioned in the mat section.
Floor mats are designated as a universal fit, whereas floor liners are custom-designed to fit a specific vehicle. Each floor liner will cover the entirety of your vehicle’s floor, including cargo liners and third-row liners for the rear of your vehicle.
Floor liners are designed with raised edges that contain spills. Enthuze floor liners offer fantastic protection, improving a vehicle's looks while boosting its resale value.
Types of Floor Liners
Enthuze floor liners have unique designs, but they’re all made from a form-fitting plastic/rubber hybrid that helps them fit inside your vehicle. This material is completely waterproof and resistant to warping in hot or cold temperatures.
Floor liners are made from one of the following materials:
TPE (Thermoplastic Elastomer) is a plastic/rubber combo that’s flexible, easy to clean, and stain-resistant. TPE can be molded into any shape and retain its original form. This material is long-lasting and can hold up against abuse and extreme temperatures.
TPO (Thermoplastic Olefin) is a polymer/filler blend that uses both thermoplastic and filler material. It’s UV resistant and won’t degrade from sun damage, making it ideal for use in floor liners.
Polyethylene (PE) is the most common thermoplastic material; it’s inexpensive and incredibly durable.
Polypropylene (PP) is a thermoplastic polymer similar to polyethylene (PE) but slightly harder and more heat-resistant. It’s durable enough to stand up against harsh chemicals, making it the second-most popular material to use.
Polypropylene surfaces are easy to clean but become slippery when wet. This material is also susceptible to fading and oxidation, and if you have it for a long time, it might develop a chalky white appearance.
How To Install Floor Liners
Floor liners are easy to install. Just remove any stickers or packaging from your floor liner. If it has a safety label, you can put it in your owner’s manual for safekeeping.
Clean them with a heavy-duty vacuum. Make sure to identify which side of the car each floor liner should go on.
Then you should attach the floor liners using factory-installed retention hooks, or hooks that were packaged with your floor liner.
Make sure to check that your liners don’t overlap with your brake, gas, or clutch pedals, and then you should be good to go!
Care and Maintenance For Floor Liners
Our Enthuze floor liners are so popular because cleaning them is a snap! You should make sure to clean your floor liners every time you wash your car.
To clean your floor liners, you can detach your liners from their hooks. Make sure to lift them off the floor without spilling any debris in your vehicle.
Once the liners are removed, you can shake them to remove any loose dirt, then spray them down with a garden hose or spray gun from the local car wash. If neither of these is available to you, a bucket and water are fine.
Scrub the floor liner with a soft sponge and mild detergent (dish soap is recommended), because more abrasive chemicals can damage your floor liner.
From there, rinse them with water to remove the suds and either air dry or towel dry them.
After that, you can reattach them to their hooks, similar to when you first installed them. Just make sure they’re not interfering with any pedals!
And there you have it! Whether you’re looking at floor liners, floor mats, or deciding between the two, now you know a little more about the different options when shopping.
Enthuze offers a large selection of floor protection for cars and trucks, so no matter what choice you make, we can guarantee you’re getting a top-quality product from Enthuze!
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