I have just ripped up my carpet on my steps and I am going to be sanding and staining the oak treads on my steps.

Does anybody recommend and particular stain and polyurethane product? I do not want to use minwax as I dont think the quality and durability is all that good.

I was told Duraseal and Sherwin Williams Stains are good?

 

Not sure why you think that, I've used minwax stain on stairs for many years and never had any issues, it's the sealer that fails first, and the customer unwilling to apply enough coats of sealer or willing to wait until it drys.
100% sure there's oak treads under that carpet?
Picture would be nice.

 

All penetrating oil stains are about the same. I prefer Minwax stains because they tend to have a longer shelf life than some of the others. While there are better polys out there, 3 coats of Minwax poly [sanded and dusted between coats] will hold up well. On new residential construction I've done more stairwells than entire floors and Minwax was normally what I used.

 

From my personal experience and my fathers as well, I used minwax on a couple of transition pieces and saddles in my home. I put down 4 coats of the stain waiting a day inbetween coats to match my existing color flooring and then 2 coats of poly. After about a year, the pieces I stained look dull.

As for the steps, yes they definitely look like oak. Yesterday, I finished stripping all the paint off the stringers, risers and I removed the poly on the treads. I just need to sand everything down, fill all the holes with wood filler, sand again and then stain. See below for pictures

 

Stain should be applied in just one coat! Stains dry more from absorption than chemically and multiple coats of stain won't dry correctly. Normally you apply 1 coat of stain, followed by 3 coats of poly.

It's usually best to remove the stain/poly with a chemical stripper as sanding alone doesn't always remove all of the previous finish. Any remaining finish will affect the new stain's ability to be absorbed by the wood.

 

As per the minwax instructions, it says you can apply multiple coats to make the stain darker. That is why I did 4 coats as it took that many to get it to match my current floors.

I did use a chemical tripper on the stairs yesterday to remove everything.

 

I haven't read the label on a can of Minwax in a long time but it's common practice not to apply multiple coats of stain. Often when the poly is applied it will rewet the stain if it couldn't sufficiently dry and then move that stain around the wood making for an uneven stain color. It is always better to use a darker or different color stain if the one you picked out isn't dark enough.

Stain must always have poly applied over it as it won't wear well by itself.

 

This is user error. If the can says you can do this, then there is a documentation issue with the product but the product itself is not designed to be used this way. Stains works by being absorbed into the wood but the first coat seals it to the extent subsequent coats will not soak in.

I use Minwax stains (only one coat) and polyurethanes exclusively because I've never had an issue which made me look for anything else.