Can These Towels Be Saved?

C

cjbigcog

New member
My bad habits regarding maintaining my WW drying towels have been catching up with me.....they just don't soak up water like when they were new. Have been doing all the wrong things. Mainly washing with all other MF cloths. Been using the dryer at the laundromat too.

Last week I washed them twice (with Towel Kleen), and used vinegar in the rinses. Air dried. Not much improvement.

I've just been given a washer, so that will help. Will I have to toss these towels and start over, or is there a wash process that will restore them?
 
Before you toss them you might want to try carefully boiling them for about 10 minutes in a big pot. Then do a wash with micro-restore or something similar and a cup of vinegar in the first of at least 2 or 3 rinses. The boiling will release a lot of the WW clogging residue and the rinses will get all of the old soap and stuff out (and the vinegar helps release it in the rinse also). I mentioned at least 2 or 3 rinses, but you want to keep rinsing until the water is clear. Good luck!
 
Read on another forum that by washing towels with 1/2 cup of baking soda and then rinsing with 1/2 cup white vinegar in the water brings towels back to life. Worth a try.
 
There's a thread on here somewhere in which we discussed this to death...IME at some point they simply reach the end of their useful life and it's time to get new ones (and I'd look into the *plush* MF drying towels that are now on the market).



I did bring mine (well, most of 'em but not all) back from the dead one more time...something like four washes on "Sanitize" with many additional rinses. Eh...was it even worth it compared to just getting out some new ones?!? Bet I was wasting time/effort/resources :o Hey, I already got *years* of use out of 'em.
 
Thanks for the ideas. I'll post results when I find what works.

Also...Accum: some of these towels are less than a year old, so they should have some life left in them.
 
cjbigcog said:
.. some of these towels are less than a year old, so they should have some life left in them.
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I'd try hotter water and watch to make sure you're rinsing *all* the suds/residual detergent out of 'em. I do machine-dry, but a laundermat dryer might (not sure how much of a real concern this is though) have dryer sheet/etc. residue in it.



Opinions vary about the vinegar, the guys at PakShak said it can make things *worse* but I've never experienced that, at least not that I noticed.
 
Accumulator said:
Opinions vary about the vinegar, the guys at PakShak said it can make things *worse* but I've never experienced that, at least not that I noticed.
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Nor have I , sometimes you have to watch comments made by vendors because it helps sell "their" products.



BTW I have totally gone away from fabric softeners all of our washing including clothes and use white vinegar instead, and the only thing we are missing is the chemically generated "fresh scent". No static .. no nothing .. just clean clothes with less residue in them. And a crap load cheaper.
 
Jesstzn said:
.. BTW I have totally gone away from fabric softeners all of our washing including clothes and use white vinegar instead, and the only thing we are missing is the chemically generated "fresh scent". No static .. no nothing .. just clean clothes with less residue in them. And a crap load cheaper.
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I, OTOH, have tried all sorts of alternatives to fabric softeners, but *always* come back to Ultra Downy. My (cotton, cotton/blend) textiles just don't turn out consistently soft without it for some reason. I have a few, *very* few, things that do come out soft, but I'm not gonna divide my loads up any more than I already do.



No, no issues with absorbency, discernable residue (e.g., no smears when softened towels are used on glass/lenses), no problems from it at all. Well, other than spending a little money on the stuff, but I don't really mind that as it doesn't add up to much.



[EDIT: other softeners *have* caused issues for me, just like people who hate on 'em say. But never the Ultra Downy, which I use somewhat sparingly.]



This is one of those things where the theory (which I can't argue with...well, not theoretically) just didn't work out for me in practice :think: :nixweiss



Heh heh, I've had people say "the softener doesn't really make things softer, it just makes them feel that way because it coats them with stuff"...yet the difference is not only *dramatic* on skin (from "can't rub my face with that!" to "that's nice and soft") but also even how the fabric behaves (stiff as cardboard vs. loose and floppy).



Must have something to do with my (double filtered and softened) water I guess.
 
After washing them in vinegar, re-wash with just clean water ... just to be 100% sure there's no soap residue in the micro-fibres use baking soda (Church and Dwight Arm & Hammer™) add 1/2 cup to the rinse cycle to soften / freshen towels



Boiling towels- allow micro fibre towels to boil for twenty (20) minutes (ensure that water does not fully evaporate) you will find that more wax / polish residue comes out even after a towel has been thoroughly washed. Empty out the water and then remove the towel, don't do it the other way or you'll re-introduce residue to the towel

 
What I use to wash my towels is Dawn dish washing detergent. Wash as as hot as the settings. Add some degreaser like Meguiar’s D108 Super Degreaser Concentrate. Be sure to double rinse with one rinse with a little Vineger. Use the orginal Dawn blue in color.
 
cjbigcog said:
Thought I'd add an overnight soak with OPC to my "restore" project. How much should I use for a load?
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No idea...I use my OPC as a pre-spotter on mine rather than as a pre-soak.



TOGWT said:
After washing them in vinegar, re-wash with just clean water ... just to be 100% sure there's no soap residue in the micro-fibres use baking soda (Church and Dwight Arm & Hammer™) add 1/2 cup to the rinse cycle to soften / freshen towels
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Hmmm..never tried it with MFs (the baking soda didn't solve my issues with cotton).



MDRX8 said:
What I use to wash my towels is Dawn dish washing detergent...
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I've done well with blue Dawn too. People have cautioned about it containing stuff to keep your hands soft (and baby ducks safe) that'll mess with how MF performs, but I haven't experienced that. Gotta watch the sudsing though...things can get sorta dramatic :eek:
 
Thanks for the ideas. I'll post results when I find what works.

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So here's how I washed my towels:

1st wash: 2 cups vinegar. 2hr soak

2nd wash: 1lb box of baking soda. 2hr soak

3rd wash: 1/2 cup OPC, vinegar rinse

Air dried.



When drying car, some towels had improved, some not. At least some towels got better.

The ones that didn't will get boiled as a last resort.
 
cjbigcog said:
..When drying car, some towels had improved, some not. At least some towels got better.

The ones that didn't will get boiled as a last resort.
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Well, at least you made *some* progress on 'em.



Why the air drying? Concerns about contamination in the dryer perhaps? Mine always come out a lot nicer when I machine-dry them.
 
Accum.....two reasons for air drying. One is I have no dryer, and two...I think the dryers at the Laundromat are contaminated by dryer sheets and clothes washed with fabric softener.
 
cjbigcog said:
Accum.....two reasons for air drying. One is I have no dryer, and two...I think the dryers at the Laundromat are contaminated by dryer sheets and clothes washed with fabric softener.
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Yeah, I kinda/almost remembered that from your earlier posts. Doubt it's a huge factor here anyhow.



I wonder how the newer plush MF drying towels will work out with regard to their useful life :think:
 
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