getting wax out of pads?

I

imported_speedingpenguin

New member
With my orange and white pads, I dont have too much trouble getting them clean. A squirt or two of Simple Green and running them under some hot water while rubbing/squeezing the old product out of them is easy enough and never a problem. With my finishing pads, however, I can never seem to get all the glaze or wax out of them! How do you guys recomend doing this? Do pads need to be 100% completly free of old product deep inside them to work good with different products?

-Chris
 
I throw mine, all of them, in the washing machine. Works fine for me and never had the backing come off one yet.
 
try soaking the pads in some warm water with some dishwashing soap overnight. also, if you can't get all the wax out of the pad, it should be okay to use as long as you use the same wax again... you can also try some the dawn power degreaser, it can be found at your local walmart. check this thread out ... http://autopia.org/forum/detailing-...ower-dissolver.html?highlight=power+degreaser



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RTexasF said:
I throw mine, all of them, in the washing machine. Works fine for me and never had the backing come off one yet.
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by themselves? with your microfiber towels? What kind of soap/detergent do you use, and what settings?







I've tried letting them soak overnight in a bucket of water with Simple Green mixed in, and when I would wring them out the next day I'd still get wax coming out.
 
I just wonder if the long term use of this product will affect the backing glue. Did anyone contact the company and ask about this?

Changeling
 
I don't believe it's necessary to get all the wax out.



Just mark your pads and use them with similar products in the future.
 
Black240SX said:
I don't believe it's necessary to get all the wax out..
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Yeah, I wouldn't sweat a bit of (straight/noncleaner) wax. Unless your wax dries especially hard and you have very soft paint I can't imagine it being a big deal. Just massage the new wax in really well before the next use so it can effect a solvent-action on the old stuff in the pad.



FWIW, and I don't intend this to sound :nono so please don't take it that way... if there's a significant amount of wax in the pads you might be using too much. After I apply LSP to the areas I can do by machine, I take the pad(s) off and do the tight spots (around doorhandles, "A" pillars, etc.). By the time I finish doing that there's not an appreciable amount of LSP left in the pad(s). If I can squeeze any wax out when I clean them (*hot* water and Dawn, maybe some Hi-Temp Removes-All) I figure I used too much and failed to squeeze/scrape the excess out of the pads before applying to the vehicle.
 
Yeah, I know I used WAYYY too much wax the first few times I used my PC, so thats my own fault. Right now I use one pad for waxes that have any sort of cleaning property to them as well as the XMT Glaze, and the other pad has only seen Meguiars #26, which I plan to keep that way.
 
speedingpenguin said:
by themselves? with your microfiber towels? What kind of soap/detergent do you use, and what settings?

I've tried letting them soak overnight in a bucket of water with Simple Green mixed in, and when I would wring them out the next day I'd still get wax coming out.
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I wash them by themselves with a scoop of oxy clean and whatever detergent is sitting there. Medium load setting and warm water. Last week I did a black 93 Saab (single stage paint) and went through five sets of Cyclo pads and a few from the PC. The pads all came out very clean in spite of their solid black coating from the Saab.
 
speedingpenguin said:
A squirt or two of Simple Green and running them under some hot water while rubbing/squeezing the old product out of them is easy enough and never a problem.
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Mr. Penguin, I do (almost) exactly as you describe. I use DAWN and let them soak for a while in a bucket. I do my squeezing in hot water with gloves on...I don't want all that crap running on my skin and the water is too hot. I'm confident I've got 90% of the junk out before it hits the washing machine. In the machine I run an extra high speed spin and usually 1 extra rinse cycle. I no longer dry them in the dryer... no real reason to do so. The pads are very clean when I'm done. I get years of use from a single pad.



If a pad is getting gross or starting to fall apart, I throw it away. Some of my old hook 'n' loop pads are starting to separate from the backing material.
 
speedingpenguin said:
With my orange and white pads, I dont have too much trouble getting them clean. A squirt or two of Simple Green and running them under some hot water while rubbing/squeezing the old product out of them is easy enough and never a problem. With my finishing pads, however, I can never seem to get all the glaze or wax out of them! How do you guys recomend doing this? Do pads need to be 100% completly free of old product deep inside them to work good with different products?

-Chris
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I'm a firm believer in not washing pads in the washing machine, (especially in hot water) and I don't recommend mixing different products on the same pad. Hot water could loosen up the backing from the pad and I don't think any pad manufacturer will warranty their product if you do it. I've never had any problems just spurring them to get them clean enough. There's really not a way to get *all* of the product out of the pad. With that in mind and all the different types of products out there, it's not a great idea to cross contaminate your pads with products. In a perfect environment it's best to dedicate 1 pad for each product. Especially for finishing products and pads.
 
-For my MF applicators I use Dawn Power Dissolver, or Simple Green.



-For my foam pads for PC I use Dawn Power Dissolver, and DP foam pad Rejuvenator.



I like the power dissolver, but I think the DP pad cleaner is better, and it gets the stains out.
 
optimusp517...[link to DP pad-cleaning stuff said:
...
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Thanks for posting that...that's one pad-cleaning product that'd slipped under my radar. I sometimes think I might oughta get something along those lines, and you've given me another one to consider.



Macruz19- Sounds like you like that stuff too!



On the washing-machine thing, my big issue with it was the pads not always coming as clean as they do when I clean 'em by hand. I used to put polishing pads in the washer all the time, and I don't recall any real issues with the velcro. Seems like some pads just hold up to certain types of abuse and others don't. I've been lucky...missed the Meg's pads that didn't work well by PC, missed the run of Cyclo pads with the bad velcro adhesive.



Heh heh, no matter what you do to a Griot's pad, I can't imagine the backing material *every coming off. Those aren't the right pads for every job, but man do they last forever (at least for me).
 
I have the same problem with the blue LC pad. I have the XMT pad cleaner but it doesn't help much. I also noticed that using the pad to apply sealant or liquid carbuna wax is wasting too much products. Next time I will try to apply by hand.
 
Last saturday I had a detail on an old gti with severely oxidized ss white paint. I didn't get around to washing the pads until sunday due to things I had to do on saturday and the paint and product had completely hardened on the pads. It looked as if someone just slapped on white paint on them. They were pretty bad. Well here's my process for cleaning them and they came out completely spotless and looking brand new:



1) Thoroughly spray down pads with 1:1 mixture of Simple Green and let sit for 2 hours

2) Massage pads and rinse under faucet.

3) Fill bucket with hot water and decent amount of Simple Green (I just poured some in) and put pads in massaging them in the water every now and then. Let sit over night.

4) Massage pads again and rinse out.

5) Pour dish washing soap (I used the Giant food store brand stuff called Pure Power and it worked good) directly onto dirty areas on the pads, spray some spots with SG again and let sit for at least an hour then rinse.

6) Any pads that had a tiny bit of dirt still left on them I put seperately in a bucket with 1-2 inches high of water and dish washing soap and let sit for a bit.

7) Put pads in a bucket full of hot clean water, let sit, then come back and massage soap out.

8) Rinse under water and massage again.

9) Put in washing machine on a slow spin cycle to dry them out a bit.



And there you go.



They were LC pads by the way and all the different pads (orange, yellow, white etc.) came out perfect.

:xyxthumbs
 
I only clean the sealant pad about every 4-5 times using it....depends on how much build up there is, but its usually not enough to warrant a wash
 
FWIW - What does this mean?



Anyways, what's worked well for me the last couple years is mixing up a gallon of water and some oxyclean with the hottest water you can stand. First rinse the pad out under the running water getting out as much of the product as possible. Then put it in the water/oxyclean mixture and work the pad by compressing it forcing the hot water and oxyclean in and out of the pad over and over. I do this for about a minute or so, then just let it soak for about 5 minutes and repeat the process, then rinse out with fresh water until the run off is fresh water only. Drain the excess water from the pad and air dry on top of a towel.
 
I use a mix of Chemical Guys Citrus wash ..I mix 4 ozs of wash and rest water in a 32 oz spray bottle ... I spray the pad and let it dwell a minute or 2 and wash in a bucket ....pads come out spotless...



this also makes a nice degreaser and tire cleaner....cleans wheels good also...



Al
 
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