Pad Washing

A

Ardorius

New member
Hello!



How do you guys wash your pads after you are done with a detail? I don't have a dedicated pad washer, but I was wondering if I can simply spray some APC on the foam, let it dwell, then toss it in the washer machine with all my microfibers?



I'm not sure if that is a good idea to wash them all together; but I have so few pads that washing them separately would be such a waste.



How do all of you pros take care of this problem?



My pads:

3x orange

3x white

3x black
 
I thow them in my rinse bucket as I am changing pads. When I am finished polishing, I spray them with Dawn Power Disolver, brush them reallt good, rinse them with the hose and lay them out on my grit guards in the sun to dry (velcro side up).
 
Pad washer 2000 is by far the best thing I've used- I used to spray and all that, but this thing really works very well.



I had left compound on my purple foam pads for 3 days just to see--looked brand new + you can just add a little ONR to the water- no APC's on the pads.



Rob
 
I use warm water and dawn in the kitchen sink, usually I let them sit in warm water for awhile and then scrub and clean them by hand-I def dont use the washing machine-mixing with microfibers would only contaminate everything
 
pad washer bucket.

I used to wash by hand but once I was faced with almost 20 dirty pads and said screw this, and pulled the trigger on the pad washer.

I think they're a bit overpriced but so much easier and faster than washing by hand.
 
I clean my pads with a citrus cleaner or wool lite, depending on what products were used. All my wool/foam pads air dry after being spun on the highspeed for a few secs to further extract moisture and debris.
 
Can you use a the pad washer to wash and dry a pad while detailing then use that cleaned pad on another panel? I'm thinking of getting one. What I am thinking of doing is polishing a panel then washing/drying the pad using the pad washer then going onto the next panel. That would cut down on the amount of pads that I use.
 
re:'Can you use a the pad washer to wash and dry a pad while detailing then use that cleaned pad on another panel?'



While I've personally never done so (I spoiled myself and bought a bunch of pads so I could just switch off), I don't see why you couldn't.

You'd probably want to do the two step drying process, which is to spin it in the bucket and then take the grit guard dome out and place it on the drying section outside and spin the pad for another minute or so on that (the product website has clips that show all this).

In any case, the pad is never dripping wet or soaked so I'm sure it wouldn't cause any issues to use right after cleaning.
 
Reg cleaning i use XMT pad cleaner let it dwell then lighty scrub if needed and then spray them with the hose then lay face down on grit gaurds to dry.



And once a month i get a 5 gallon bucket put water and snappy pad cleaner and let them sit for about 30 or so then scrub and rince then dry.
 
i just fill eather a bucket of really warm water(as hot as my hands car take because they will be in it lol) and i use a little bit of car wash(its adams for now) and some simple green and they ill let em soak for about 30 min.

then i scrub em with my fingers till they look clean then i just wrinse then out.



i also will put them in my front loader washer and put it on spin(new samsung when it spins it looks like its going to take off lol)and that gets most of the water out.



i have read that soaps like dawn can eat up the glue on the velcro and mess up the pad and i have had this happen and think about it its made to eat through grease so no dawn for me.
 
I usually just soak mine in a bucket with water, dawn, and some apc. Id like to find a better way because i hate cleaning them like that. I might try some of the power dissolver that everyone has been talking about.
 
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