Washin' your Microfiber Stuff

I have also a set of HE washer and dryer. I usually use Charlie's detergent.

I never use the dryer I just hang them till they dry.



On another front I also noticed that when they dry they feel a bit abrasive on the hand. Especially my Pakshak waffle weave drying towel. I even thought when I dry the car it may have caused some swirls and micro marring. Do you guys wet you MF towels before using them? Even the drying WW towels? Do you also wash your MF before using them for the first time?





cheers



Nick
 
I just finished a load of MF towels and new cotton diapers this morning in my HE washer.

I used Tide unscented HE detergent.

I used some fabric softener in the load. should I rewash them again?

Why shouldn't fabric softener be used?
 
If you load up a lot of waxes and wash the applicating clothes you may get a 'ring' in the machine. For this I usually will just take a general purpose cleaner or window cleaner even and wipe it down after.



Also I will wash twice if they are really loaded up.



Since I switched to pads for applying wax/polish it's been easier to clean the 'rags' :).
 
thump_rrr said:
I just finished a load of MF towels and new cotton diapers this morning in my HE washer.

I used Tide unscented HE detergent.

I used some fabric softener in the load. should I rewash them again?

Why shouldn't fabric softener be used?
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Oh no, you do NOT want any softener, it plugs the fibers up and basically destroys the usage of MF. Don't mix cotton fibers as well, the fibers are totally different from MF. Boil em to release the softener, run another laundry load as well. Hopefully they will come out.
 
As time goes on and more people have wicking performance-wear type of clothing, most everybody will learn not to use softeners on any of their poly for exactly the reason stated above.
 
I use "free" detergent, hot water setting, and a splash of APC. One load for cleaning towels another for wax, drying and polish towels. Dry on low heat.
 
dpsorg said:
As time goes on and more people have wicking performance-wear type of clothing, most everybody will learn not to use softeners on any of their poly for exactly the reason stated above.
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I am guessing the softeners folks may not like it. :)

(We may hear some canned answer from them: "it does not harm the ...)



But yes indeed more and more microfiber clothes are coming out, people need to stop using softeners. They are really doing nothing to the clothes.



Cheers



Nick
 
PTRon said:
And wash your glass towels separately to avoid cross-contamination.
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Exactly! Some times if you use a steel wool to erase water spots on windows, little fibers of the steel wool come loose and the MF picks them up. Be really careful with that, those little fibers can cause a lot of damage to the paint. :up
 
tygger said:
How should I clean micro fiber towels that were used for applying and removing wax??? Thanks
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I'd hand-wash application media with Dawn Power Dissolver and then wash it all in the machine with something like Micro-Restore.

titsataki said:
On another front I also noticed that when they dry they feel a bit abrasive on the hand. Especially my Pakshak waffle weave drying towel. I even thought when I dry the car it may have caused some swirls and micro marring. Do you guys wet you MF towels before using them? Even the drying WW towels? Do you also wash your MF before using them for the first time?
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My WWs were getting stiff, but reworking my water conditioning (added something called a "berm filter" to remove iron and manganese, got new softeners) seems to have solved the problem. Also, I washed them repeatedly with no detergent...kept an eye on them and sure enough there was some minor sudsing from residual detergent. I kep washing them until this went away and then did a final rinse with distilled white vinegar. Since then, no problems. If you have hard water, that might be the problem (mine didn't test all that hard, but conditioning it sure makes a difference).



No need to dampen them before use, no marring. And yeah, I wash *all* textiles before using (or wearing ;) ) them.
 
i still think washing MF towels with liquid detergent (no softeners, fragrances etc), rinse with vinegar and every once in a while wash with MF restore should work fine. dry on low heat or air dry.
 
GS4_Fiend said:
What happens when you use HOT for the drying machine?
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Unless there's something weird/wrong with your dryer it shouldn't get hot enough to do any damage. I use MEDIUM just to be on the safe side, but that's just me.
 
Does anyone else use an APC for their heavily soiled towels? I've got a couple that I used the other day to detail my engine that look almost black. What would work well for removing the gunk from the towels. Right now I currently wash my mf's with micro-restore and do a final rinse with vinegar.
 
I use Charlies soap APC and detergent and a Vinegar last rinse.

If the MF are all soiled there is a limit on how much they can be cleaned. At that time I just throw them away. Same with drying WW towels. If they are just too hard they get transferred to window and interior cleaning and then thrown out. I used to fight to make look like new as well until I realized that the point is to make the car clean and swirl/mar free not to save the towels for ever. :)



cheers



Nick
 
RustyBumper said:
Does anyone else use an APC for their heavily soiled towels?
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Yeah, I sometimes soak my really nasty-soiled ones in EFHI or even Simple Green.



titsataki said:
If the MF are all soiled there is a limit on how much they can be cleaned. At that time I just throw them away. Same with drying WW towels. If they are just too hard they get transferred to window and interior cleaning and then thrown out.
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I agree with not spending too much time/effort trying to get every MF clean-as-new. But I hardly ever actually throw them away until they're really threadbare, there's always some awful job that I'll use crappy ones for (household applications as well as detailing).
 
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