Taking care of your microfiber towels will help them last longer – ensuring you get the most value and use out of them.

Standard wash process

Do not combine detailing microfiber towels with your regular household laundry. They should be washed separately.

1. Avoid letting your towels dry out after use and get them into the wash as soon as possible
2. Sort towels
3. Put sorted towels in the machine
4. Dispense the correct amount of detergent into the machine
5. Washer settings
   1. US-style machine: gentle cycle with extra rinse, up to medium heat
   2. EU-style machine: gentle cycle, 400-600RPM, 30-40°C [85-105°F], extra rinse
6. Run the wash cycle
7. Air dry on a line or rack, or tumble dry in a machine on gentle / low / no heat

How to choose a microfiber detergent

Why you should use a detailing-specific microfiber detergent

It is strongly recommended to use a detailing-specific microfiber detergent.

Household laundry detergents are not suitable for microfiber cleaning because they can clog and leave residue in the towel that will render them unusable. Free-and-clear detergents made for regular household laundry are not a replacement for microfiber detergent, unless no other detailing-specific detergents are available.

Detailing-specific detergents are formulated to tackle the filth and chemicals from detailing, which differs from the dirt in your clothing and household laundry. They keep the towels fluffy without adding softeners and remove sealants with ease.

What if you’ve used household detergent on a microfiber?

If household laundry detergent has been used on a microfiber, a few washes with a detailing-specific microfiber detergent can bring back the performance of your towel.

Using vinegar in your laundry

You should not use vinegar in your washing machine without consulting your manufacturer, as it can degrade rubber gaskets in the machine. Using the correct amount of detailing-specific microfiber detergent will generally have the same benefits as adding vinegar to the wash, without the risk of damage to your machine.

Determining the correct amount of detergent

Determining the correct amount of detergent depends on:

• Water hardness – the softer your water, the less detergent you will need to use
• Your washing machine (capacity and cycle) – refer to your manual for details on each and recommended detergent amounts
• The amount (by weight) of towels being washed – a larger amount of towels will require more detergent

It is common to use more detergent than needed. Using more detergent than needed can lead to less cleaning power – more detergent doesn’t necessarily result in more cleaning. Evaluate the amount that you use and try to reduce it to the minimum amount that still results in effective cleaning – this will both save you money and might result in better cleaning.

Wash process considerations

How to sort towels

There are two ways to sort towels: by color and by type of contamination

Sorting by color

New towels may give off color for 10 or more washes. Color transfer will not affect the performance of a towel, but if you want to preserve the color of your towels, you should sort by color – especially separating white or light colored towels. It is also advisable to wash new, colored towels thoroughly as dye can transfer to and ruin paint. Red towels in particular will likely stain everything.

Sorting by contamination

Types of towel contamination:

• Dirt (from a normal car wash, or anything not mentioned below – such as polish residue)
• Tar and sap
• Sealant residue
• Coating
• Towels that fell to the ground
• Lint-sensitive towels

Towels contaminated with dirt

The suggested wash process should work on towels contaminated with dirt from washing your vehicle. You may find it helpful to adjust temperature or a second wash if the standard process doesn’t get them clean.

Towels contaminated with tar and sap

In most cases, throw these towels away after use. Tar and sap and the chemicals used to remove them can be hard to remove from the towels and can contaminate your machine. The solvents used can also be a fire hazard if put in the dryer, even after washing.

Towels contaminated with sealant

If in doubt, wash separately from other towels. Repeated use of a towel with sealant can cause it to become hydrophobic over time. A high quality, detailing specific microfiber detergent is designed to remove sealant residue from towels. Increasing the heat of the wash cycle can also help remove sealant residue. Check with the manufacturer for the temperature range that a particular towel can handle.

Towels contaminated with coating

After using a towel for coating, keep separate from all other towels. Do not let a towel used for coating dry out – after use, put it in a bucket or container with water (or an APC/water mix). Wash separately. Cut an edge off to mark the towel as an unsafe-for-paint towel, these are recommended to be downgraded to use where scratches don’t matter – engine bay, exhaust, underbody, etc.

Towels that fell to the ground

Visually inspect the towels and pick off any debris with a tool like tweezers. It might also be possible to brush out the microfiber with a clean fabric/upholstery brush to help remove debris. Wash separately. After washing, visually and manually inspect the towel (by running your hands over it to feel for debris) and don’t be afraid to throw away or downgrade the towel usage if debris remains.

Lint-sensitive towels

Any towel that is used for a final step – a drying towel, coating towel, or glass towel, should be sorted and washed separately from any towel that might lint (such as plush towels).

Washer settings and towel specific considerations

It is recommended to always use a gentle cycle or equivalent delicate material cycle. An extra rinse is always recommended to ensure that there is nothing left in the towel.

Many towels, surprisingly, are sensitive to high RPM (rotations per minute – the speed at which your machine rotates during the spin/”drying” cycle). For example, most twisted-pile towels can only handle up to 400 RPM.

The heat tolerance of towels can be surprisingly varied. Some very delicate towels can only withstand cold wash or up to 30°C [85°F] but those towels are very rare and the manufacturer will usually provide special instructions or warnings in the packaging when this is the case. A lot of towels can actually withstand a higher amount of heat (up to 90°C [195°F] in specific cases), which can be a useful tool in your wash process to aid in better cleaning and removal of sealants.

Check with your towel manufacturer for details on RPM and temperature sensitivity.

Pre-soak

Pre-soak means soaking your towels in a bucket of water with microfiber detergent or APC before you wash them.

For regular dirt, your washing machine and a quality microfiber detergent will be enough to clean your microfibers. Only if your towels remain dirty after a wash or fall under one of the specific circumstances below, should you consider a pre-soak.

A pre-soak can be useful with new towels to remove excess dye from the manufacturing process.

A pre-soak can help aid in sealant breakdown when a towel has become hydrophobic, which can also be useful for towels that can’t tolerate additional heat during the wash cycle that would otherwise help break down sealant.

When to downgrade or trash a towel

If your towel has been used for a coating application, has uncleanable dirt or debris, tar, sap, certain solvents (fire hazard), oil (fire hazard), or anything that will compromise its performance and your process, it should be downgraded or thrown out. Preserving paint and keeping a safe working environment is more important than trying to save a towel.

If you downgrade a towel, cut an edge off or mark it in some way to note that it is no longer safe for paint use.

Rubber stained towels

Using a towel on rubber, whether intentionally to clean or by accident, can cause black stripes on a towel. This will not come out. Downgrade this towel to tire dressing application and rubber cleaning. You may not even need to wash the towel if you use it for the same dressing!

Additional towel maintenance

Brushing out towels

If a towel isn’t as fluffy as it used to be or has been dried incorrectly, you can return its fluffiness by brushing it with a clean, dedicated fabric/upholstery brush. To do so, lay the towel flat, brush the towel, rotate the towel 90° after brushing a section, until you have brushed the entire towel; flip the towel and repeat the process on the other side. When you’ve finished brushing the entire towel, it should be more fluffy. This process does not need to be done with every wash, and is generally only done occasionally or as needed. The softer the brush the less strain on material and finer finish you will have, but for worst cases you might need a slightly stiffer brush. A horse hair brush is a good place to start.

Incorrectly dried towel

Half brushed towel to show the difference

Finished towel after brushing

“80% drying” process

The “80% drying” process is an approach to drying that might save you money on your energy bills and help your towels last longer. It is an alternative to the regular drying process that you can use after every wash.

Remove the towel from the washing machine when the cycle is completed and hang the towel to air dry. If possible, move the towel frequently as it dries. When the towel has reached around 80-90% dry, put it in the dryer and run it on the recommended setting until the towel is dry. This will save you energy costs, and will reduce the amount of stress on your towels from the drying process while also resulting in the same fluffy towels you would expect from using a dryer.