Properly caring for your auto detailing towels is one of the most crucial things you can do as a detailer.
How to Properly Care for Towels
When it comes to cleaning that virtual herd of auto detailing towels you use on a daily basis in your auto detailing business, there are really only four things you need to remember:
- Sort your towels
- Don’t use fabric softener
- Don’t use bleach
- Skip the heat
Sort Your Towels
Wash your microfibers together. Wash your window towels together, and keep your messy, greasy all-purpose cleaning towels together. By segregating your towels, you ensure that dirt, grime, lint, etc., won’t contaminate other towels which is especially important when cleaning windows or doing exterior paintwork.
You will risk getting streaks if you wash wax towels or greasy towels in the same load as your window towels. You will risk getting fine debris in your exterior paint towels if you wash them in the same load as your all-purpose towels typically used for grease or dirtier jobs.
Don’t Use Bleach or Fabric Softener
All of Detail King’s microfiber towels are machine washable. But with all of the waxes, polishes, oils, and chemicals that are applied and then removed with these high-quality towels, regular household detergent isn’t going to do the trick. No how, no way.
Laundry soap doesn’t come close to cleaning and restoring these most-important tools of the auto detailing trade. One of the reasons microfibers work so efficiently is that each of the millions of individual fibers is microscopically split to allow for great absorption. And what they’re absorbing is dirt, grease, and grime.
Never use bleach or any detergents with bleach alternatives or fabric softeners in them. Using bleach when washing any towel will cause the towel to create lint and will also break down the fibers. Fabric softeners — if used when washing your auto detailing towels — will cause the towel to not absorb properly when in use.
Instead, use Detail King’s specially formulated Clean All, which is a unique detergent for microfiber wash mitts, towels, and all types of buffing pads. Clean All will remove all of the waxes, polishes, oils, and chemicals absorbed into microfiber towels and solvents, grease, etc. from all-purpose terry cloth towels.
The ingredients in Clean All have the ability to get down deep into your high-quality towels to break down all chemicals and heavy residues and remove them. The water softener in the solution neutralizes calcium and magnesium in hard water which causes towel fibers to stiffen over a short period of time.
Skip the Heat
Finally, it’s human nature for us to toss clean wet towels into the dryer. Don’t do this.
Applying the maximum heat to auto-detailing towels can dry up the microfibers, which will prevent the towel from absorbing properly. Air drying your towels is the safest way to make you microfibers last longer. If choosing to use a dryer be sure to dry on the lowest heat or no heat.
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