How do you know if a MF towel is of good quality?

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fastfurious23

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I was looking at the AGO MF comparison chart and it seems the only major differences are weight and price.

Microfiber Towels Comparison Chart

For example:

Mango madness towel = 220/gm2, price $3.33 each
Supreme 530 towel = 530/gm2, price $7.99 each

Couldn't you build a towel with very cheap material, lots of it, so it is heavy? Would that then be a premium towel?

Is it in the softness of the towel?
 
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Weight isn't necessarily the quality measurement, country of make/sew work and sometimes the blend ratios are what make the difference for me.

The Korean-made towels are better quality than those made/assembled in China. The blend ratios indicate how soft a towel can be. MF towels are part polyester and part polyamide (which is a polymer chain). An example of a synthetic polyamide is nylon, a natural example is silk/wool. The higher the polyamide percentage, the softer the towel.
 
More often, the key difference is whether the fibers are split or not

Split will tend to be softer, more absorbent and clean more effectively


They key difference for me is that the cheaper towels seem to put off more lint
 
Ouch. I buy the Zwipes brand on Amazon. 48 for $20. Maybe should invest in "better" towels
 
CDot said:
Weight isn't necessarily the quality measurement, country of make/sew work and sometimes the blend ratios are what make the difference for me.

The Korean-made towels are better quality than those made/assembled in China. The blend ratios indicate how soft a towel can be. MF towels are part polyester and part polyamide (which is a polymer chain). An example of a synthetic polyamide is nylon, a natural example is silk/wool. The higher the polyamide percentage, the softer the towel.
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Woobie towel? 70/30 polyester/polyamide. $9.33 each towel

For the polyamide portion of the MF towel, are there specific materials that are better quality? For example, from the ones you mentioned, is one better quality than the other? Also, is what the polyamide is made of typically available to the consumer as information? From the listings I see on AGO I can't find one that says what polyamde was used.

allenk4 said:
More often, the key difference is whether the fibers are split or not

Split will tend to be softer, more absorbent and clean more effectively


They key difference for me is that the cheaper towels seem to put off more lint
Click to expand...

Going back to what I wrote above, as a consumer is this information of whether the fibers are split or not available to us? Regarding the lint, that I have seen in product information where some say that the towel does not lint.
 
Most if not all MF towels made in Korea that I've come across are leaps and bounds higher quality than China made MF IMHO.
 
fastfurious23 said:
For the polyamide portion of the MF towel, are there specific materials that are better quality? For example, from the ones you mentioned, is one better quality than the other? Also, is what the polyamide is made of typically available to the consumer as information? From the listings I see on AGO I can't find one that says what polyamde was used.
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IMO:
•It would be wonderful if PA 66 was the most prevalent polyamide used in MicroFiber (MF) towels, and other MF car-care products as well. It's a little expensive, though.

•A reputable Company/reseller, such as AGO, would not sell anything other than high quality MF products...
regardless the MF products': "plastics-ratio".


Bob
 
Nope, weight isn't the absolute factor. For instance, the Costco Kirkland gold towels that come 36/$13.95 are a true 350GSM towel (actually a little bit more than 350). Yet the "standard" for a decent microfiber would be 350GSM but that would preclude those exact towels.

What you would want as your 'low end' towels would be the dual-plush type that are still only 350~360GSM but are marketed along the likes of Gold Plush Jr. or better yet MFT's own dual-plush units.

Softness isn't exactly a Chinese versus Korean matter either. There are plenty of newer ultra-fine towels of the dual-nap design that you'll never find to be lacking in softness. But yes, the split weave Korean's are nice (I still have around 45+ of them). :D Yet I'll use the dual-nap design hands down over those as they tend to do more, work more, remove more products, in more instances than the split weave units.

FWIW, the 530's are nothing more than the grown up brother to the 360/365's. Whereas the 400's and 500's tend to be the finer, thinner, softer thread versions of the 360's and 530's while still having the dual-nap design.
 
Agree with the split thread comments. I got a sample from MFT of the 500 gsm split towel and I like it better than the standard 530's they sell.
 
so many great sources to buy microfiber these days. just make sure it's soft, doesn't lint and monitor them after multiple washings to see if the degrade any. how you wash & care for them is just as important as the towels themselves...
 
fastfurious23 said:
Woobie towel? 70/30 polyester/polyamide. $9.33 each towel

For the polyamide portion of the MF towel, are there specific materials that are better quality? For example, from the ones you mentioned, is one better quality than the other? Also, is what the polyamide is made of typically available to the consumer as information? From the listings I see on AGO I can't find one that says what polyamde was used.
Click to expand...

Never tried the Woobie towel, so not sure. A great resource on AGO is the reviews--they should tell you which MF towels everyone loves. I can tell you the ones I have from AG (Gold Plush Jr/Super Plush/Clean & Buff/Guzzler Combo) are all TOP quality.

I wish I knew what polyamide was used in MF towels, but I'm betting it's some sort of synthetic one. That's all I know :-(
 
I thought that the split fibers just meant its absorbent and non split repels water. I'll look it up I could be wrong
 
frankprozzoly said:
I thought that the split fibers just meant its absorbent and non split repels water. I'll look it up I could be wrong
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If your towels are repelling water it's time you boil them and remove the sealants/oils and such. ;)

Remember that even the "Gary Dean method" didn't use fancy split fiber towels. Just your plain ol' everyday 360GSM towels. :)
 
cardaddy said:
If your towels are repelling water it's time you boil them and remove the sealants/oils and such. ;)

Remember that even the "Gary Dean method" didn't use fancy split fiber towels. Just your plain ol' everyday 360GSM towels. :)
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You have boiled MF towels?? How did this effect them long term? Never heard of boiling a MF before.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G900A using AG Online
 
I googled difference between split and non split microfiber. Good articles came up

One article debunks what a lot of us think as better quality. It says that the blend isn't that important. They perform the same. It's the number of times the material is split that really makes the difference.

The reason China's product isn't as good as Korea's is because they don't have the expense machines korea has. Article says the machine that splits the material is a million dollars
 
frankprozzoly said:
The reason China's product isn't as good as Korea's is because they don't have the expense machines korea has. Article says the machine that splits the material is a million dollars
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There are a lot of MF towels that are sewn in China with Korean fabric

I think these are labeled "Made in China"

Not positive, though
 
I'm new to the site and looking to make firsty post. Hope what I found out about MF towels in my write up will help. Im ccopy and pasting below

First Major Correction Attempt (FMCA)…Advice Help?
Hx: I been “detailing” cars for years right yet once I started reading forums and watching videos I discovered (like many others…misery needs company) why the sheet metal was not popping on the 2 yrs in the family 996 Carrera or the 7 years with us Toyota SUV…both dark colors. As well …I was contributing to it with using sub-par techniques and materials to clean…polish and “detail”. I commited to studying videos and forums and purchased the PC xp(Quick note about PC…do they sound different after a few hours of use? Getting warm is normal? I used 14G extension. Is changing speeds while working an area a problem?) and kit and decided to start with the black Toyota truck(poor abused oxidized…swirled up baby finally getting some love) for practice. Here is what I learned ; discovered so any advice or comments appreciated…
1. Prep the area for space…in garage…well lit/vented…supplies…power supplies…safety.
2. Plan an early start…I’m slow anyway but 2 hours/6 sections on a hood seemed about right using 2-3 steps cause its labor intensive. I got the Wolfgang 3.0 Twins with Orange and black paids as well as white using both 6.5 and 5.5 inch pads. Along the research I got couple other product sets…105/205 from MeQ and some Ultimate HyperPolish…I learned the difference between 1-step and 2-step products. Products really secondary to technique but they can all behave differently. Don’t fuss but truck had some bird etchings and I used some Meg85 with a orange pad with minimal improvement.
3. Finding the right pressure started with a bathroom scale( Junk’ video) was easy to duplicate on flat surfaces…vertical is another story.
4. Pads and Rags. I started doing an inventory of my rags I had been using for wash-dry-polish and they were not passing the test for “plushness” that I had learned from the Junkman. They were made in China but I also had a few that passed (I had somehow had some blue and grey 70/30 blends..quite nice).
Actually some of the fancy ones(Mequires Gold…Cobra Gold …the blue and orange edgeless are gr8 but gotta keep turning them.) I’ve since purchased based on “new knowledge” aren’t so “plush”. I learned that with any product you have to evaluate the effect on the paint and process as you go…make adjustments in product amount…cleaning and Keeping buildup off the pads and rags helps with the process of polishing and cleaning paint.
The dimple pads and raised soft edge pads did well as I also learned from the videos to prime…clean as you go…and preserve. The “hex-logics” are “wow”; they get hot and one had the backing come off. I hope they send me a replacement.
5. So after 16 hours to do the black truck…10 to do the white car(slower than it sounds cause its hard to see o n the white. I also experimented with the 105/205 combo two step and the one-step ultimate HyperPolish. Humidity effects the way sometimes the compounds dry slower or “diminish” . Well here are some pics so bash at will….See the taping job on white car
6.

I edited these pictures as much as MSF allowed
 
allenk4 said:
There are a lot of MF towels that are sewn in China with Korean fabric

I think these are labeled "Made in China"

Not positive, though
Click to expand...

It's not the fabric. It's the machine that splits the fabric
 
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