How many microfiber polishing cloths do I need to detail my car?

[Mike PhillipsMike Phillips is verified member.]

How many microfiber polishing cloths do I need to detail my car?


Often times the question comes up,

"How many microfiber polishing cloths do I need to detail my car?"

Usually this is from the perspective of detailing a car, as in a single Saturday detailing session.


I would just interject that another consideration is,

How many microfiber towels to make a SMALL wash load?


It's best to not wash microfiber with other types of materials, including cotton towels or a load of work jeans or t-shirts. So ideally you want to only wash microfiber towels with similar microfiber towels in a dedicated microfiber towel wash load.

Thinking about how many microfibers you need from this perspective, you want enough microfiber polishing cloths to run at least a small load through your washer and dryer.

Something about making a wash and dry load with only 4 items always seems kind of wasteful.

So instead of stocking up on enough microfiber polishing cloths for a single detailing session, stock up on enough microfiber polishing cloths to at a minimum make a small wash load.

12 average size microfiber polishing cloths makes for a good small wash load in most washing machines. So use that as a target number to shoot for when building up your supply for microfiber polishing towels.

 

[parttimer]

I would guess I use 10-12 on a job. Figured 4-5 per step and two for misc. cleaning and wiping. Sometimes more if I forget which side of the towel I used, oldtimers kicking in early. With the 16x24 towels I do use less because I fold them more, giving me more useable sides.

 

[rouxster]

I'm typing this out so that I can see how many I use in a session. I have a full size crew cab pickup and I usually wash it once a week. The only leather I have is my steering wheel, so I don't use any leather cleaner.

• 2 white waffle weaves for the outside windows
• 2 white waffle weaves for the inside windows
• 2 black towels for tires and wheels
• 2 for the body and the chrome
• 2 for WG Spritz Wax
• 1 for interior vinyl cleaning
• 1 for interior vinyl protectant
• 1 MF sponge for wheel glaze

That's all I can think of off the top of my head. So it looks like I use at least 12 towels, if I don't do anything else like wax or sealant.

 

[b0b]

What do you guys do about mixing different color towels? Do you wash waffle weaves separate from regular microfibers? Thanks.

 

[rouxster]

The colors bleed a little at first. I was the black, white, grey, yellow and green towels together. The white's aren't perfectly white anymore, but that doesn't bother me - they still work the same. If I had more white or black towels, I would wash them separately.

 

[parttimer]

I pretty much use borderless blondes or boa's, wash them together, neither has bled to each other.

 

[Justin M.]

I don't separate types of towels, but I do separate them by "clean" or "dirty". I only wash my exterior clean towels together (ones clean enough for paint only) and then do a separate wash of my dirty towels (ones used for cleaning wheels, jambs, etc). Have not had problems with bleeding before...