maintaining MF towels...

jojokoko

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am trying to decide which plush MF towels i need, some of you guys recommended this:
Griots Garage PFM Terry Weave Towel, Set of 2

While its so darn pricey, i think am gonna buy them, but i need to make sure they last for quite a long time, so am really concerned how they need to be washed and maintained...

am not planning to get them soiled or dirty heavily so i will do regular washes on a coated car, I only cant find the right MF detergent here in the UAE, so my only option is 3D Towel Kleen, how good is that option washing a different MF brand ? and is it crucial actually buying the Griots or Pinnacle Rejunivator or not really ?? Finally which temps are best suited to wash these towels on ?...

Am trying to buy the stuff i need to maintain my brand new coated car for quite sometime, any crucial components i need to avoid scratches to a new coated vehicle ? the wash mitt ? drying towels ? I already acquired the Mothers car wash shampoo and couple of buckets and 4x grit guards, what else do i really need to maintain my car swirls and scratch free besides a good wash routine/practice ?...

thanks a lot,
 
Why 4 grit guards, have you seen the new one that are available? Quality drying towels like the PFM's are a dream to use, can't put a price on piece of mind

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Use unscented detergent. Fill tub with cold water mix in soap then throw in towels. Do not use a dryer, air dry only. I have several different batches of towels. One batch white waffle weaves for glass only. One batch of green waffles for drying, one batch of miracles (long nap) for removing wax or sealants, then I have several different low naps for other uses including rinseless washes. I use a sheepskin mitt and foam gun for washing.
 
Use unscented detergent. Fill tub with cold water mix in soap then throw in towels. Do not use a dryer, air dry only. I have several different batches of towels. One batch white waffle weaves for glass only. One batch of green waffles for drying, one batch of miracles (long nap) for removing wax or sealants, then I have several different low naps for other uses including rinseless washes. I use a sheepskin mitt and foam gun for washing.

Curious... why no dryer? I damp dry at low heat and then keep them running on no heat until dry. They seem to hold up well. I know you don’t want to get mf super dry, but I can’t imagine hanging all my towels to dry. I would need another room for that.


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Curious... why no dryer? I damp dry at low heat and then keep them running on no heat until dry. They seem to hold up well. I know you don’t want to get mf super dry, but I can’t imagine hanging all my towels to dry. I would need another room for that.


Sent from my iPhone using AGOnline
I think they hold up better without the heat. Seems they like to attract lint when in the dryer. I imagine you could tumble dry with no heat but I have room to hang mine so it's not a big deal to hang up ten or twelve.
 
Use unscented detergent. Fill tub with cold water mix in soap then throw in towels. Do not use a dryer, air dry only. I have several different batches of towels. One batch white waffle weaves for glass only. One batch of green waffles for drying, one batch of miracles (long nap) for removing wax or sealants, then I have several different low naps for other uses including rinseless washes. I use a sheepskin mitt and foam gun for washing.

am curious, is the sheepskin REALLY software and more absorbent than this ??
Super Plush Micro-Chenille Wash Mitt, microfiber wash mitt, car wash mitt

we have these sold everywhere for like 5-7 bucks max, and they are super soft, even after a couple of washes, not sure if they catch dirt and crap as good as something else, but my point is i can obtain them and throw them away anytime for cheap, or should i invest in this cheap skin ??

am insisting on this point coz i will probably be doing some scrubbing when washing my car, so wanna know which mitt is the best and at the same time induce no swirls !...

thanks,
 
I use a dedicated microfiber wash for my towels and dry them on low heat. As others have said an unscented detergent is equally the same.
 
I use a dedicated microfiber wash for my towels and dry them on low heat. As others have said an unscented detergent is equally the same.

so what they are describing here as the Rejuvenating effect is a total BS in your opinion ?
Don?t drown your microfibers, clean and restore them with Pinnacle Micro Rejuvenator!

also what about those agents they are describing at the near end of the page a total gimmick or towels will indeed feel softer every time i pull them out of the washing machine (did i mention i only use a washing machine for that ??) and let them air dry...

i will stick to the 3d towel kleen (that whats its called) but if the Pinnacle Micro Rejuvenator Microfiber Detergent Concentrate is much better i can buy that too !...

thanks,
 
The 3D Towel Kleen will be great for mf washes.

Also the Chenille Wash Mitt will be a great option. But be aware that one is not like all of the rest like anything else with products. The one on AGO is of a high quality. So I would look at a detailing shop for this so you get a great quality of them. Or if you have the option to hold one of the cheaper ones you can get. You want a lot of the noodles so the packed dense on the mitt and a good length of them. Try to get at least 2 in different colors just for the body of the car. One for the most of the paint and one for the lower third of the side panels and the back of the car and dedicate them for the different parts. You can get more of them during a longer time. So you dunk it in the wash bucket and wash the roof and finish with the windshield flip it after half of the roof. Place it in the rinse bucket and let it lay there. Reach for a fresh one and dunk it in the wash bucket and wash the hood and flip it and finish with the the front bumper put it in the rinse bucket. Another fresh one and I start under the side windows and wash the side panels and flip it when you reached the half way through and finish with the the side windows. A fresh one and the other side. Then the trunk lid and flip it and the rear bumper and finish with the back window. 5 mitts and you are settled with this method and one more if you take the rocker panels. If you wash in warmer temperature I rinse off the car soap when reaching for a fresh wash mitt. And why I finish with the windows is that it's useally another kind of grime on them that I don't want in the wash mitt. You can skip the windows if you are planning to use a glass cleaner on them. When you get used to it it's gets you in a flow that I like. And as with all this is much of a personal preferences on how to do washes. For me it feels like a safe method.

Do you have a soft paint on your car that's scratch sensitive. Then I would consider to go with a wool wash mitt on the top 2/3 of the car. A quality one is the Carpro Wool Wash Mitt. I have a Kia cee'd SW with a paint on the softer side of hardness of the clearcoat not so extremly scratch sensitive paint. With a great lubricated car soap with a high cleaning ability from it. I have been holding a lot of the wash marring to not be so much of them for little over 2 years now. The wash mitts and wash pads I have is of the kind of mf wash mitts I links to. Have from different brands but these seems to be of the same quality. For some reason the blue/white ones are a little plusher LOL. Eldorado2K and I have noticed the same with these and is a little strange but it's not a huge difference between the orange/white and blue/white ones but noticeble. Gtechnic and Sonax and The Rag Company and many other brands has these too. I feel like I have better control with the mf wash mitt and wash pads than the Chenille Wash Mitts. Used them in the beginning but when I first bought the Carpro Mf Wash Pad and I was more sold on mf ones. Then when tested the ones in the links I used them and the Carpro mf wash pad got to be used dedicated on the wheels.

XtraFluff Blue Microfiber Wash Mitt

GYEON Smoothie Wash Mitt

CarPro Hand Wash Microfiber Mitt

Merino wool wash mitt, auto wash mitt, sheepskin wash mitt

If I where to have a ceramic coating and I use it mostly now too. I would get Carpro Reset car soap which is a favorite car soap. Or the Gtechnic G-Wash car soap. These has a very high cleaning ability from them and awesome lubrication. Since made for ceramic coatings they don't leave anything behind as in protection and glossenhancers. Also they are very easy to rinse off and don't leaves any surfactans left which some of the cheaper ones can do. It's worth the extra cost IMO since they let your coating performance to be on the highest level. Or if you find another car soap with high lubrication like these and rinse off freely. You can use the Reset or G-Wash every 2-4 wash depending on how often you wash and what kind of dirt you have in your environment. Trust me these makes a difference on a long lasting ceramic coating. As with some car soap you can get build up of residue from them in the longrun. And one more important thing for me is that with a high cleaning ability that you have from the Reset and G-Wash. Is that you need to be doing less aggitations to get the car clean. With a sealant as I have now and a great prewash and PW clean rinsing. I need just to be doing 2 swipes with no other pressure than you don't drop the wash mitt/pad on the vertical surfaces and no pressure on the horizontall surfaces. If I notice that some dirt don't come off I let the car soap dwell and do the rest of the panel and come back and a swipe or 2 and it's useally get it off. The more aggitations you do even with the best lubrication from a car soap will be what wear down the coating. And you get a shorter longevity from it. So be carefull to not scrubbing the paint to an extreme level. Don't know how the Mothers Car Soap is if it leaves protection and/or glossenhancers behind. For me it's worth to get a real high quality car soap.

CarPro Reset Intensive Car Shampoo

https://www.autogeek.net/gtechniq-g-wash-500.html

If you want to do less aggitations when you wash. Get you a good PW to clean with. This do a lot of the heavy cleaning. And with a great prewash foam it aid the cleaning ability from the PW a little more. Then when you do the touching wash you should not be haveing much dirt left on the paint to wash off. Especially if you drive in an environment where you get a lot of dirt on your vehical. The PW for me is the most important tool to help me with don't get swirls and scratches on my paint. Use it as a wash mitt with the water pressure from the PW to clean with. A hose don't get as much dirt off as a PW do if you take advantage of the water pressure from it to clean with. Even when I have road salt covered paint I don't see much of the dirt in the rinse bucket after a wash. That's why I have a rinse bucket out even if I don't use the wash media on the paint again when it's goes in it. But I still use the grit guard board to rinse out the wash media. So I can evaluate how effective my prewash foam and PW cleaning was. Yes this is to take it to the extreme. But to get as little of defects from the wash it's something that works for me. Then use a quality drying mf towels or a car blowdryer of some kind. And you have a swirl free finish for a long time from these risks at least LOL. This is one way to get to the end of great looks on the paint on your vehical. Some use other methods and live in other environments that maybe don't need to be doing all of this and some do it even more extremly.

And as always I write a lot LOL. But like to describe as thoroughly I can.

/ Tony
 
3D Towel Kleen is awesome.

You will like it.

am getting really OC'd these days in regards to the detergent I should use, i already bought the 3D towel kleen and been using it for over a year now, no complains, but i just cant see that magical effect other rejuvenators claim to restore back MF towels !...

Also sadly my older MF towels condition worsen every time i use then wash them (maybe coz am washing them at 40c ??), i no longer air dry them however. yesterday i bought the infamous "Griot's Garage 55586 PFM Terry Weave Towel (Set of 2)" from ebay @ 22$ including shipping, and i really need to preserve them this time !! Also i grabbed one of these from a local retailer (ie. walmart) and you can tell they are super plush and soft, kenco super plush MF towel (6$ each): Premium MicrofibreLuxury Towel 2 in 1Size: 45cm x 38cm. I just hope i didnt buy something bad for my car this time !...

as a side note am considering buying either/both of these:
https://www.theragcompany.com/cyclone-wash-mitt-premium-korean-microfiber-2-pack/
and
https://www.theragcompany.com/value-bundle-knobby-microfiber-chenille-mitt-2-pack/

any special care instructions for these or they all go in the same washing machine with other MF after every car wash ??...

Many thanks,
 
The 3D Towel Kleen will be great for mf washes.

Also the Chenille Wash Mitt will be a great option. But be aware that one is not like all of the rest like anything else with products. The one on AGO is of a high quality. So I would look at a detailing shop for this so you get a great quality of them. Or if you have the option to hold one of the cheaper ones you can get. You want a lot of the noodles so the packed dense on the mitt and a good length of them. Try to get at least 2 in different colors just for the body of the car. One for the most of the paint and one for the lower third of the side panels and the back of the car and dedicate them for the different parts. You can get more of them during a longer time. So you dunk it in the wash bucket and wash the roof and finish with the windshield flip it after half of the roof. Place it in the rinse bucket and let it lay there. Reach for a fresh one and dunk it in the wash bucket and wash the hood and flip it and finish with the the front bumper put it in the rinse bucket. Another fresh one and I start under the side windows and wash the side panels and flip it when you reached the half way through and finish with the the side windows. A fresh one and the other side. Then the trunk lid and flip it and the rear bumper and finish with the back window. 5 mitts and you are settled with this method and one more if you take the rocker panels. If you wash in warmer temperature I rinse off the car soap when reaching for a fresh wash mitt. And why I finish with the windows is that it's useally another kind of grime on them that I don't want in the wash mitt. You can skip the windows if you are planning to use a glass cleaner on them. When you get used to it it's gets you in a flow that I like. And as with all this is much of a personal preferences on how to do washes. For me it feels like a safe method.

Do you have a soft paint on your car that's scratch sensitive. Then I would consider to go with a wool wash mitt on the top 2/3 of the car. A quality one is the Carpro Wool Wash Mitt. I have a Kia cee'd SW with a paint on the softer side of hardness of the clearcoat not so extremly scratch sensitive paint. With a great lubricated car soap with a high cleaning ability from it. I have been holding a lot of the wash marring to not be so much of them for little over 2 years now. The wash mitts and wash pads I have is of the kind of mf wash mitts I links to. Have from different brands but these seems to be of the same quality. For some reason the blue/white ones are a little plusher LOL. Eldorado2K and I have noticed the same with these and is a little strange but it's not a huge difference between the orange/white and blue/white ones but noticeble. Gtechnic and Sonax and The Rag Company and many other brands has these too. I feel like I have better control with the mf wash mitt and wash pads than the Chenille Wash Mitts. Used them in the beginning but when I first bought the Carpro Mf Wash Pad and I was more sold on mf ones. Then when tested the ones in the links I used them and the Carpro mf wash pad got to be used dedicated on the wheels.

XtraFluff Blue Microfiber Wash Mitt

GYEON Smoothie Wash Mitt

CarPro Hand Wash Microfiber Mitt

Merino wool wash mitt, auto wash mitt, sheepskin wash mitt

If I where to have a ceramic coating and I use it mostly now too. I would get Carpro Reset car soap which is a favorite car soap. Or the Gtechnic G-Wash car soap. These has a very high cleaning ability from them and awesome lubrication. Since made for ceramic coatings they don't leave anything behind as in protection and glossenhancers. Also they are very easy to rinse off and don't leaves any surfactans left which some of the cheaper ones can do. It's worth the extra cost IMO since they let your coating performance to be on the highest level. Or if you find another car soap with high lubrication like these and rinse off freely. You can use the Reset or G-Wash every 2-4 wash depending on how often you wash and what kind of dirt you have in your environment. Trust me these makes a difference on a long lasting ceramic coating. As with some car soap you can get build up of residue from them in the longrun. And one more important thing for me is that with a high cleaning ability that you have from the Reset and G-Wash. Is that you need to be doing less aggitations to get the car clean. With a sealant as I have now and a great prewash and PW clean rinsing. I need just to be doing 2 swipes with no other pressure than you don't drop the wash mitt/pad on the vertical surfaces and no pressure on the horizontall surfaces. If I notice that some dirt don't come off I let the car soap dwell and do the rest of the panel and come back and a swipe or 2 and it's useally get it off. The more aggitations you do even with the best lubrication from a car soap will be what wear down the coating. And you get a shorter longevity from it. So be carefull to not scrubbing the paint to an extreme level. Don't know how the Mothers Car Soap is if it leaves protection and/or glossenhancers behind. For me it's worth to get a real high quality car soap.

CarPro Reset Intensive Car Shampoo

https://www.autogeek.net/gtechniq-g-wash-500.html

If you want to do less agitations when you wash. Get you a good PW to clean with. This do a lot of the heavy cleaning. And with a great prewash foam it aid the cleaning ability from the PW a little more. Then when you do the touching wash you should not be having much dirt left on the paint to wash off. Especially if you drive in an environment where you get a lot of dirt on your vehicle. The PW for me is the most important tool to help me with don't get swirls and scratches on my paint. Use it as a wash mitt with the water pressure from the PW to clean with. A hose don't get as much dirt off as a PW do if you take advantage of the water pressure from it to clean with. Even when I have road salt covered paint I don't see much of the dirt in the rinse bucket after a wash. That's why I have a rinse bucket out even if I don't use the wash media on the paint again when it's goes in it. But I still use the grit guard board to rinse out the wash media. So I can evaluate how effective my prewash foam and PW cleaning was. Yes this is to take it to the extreme. But to get as little of defects from the wash it's something that works for me. Then use a quality drying mf towels or a car blowdryer of some kind. And you have a swirl free finish for a long time from these risks at least LOL. This is one way to get to the end of great looks on the paint on your vehicle. Some use other methods and live in other environments that maybe don't need to be doing all of this and some do it even more extremely.

And as always I write a lot LOL. But like to describe as thoroughly I can.

/ Tony

thanks tony for all that, really appreciated, but what ratio you use to mix the reset shampoo with water ? also am using a portable worx pressure washer (not tons of power but something tells me it will wash just fine especially a brand new coated car with reload applied on top and tons of good shampoo) for the presoaking ??, can i use the reset in a foam cannon ?? finally, i found a Pinnacle Bodywork Shampoo sitting around for a while, can i use that for a presoaking and 2 bucket washing a coated vehicle ? why does this have to be rocket science ?!?! i do realize having one car shampoo only is essential for my washing routine, i just want to get the right product to maintain my coating and learn from this process for a long long time...

i recall when i used to wash my coated car in t touchless automatic car wash, only god knows what car soap they were using, but by the time rinsing is over and the machine starts to Blow dry the car, all water will come off the coating, then ill spray the whole thing with a premium QD while drying to add extra lubrication and avoid siwrl marks on the coating, while that worked wonders to me, i dont see a precise SCIENCE behind the whole auto detailing industry and for sure many people will just disagree with me just for the sake of the arguing nothing more !... m argument is really simple, the reason i will put on the coating is it is supposed to be 9H+ hardness, am also gonna spend some money to maintain it, just not an arm and a leg to do so, then whats the point of having a ceramic coating the first place !... and btw Yes i do have a portable leaf blower which should dry the car if sealant hasn't worn off after the wash itself !...
 
Sadly the 9H hardness of coatings is something that in the sence of hardness don't means much. What they measure this with is pencil scratch test and not the most common mohs hardness of minerals. The basicly move a lead pencil of different hardness back and forth in a rigg. I don't remember exactly but the whole scale of the pencil scratch hardness is either between 2H-3H or 3H-4H. This makes it so many missunderstanding the hardness of the coatings with the mohs hardness scale. And the clearcoat is in the same range of hardness so that makes it even more easier to missunderstanding. That the hardness of the coatings is not so much of importance. There is a little difference in the scratch resistance with a 9H coating but it's not much.

The dilution is 1:500 with Carpro Reset car soap. So 1oz to 4 gallons of water is the dilution that's simple to go by. I have even used it up to 1:1000 without any problems with low lubrication from it. And you can use it in a foamcannon. I don't like to use a car soap in the foamcannon for prewash/presoak when you just rinse it off. It's not designed to be used that way. Gyeon Foam is that and can be used in the bucket wash too. But I use dedicated prewash foam and PW clean rinsing it off and then a car soap for the contact wash. It's just 1 more product and you use them up at some point either way. I would go by what's offered on AGO with Gtechnic W4 Citrus Foam or Griots Garage BOSS Foaming Surface Wash as the prewash foam and Carpro Reset for the bucket wash. I guarantee that you will have your coating at it's highest performance possible with the use of these products for the washing.

The problem with car soap that's not designed to be used on ceramic coatings and leaves protection and or glossenhancers behind. Most of them but not all of them clogg your coating performance. So you don't get the highest water behavior and self cleaning ability from it. Why it's different for a coating and a wax or sealant. Is that you have so much longer longevity from the coatings. With a wax or sealant it's not always they lasts so long so you get them clogged. But the ones with a longevity over 6 months it can happen on these too. So if you have a high performance from your sealant in the water behavior and self cleaning ability. And use a car soap that leaves protection and or glossenhancers behind that has a lower performance from them and the glossenhancer is leaving it clogged. You may think that your sealant is done or degraded when it's not. Also some car soaps even if ph neutral and used with a stronger dilution than recommended. They can desolve the protection and degrade the performance and durability that way. Or leaving surfactans residue that cloggs the behavior on these too. But you have more options that gets on par with them with the protection and or glossenhancers they have. Carpro Reset is when used in stronger dilution than the recommended. Harsh on some sealants than others. The huge benefit with ceramic coatings is that they are very chemical resistant. And can stand up to many different kind of chemical products that at least you use in car care. That's also why if you get contaminants building up on the coating. You can do chemical decon steps to desolve them and revive the coating performance. This can be done on some sealants and wax/sealant hybrids also to revive them. And it's what's done on the ceramic coatingswith a longevity over 3 years. Then you useally have to leave it to the coating installer every 6 months to a year for doing this. Some skip this part and just reapply the coating instead. I think that's a waste to do. Some don't need the extreme water behavior and self cleaning ability from them when living in an environment where you don't get as much of rain.

There is just a little difference in the care of the ceramic coatings. And it's not hurting the protection from bird droppings and tree sap and water spots a coating gives. If you use a product that degrade the performance from it. But why apply something that even degrade the looks you have from the coating. Or apply a product that degrade the self cleaning ability from it. That don't makes sense to me. And the same with a quality sealant or wax too. Put a quality wax like Souverän and then maintain it with a QD that alter it's looks to less of a liking or a car soap that leaves also it to look less better than the Souverän. Same thing IMO and not just something for coatings. So maintain the looks or something that excells it and the performance from the coatings or sealant or wax. Keeping it in the family of the base protection you have is an easy thing to do. If they don't have all of protection products in their line up and precice what suits what LOL. That's my view of it :) And others has theirs and that's fine too as long as they are satisfied with the results. But if you don't test out other options you really don't know if you could get better results. And something like Meguiars Hyper Wash seems to be working for them who use it on coatings. So there are options that can work even if they are not for maintance of coatings.
 
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