Mildew and crumbling on PC pads...what happened?

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emaxxman

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I’ve got a question regarding what appears to be mildew on my white Lake Country/Wolfgang polishing pad. I only used it once. I used Meg’s #80 Speed Glaze with it. Afterwards, I washed it with a mild soap solution, rinsed thoroughly, and then let air dry for over two days in a sunroom. These things were completely dry to touch (even after squeezing to see if there was any trapped water.) They were air dried standing up on their sides with airflow all around from a ceiling fan.

I put them in a Ziploc bag and stored it with the bag open. There now appear to be small mildew spots on the pad and some of the white pad material near the Velcro backing “crumbled off.”

Did I do something wrong regarding the storage? It was pretty hot here in NJ during the northeast heatwave. The ziploc bags with pads were stored in a non-airtight Tupperware container in my garage. The garage never got hotter than the outside temperature, albeit it was hot outside.

I have an orange pad with some very mild mildew spots as well but no crumbling. It was only used once with DACP and washed and stored in the same manner as the white pad.


I have a grey pad which I’ve used numerous times with Meg’s NXT. The grey pad is perfectly fine. I should mention that after the first washing , I stopped washing the pad...just wiped the excess NXT off and put it back in the bag.

Should I not store the pads in a bag?



 
Sounds like they still had moisture in them. I have the Edge pads, and when I use them and clean them, I put each one on the PC full tilt. Their basically dry after that, then I lay them o na towel near a fan in the garage fora day or so. I don't put them in a zip lock (on other forums I'm seeing the people complaining about mildew are the ones using zip locks?). I have the original baggies they came in, just place them back in, and have them all in a plastic container. No mildew or anything, even after being closed for awhile theres no unusal smells.
 
I'm guessing the high humidity and location caused them to absorb some moisture from the air. I think I will just leave them out of their bags but in a plastic container.
 
Big Lots sells the plastic 3 drawer containers on wheels for $19 that I use for my pads and MF's. I just toss them in (when dry) and close the drawers(clear). I do the same as Surfer for drying, just wash them by hand really well, then attach them back to the PC and turn in on to full tilt for 5-10 seconds and they will be almost 100% dry. You can also lay them on a damp mf with the pad down and this will help "wick" the moisture from the pad for a day or so, but the MF needs to be damp for this to work. Could the "mold" you are seeing be excess product that didn't get washed out completely? This happened to me this week in which there were white sections left on the pad that appeared after the pad dried. It was simply product that had not come out of the pad when I washed them. I wouldn't store them in ziplock bags, sealed or not because all of the moisture obviously doesn't escape. If it's green, they yeah, it's probably mold:p Just a thought:)
 
It's not left over product...at least I don't think so. They're small black spots. I'm guessing it's mildew.
 
I had this happen to me as well a while back, so i stopped using air tight bags and just stored in a plastic container no problems since:)
 
get some XMT pad cleaner. the stuff is absolutely amazing.
 
Jonboy said:
I had this happen to me as well a while back, so i stopped using air tight bags and just stored in a plastic container no problems since:)
Click to expand...

I'll have to do that. I'll stop by Walmart tomorrow to find a nice container. I put them in open bags to preven dust from falling on them. At least I caught it early. I'll wash and power spin them tomorrow...ran out of time today after washing the cars.
 
we use detergent/water to clean the pads at work and it takes forever and frankly doesnt do a good job...makes my arms hurt from rubbing and twisting and my back hurts from leaning over the sink. one day i brought it some xmt cause i use it on my personal PC pads and you should have seen how much of a difference it made, so fast and so easy, and they were really CLEAN then
 
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