Why do my micro's repel water?

kronos said:
Did you ever try boiling them or did you only use hot water?
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Just very hot water (turned up the thermostat on the boiler :xyxthumbs: ).

I'm actually giving all the still repellent ones yet another wash in a different soap at the moment, if that doesn't work I'll do the boiling thing. I had actually forgotten about that, thanks.
 
I use a steamer and pre steam the towles prior to use. I am now steaming the entire cars surface prior to waxing and claying when you clay an area that you have previously steamed moments earlier you remove twice the contaminents on the first pass. I have now steamed over 250 cars without incident. When you STEAM CLAY a car you take it down to its ultimate "PAINT CLEANLINESS". My company was the first in the World to use Sharky Steam Machines on every detail. We get results unequaled in the industry with reduced claying times of 40 to 60 percent. Tree Sap and other polutents roll off like butter. Steam all your MF if you wish to return them to 100%. We also use it on Perforated Leather to remove dirt, odor and other contaminents. The Sharky's MF heads are perfect for these applications.

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Interesting idea there Gorilla. I'll keep it in mind.

I just got done boiling the towels so we'll see if that finally does it. I forgot to ask how long to boil them. I did it for just under 20 minutes, hopefully that will do it.
I didn't really see any residue come out in the water, just what looked like a film of leftover soap from all the washings I did this past week. Though the hot water made the colors bleed, now I've got tie-dyed MF's. LOL They're washing one last time in Pinnacle micro soap now.
 
Well the boiling failed as well. Two of the last six towels will take water very slowly but the rest are still plastic bags as far as water is concerned. If the sealant only lasted on the car this long I wouldn't mind so much.

I'm going to try a regular APC next. Maybe Megs or one made by Wurth I saw that specifically says it removes silicone. If that doesn't work I'll either use the towels for really filthy work and then chuck 'em, or just chuck 'em.

Surely others use WGDGPS.... Do they just use one towel to wipe it off and save it for that purpose only?
 
Sorry to start up an old thread but I came across this post today and it reminded me of a trick I tried with cotton bath towels when they stopped absorbing water. Put about a cup of vinegar in the rinse, but also run a quick load after that with about a half cup of baking soda.
I've abused some microfiber towels before I came to this forum. I've washed with other fabrics, used bleach, and dryer sheets. After reading this thread I tested all of my different kinds of old MF and they all repelled water.
Here's what I did...
I had some dirty MF, some with QD, some with spray-on wax, and some with vinyl/rubber protectant. I have a high-efficiency front load washing machine that does a quick 25 minutes load. I washed the dirty towels with Tide on hot with an extra rinse. Then I took some old "clean" MF that repelled water and threw those in with the load that just finished. This load was another quick wash on hot with 1 cup of vinegar instead of Tide. This way the machine went through a rinse cycle to get the vinegar out. Then I followed with another quick wash on hot with a half cup of baking soda. Then dried on medium/high heat followed by a water test. All the MF soaked up water almost instantly. For the worst ones the water tried to run but soaked in before it could get away.
They recommend doing this with new cotton bath towels because the the manufacturers load them up with fabric softener so they feel nice in the store.
I just bought a new bunch of MF from Costco (36 for $15! I figure at least they'll make good shop rags.), so I tried this method before using them. I didn't wash and went straight to a load on hot with vinegar followed by a load on hot with baking soda. The load was only about half full and these new rags soaked up all of the water in the machine (a full load of bath towels doesn't even do that), so I'm hoping these cheap Costco towels are actually decent.
 
OK, being a newbie...I gotta ask. All the articles and threads that I've read, up 'till now, say that heat is a killer for microfiber. The warnings say; "don't use a heated dryer", the MF fibers will melt/bond together making the MF cloth useless.

Now, on this thread I'm reading about BOILING mf towels???? I'm confused (which some say is my natural state). Wouldn't boiling be very bad...and if not, then why not?


Cliff
 
Cliffnopus said:
OK, being a newbie...I gotta ask. All the articles and threads that I've read, up 'till now, say that heat is a killer for microfiber. The warnings say; "don't use a heated dryer", the MF fibers will melt/bond together making the MF cloth useless.

Now, on this thread I'm reading about BOILING mf towels???? I'm confused (which some say is my natural state). Wouldn't boiling be very bad...and if not, then why not?


Cliff
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I'm not sure but I know that heating other things in water as opposed to air has the same effect of not melting them. Something about the water sort of protects them from getting too hot.

I will say that afterwards the towels felt different. That clingyness you feel on your fingers was gone. Perhaps the heat fused the micro strands together...?



I didn't try baking soda but the vinegar had no effect at all. That sealant is brutal. Of course not knowing it was still in them, I had used the towels with it a few times over a years time and it was probably pretty in-there, which required all that washing to get out.

I got it out after many many washings with dawn except for one. Although as I said some of the towels don't feel the same anymore.

Each wash would fix maybe one or two, and the rest would go back in the washer for another round with dawn. The last few got doused in Dawn power dissolver and put in a plastic bag to sit overnight, then washed, and still there was that one holdout.

Since then I've WGDGPS'd one car, washed the three towels I used seperately from my others this time around, and one came clean and two required a second dawn wash. So it is much easier if you use dawn first and keep them separate.



.
 

I have some MF's that are 3 years old, been used, cleaned and thrown in the dryer numorous times. The are like brand new. Of course I always use a timer. On a hot day, I hang em to dry, and they dry in about 90 minutes.




 
Digging up a very old thread - so apologies there. Being that its 2014 now, is there a recommended way to restore a microfiber towel's water absorption abilities? My plush and waffle weave towels are starting to really repel water now and are basically useless - especially the waffle weave ones that I'm trying to dry my car with.

I do use spray wax to aid in drying my car so I'm sure that has something to do with it. I have also used the plush ones for wax and sealant removal before. Their main purpose though is for rinseless car washing and drying.

Right now I wash them all together ( regardless of what use ) not knowing any better. I used MicroRestore before but also use a simple clean/free detergent. I air dry the towels mostly, but have set dryer on low or air dry when I've been in a rush before.

So what can I do now to restore the abilities of my towels?
 
Soak your towels over night in an APC or detergent. Then wash in hot water. If that doesn't work, search boiling microfiber to "reset" it.
 
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