Drying Towels not as absorbent as they used to be

Recently I've noticed that when I go to dry my car after washing, that the towel isn't as absorbent as it used to be.

I use waffle weave drying towels from detailers paradise, they are white and ultra soft.

Now i always wash my towels with microfiber restore detergent and pay mind to make sure i tumble dry cool with no fabric softener.


What do you think happened to my towels.

To be honest one of my buffing towels may have gotten in with the drying towels.

What can i do to fix this?

wash with an APC?

TIA

 

boil them

 

I use a QD when drying to help with absorption. I never used the towels you use, so not sure if its just them. I use the WW drying towels from detailers domain. It does take a little bit for them to get started on soaking up the water, but I think its just a common occurance with these types of towels.

 

How old are the towels? After a while my WW towels just become useless and I buy new ones...

 

I had the exact problem and boiling did help a little but not much. What I did was fill a 5 gal bucket with hot water, added some dawn soap and put them in there for a few min. After a few min, I took each towel and agitated them and let them sit for another 4-5 min and agitated them again. I did this about 3x and then rinsed the soap out of them all and put them in the washer with some CG MF wash. They now soak up water like new. Some soaps have wax in that that will coat the fibers, also some QD will cause this same issue.

 

wow. sounds like a lot of effort, but will keep it in mind.

 

It is a decent amount of work but at min you could just soak them in Dawn or a strong APC solution and let them sit for about 15 min and scrub them like you would if you were washing clothes by hand and that should get them back in good shape.

 

cool. thanks.

 

ah thats what i think happened...was this meguiars off the shelf detail spray i had to use in a pinch...because i ran out of adams detail spray. I'll have to soak them in dawn to break down the QD residue.

you'd think QD's wouldn't do that to the towel,

Thanks!

 

Some cool tips that might help with these issues - from the Detailed Image Help pages:

 

I think the chose of words like "pores" is a misnomer. Microfiber is a complex plastic materials. From my experience, mf doe s not release anything (captured in the complex structure) without some help. It does need help. Microfibers do not recommend high temps for either washing or drying.

Would you intentionally subject plastic to heat?