Car Drying Towels

[Venti26M2CS]

Originally Posted by Game

That’s because you’re buying cheap towels.

Agreed. I feel like I’ve had my towels for years now and I wash after every use. Mix of griots and rag company towels. When I was younger I got cheap ones, then I spent good money just to try to see what all the rage was. I quickly learned there’s a big difference.
The cheap towels I still have I use on wheels and cleaning parts when I’m working on the car.

[Game]

Originally Posted by Venti26M2CS

Agreed. I feel like I’ve had my towels for years now and I wash after every use. Mix of griots and rag company towels. When I was younger I got cheap ones, then I spent good money just to try to see what all the rage was. I quickly learned there’s a big difference.
The cheap towels I still have I use on wheels and cleaning parts when I’m working on the car.

100%

Only towels that touch my paint are from Rag Company, Autofiber or Griot's. I've had some of them for a few years and still look/feel new.

[Phillies8008]

I love Costco's towels for whatever kind of stuff I don't want to use my regular towels for – door jambs, wheels, etc. I basically just treat them as disposable, and they're cheap enough that I don't really feel bad about tossing them. They're also fine for interior cleaning.

I wouldn't use them on the rest of the car, but for what they are they're great.

[tracer bullet]

Originally Posted by Phillies8008

I love Costco's towels for whatever kind of stuff I don't want to use my regular towels for

I do something similar, some brown colored towels from Adam's, they're easy to recognize by color.

I bought these from Amazon as well, they're an odd one, paper towel like but actually microfiber. They get used for stuff where I'd kind of like a MF towel but don't truly want to trash one. They can indeed be washed and reused as well, I'm slowly getting on the idea of using them in the house.

[Three Stents]

Don't care what the "best" are..I'm happy with my towels from the Rag Company.....

[Dagstar]

I bought this from Amazon and love it. Only takes one pass every time and comes with a little version which is great for small or low areas like rocker panels. No worry about dragging the ground.

[Game]

Originally Posted by Three Stents

Don't care what the "best" are..I'm happy with my towels from the Rag Company.....

I think those ARE the best.

[Pathy01]

High quality twisted loop microfiber works best in my experience with just about every type of drying towels over the last 25 years. If you’re coated and doing a contact wash, a blower to get 95% of water off and then a medium sized twisted loop for finishing up works great. Also, I find it best to wash microfiber towels after each use, using either a microfiber specific detergent or something with no perfumes or dyes. This ensures any dirt or grit picked up doesn’t accumulate and then start adding swirls on subsequent uses.

I’m a convert to rinseless wash and I’ve found the Diva towels from The House Of Rags are fantastic for drying. They’re a 1200gsm twisted loop towel in 18”x20” size that I find perfect for drying large areas while still being easy to manage. I have a pile of them I rotate through, using 2-3 each time and swapping before they get too water logged.

I’ve also got some The Rag Compnay Gauntlet 12” by 12” that I use on wheels and tires. Those are a 900gsm twisted loop hybrid that are small and work great for getting in and around wheel spokes.

[MADBMWX5MC]

Originally Posted by StradaRedlands

I'm not super-obsessive on cleaning/drying, but have found waffle towels work really well.
I get the Meguire's kind and like 'em fine.

Those I use a lot...good towels

[Needsdecaf]

Originally Posted by Game

That’s because you’re buying cheap towels.

Agreed. I have towels from Griot's that are going on 15 years old and are still serviceable for general tasks. They don't do well on the car any longer, but they are still in good shape.

Also, wash separately and dry on low.

I've bought all my towels recently from Obsessed Garage and / or Ragg Company and they are great. Gauntlet is awesome. But I mainly dry with a blower. Since I have a coating and use a hydrophobic topper, it does quite well.

[Needsdecaf]

Originally Posted by Phillies8008

I love Costco's towels for whatever kind of stuff I don't want to use my regular towels for – door jambs, wheels, etc. I basically just treat them as disposable, and they're cheap enough that I don't really feel bad about tossing them. They're also fine for interior cleaning.

I wouldn't use them on the rest of the car, but for what they are they're great.

Yup. That's about all they are good for. But for that, they are good! I have a bunch of crappy costco / auto parts store microfibers for the dirty jobs. They don't touch the paint but are perfect for door jambs, wheels, underhood, exhaust tips, etc.

[WytLytnyn]

Chemical Guys Woolly Mammoth - Able to knock out the whole car with one
The Rag Company - Creature Edgeless Auto Detailing Towels (black for wheels, brakes, engine bay work
The Rag Company - The Edgeless Pearl - for leveling out graphene coating once a year
303 Products Premium Microfiber Towels (orange) - Really like these for $10 a pack. I use them on anything and everything on the interior.

[Tejas1836]

Roll of 100 microfiber towels. $20
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...ZTRQD7PNA&th=1

[tracer bullet]

Originally Posted by Tejas1836

Roll of 100 microfiber towels. $20
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...ZTRQD7PNA&th=1

I was going to say I already posted that, but - looks like I referred to them and forgot the link itself.

Yeah, those are great. They don't touch the paint (just in case, as they probably could), but for 100 other things they are awesome.

[dosmildos]

I have settled on Griot’s Garage microfiber towels. After a couple uses they are relegated to anything but paint. What drives me nuts is when they fall and of course there’s dust and crushed dry leaves in that spot. I have never been able to separate them from the towels. Has anyone succeeded in this???

[alexk780]

Man, I am genuinely surprised at all the options out there. I am going to have to get a Chenical Guys Wooly mammoth towel it seems like. I’ve always done the blow dry then wipe up excess with microfiber. But a whole X5 in one towel is impressive from the comments I’ve seen.

[mmarsalone]

My wife's Lexus and my Macan are both ceramic coated. I have an EGO blower dedicated to drying after a wash. Then I have two of these from Griots to do the final drying.

https://www.griotsgarage.com/extra-l...-drying-towel/

I use these for the light cleaning in the interior and then the same ones are used for cleaning the door jambs and lift gate areas. Then after that, they're used to wipe the wheels and then they go in the trash. These are pretty high GSM for cheap microfiber towels. They are one time use only.

https://www.harborfreight.com/ultrap...ack-59675.html

Here are a few pictures of the car wash cart I built. I got tired of pulling everything out and then putting them away. I apologize, I don't know how to rotate these.

[klspicoli]

Originally Posted by BroDoze

I’ve got 6 Chemical Guys Wooly Mammoth towels in rotation for my vehicles- they’re the best!

Have used them for a long time, great quality

[TAIBMW]

When I detail my wife's car (which does not have a ceramic coating) I don't even bother with my Adam's Air cannon - I find it's too much effort and you end up having to use the drying towel. My own cars are all ceramic coated and 90% of the drying is done with the air cannon. I only have to throw in the towel for small areas.

[LuvMyE92]

I've been using the "Cobra" waffle drying towel for longer than most of you guys have been alive. https://www.autogeek.net/cobra-waffle-weave.html

OK, maybe not quite that long. After reading this thread, I'm now wondering if perhaps their poor performance is due to age rather than user error.

So I'm going to get myself some new towels (from The Rag Company) for Christmas.

My question for you experts is: Do you notice reduced performance after washing your towels? That always seems to be when their abilities drop off a cliff. I use microfiber detergent, and wash and dry them all separately from the regular clothes, but still they never seem to be quite as good as when new.

Now I remember that originally I would wash the towels with regular detergent and use the microfiber stuff as a "booster". Now I just use the microfiber stuff, but I wonder if I already did the damage?

Thoughts, opinions, criticism and ridicule are welcome. OK, maybe not so much the last one.

RTMOP EDIT: Watching and reading this, it appears that it was my drying of the towels in the dryer (probably on the permanent press cycle) likely did most of the damage.

[tracer bullet]

Originally Posted by LuvMyE92

Watching and reading this, it appears that it was my drying of the towels in the dryer (probably on the permanent press cycle) likely did most of the damage.

It's of course possible. My dryer doesn't run particularly hot, and I have buttons to choose heat levels and normally run it a notch below normal. No problems so far...

Maybe just get a couple new towels and di a side by side comparison? There could be some hard water things going on too, since rinse cycles aren't hooked up to RO water. Tiny bit of minerals dry on things each wash, and adds up after a while.

Nothing lasts forever...

[Phillies8008]

Yeah, never put them in the dryer. My understanding is that high temps an actually melt the little individual fuzzy strands (for lack of a better term), which will obviously affect their performance. Also no fabric softener.

But like tracer bullet said, they're only going to last so long. I replace most of mine each Winter and use the old ones for stuff like wheels, etc. I do find that drying towels will last longer, maybe two or three seasons. And like everything else, buying a quality product makes all the difference in the world. If you're buying whatever rando microfiber you find at AutoZone don't expect too much; buying good ones from the Rag Company, Griot's Garage, etc. is well worth the extra money.