[mycoupe]

How do I go about washing these after cleaning my car? Should I just leave my wax pad with the wax on it, or clean it? And how do I go about all this? I don't want to use any detergents or anything that will hurt them. Any recommendations?

[MuttGrunt]

Here's a couple of articles I've had a hand in when it comes to proper care of microfiber. I hope they might help you out:

determining your microfiber needs: http://www.detailedimage.com/Ask-a-P...rofiber-needs/

Proper microfiber care: http://www.detailedimage.com/Ask-a-P...crofiber-care/

Microfiber storage and organization: http://www.detailedimage.com/Ask-a-P...-organization/

Hope this helps!

[SpecC]

detailersdomain and detailedimage have good microfiber

i use the chemicalguys ones

detailaddict also has the adam's ones which are nice

i'm pretty outdated on pads. fwiw, i like the detailersdomain uber pads

[droptop335]

I wash all my MF pads and towels after each use. One thing to be careful about is that most laundry detergents leave behind residues: softeners, scents, dyes, etc. Also, unless you have a water softener, the wash water will leave behind hard water minerals in the MFs, much as it does on your car when you wash it. You don't want ANY residue left on your MF's.

Here's what I do: I use a scent-free, dye-free laundry detergent ("ALL" has one), and wash all the MFs in a hot water machine wash cycle with a good amount of the soap. My washer has a "second" rinse cycle that I use as well. The goal is to remove as much of the soap residue as possible.

Then I wash them again, this time with just a 1/4 scoop of powdered Oxy-Clean added to the wash water. This seems to do a good job of removing any remaining soap, and also removing any stains that may remain on the MFs. I use the second rinse here as well.

Now, the only thing left on the MFs should be the minerals left over from the water rinse. There are a couple of things you can do here:

1. Run the MFs through another RINSE ONLY cycle, but this time use purchased distilled water to fill the washer at the beginning of the rinse cycle. This is a bit extreme, but it will do the best job of making the MFs as residue-free as possble. Distilled water by the gallon is relatively cheap, especially at places like Walmart.

2. Another option is to run them through another cold-water RINSE-ONLY cycle, but this time let the washer fill as normal, and add a 1/4 to 1/2 cup of white vinegar to the rinse water at the beginning. The vinegar will remove a lot of the mineral deposits as the MFs rinse.

If you choose not to use either of the two steps above, just prior to using any MFs on your car, I would rinse and wring dry the MFs with some distilled water.

Again, these are pretty extreme steps, but I have been doing this for a while, and my MFs seem to come out very clean, very absorbent, and don't leave any streaks on my car.

By the way, I also use about 3 gallons distilled water to pour over my car as a last final rinse after washing it. I have found that this really prevents any hard water spots from forming as I dry the car.

Hope this helps.
Chris