Microfiber Towels — What You Should Know About Them

Posted by freemexy on June 29th, 2019

Microfiber towels have become increasingly popular among detailers and car wash operators. Few, however, understand the subtle differences that make some towels better than others.Microfiber Towel uses

Microfiber towels make a detailer/car washer’s job easier, faster, and more productive. Microfiber towels have many advantages over terry towels. They absorb seven times their weight in liquid, can be used repeatedly (up to 600 washings reported) without deterioration, and eliminate the need for cleaning chemicals in some instances.

Many use these imported towels, but few know anything about how the towel is made, or how to judge the quality. While there is no official grading system for microfiber towels, industry experts do grade microfiber towels based on composition, number of splits, and weight. If you understand how microfiber is made and works, it will help you understand that not all microfiber towels are the same.
Microfiber is a continuous filament fiber, which is a combination of two fibers: polyester and polyamide (a nylon byproduct). The interlocking composition of the two fibers makes microfiber unique and excellent at picking up dirt. The polyester and polyamide fibers are woven together to form a pie-shaped pattern.

When the towel is used, the two fibers separate due to the differences in surface tension creating small sharp edges, gullies, and grooves that are ideal for cleaning, moisture capillary action, and retention of particles.

The hooks or scoops scrape up the dirt and store it in tiny channels, which is the reason you often do not need to use chemicals with microfiber towels.

Introduced in the late ‘80s, the one criterion used to judge microfiber towels was the ratio of polyester to polyamide. Recently, industry experts are not certain this ratio really has any impact on the microfiber towel.