How To Wash Microfiber Towels & Wash Mitts

Last Updated August 12, 2024

Washing your microfiber towels and wash mitts is the most important thing you can do to avoid scratches while washing or drying your car. Otherwise, embedded particles and dried product will get dragged across the paint, inflicting swirl marks as you wash or dry.

I have a special method I’ve developed over the years for wash microfiber towels and wash mitts. It’s a tick OCD, but that’s worth it when the alternative is horrible scratches in your paint.

The Mike Phillips OCD Method for Washing Microfiber Wash Mitts & Towels

Step 1: Fill Wash Basin
First, I let the wash basin fill with water, usually on the medium setting for water volume.  This way there’s plenty of water during the wash cycle and the rinse cycle for the microfiber fingers/nap to swish around and get clean.

Step 2: Add Detergent Before Adding Wash Mitts
Unlike most people, I take the extra time to add my laundry detergent to the water and let both mix thoroughly.  Then I add the wash mitts.  If, like most people, you put the wash mitts, or whatever else you’re washing, into the washing machine and then add your laundry detergent into the washing machine, you just made it more difficult and time consuming for the laundry detergent to fully mix with the water.  The results are a less effective cleaning wash.

Tip: Use a gentle, additive-free detergent with no dyes or fabric softener. These ingredients can clog microfiber and make your mitts and towels less effective.

Step 3: Add Wash Mitts and/or Towels
Once the water and laundry detergent have thoroughly mixed, then I put the wash mitts into the washing machine. I will also wash my microfiber drying towel or towels with my wash mitts, because I make sure nothing is dropped onto the ground. Everything goes into the clean 5-gallon bucket I keep by the car as I’m washing it.

Step 4: Set Wash Cycle Timer Switch for Full Wash
After I’ve put all the wash mitts and drying towels into the washing machine, I go ahead and reset the washing cycle timer switch for a full wash.

Step 5: Dry on Low
Microfiber is a blend of two synthetic fibers, polyester, and polyamide.  While stout enough to last for hundreds of washes, you want to use a low heat setting when drying to avoid melting the fibers or making them crispy over time.  I use the low setting for drying knitted clothes and while it takes a few minutes longer than a warm or hot setting, avoiding high temperatures is simply a good practice for your microfiber investment.

IMPORTANT: Inspect Your Microfiber Towels & Wash Mitts for Particles Before Storing!

I inspect all my towels after they come out of the dryer and before storing them in a cabinet.  This speeds things up because I know if a towel or wash mitt is in the cabinet, I can trust it’s clean and free from any contaminants.

First thing I do is make sure my towel folding table is clean.  It doesn’t make any sense to place clean wash mitts and drying towels on a dirty or dusty table.  The table you see me using is a  Lifetime 4-Foot Fold-In-Half Adjustable Table Model 80869.  I like this because I can extend the legs to raise the table, and this makes it more comfortable to inspect and fold towels – and I inspect and fold a LOT of towels.  (Actually my wife Stacy does this for me as she says I don’t do it the right way)

Inspecting Microfiber Towels

First visually inspect both sides of the microfiber drying towel with your eyes and then FEEL the towels with your clan hands.  Oftentimes your sense of touch will detect sharp, pokey things embedded in the fibers of the towel that your eyes cannot see.

If you see or feel any type of foreign contaminant, something you DON’T want to PUSH over the paint on your car the next time you wash it – then pick it out with your fingers or if needed, use a set of tweezers.

For tweezers, I keep a pointy set and a flat blade set handy.

Inspecting Chenille Microfiber Wash Mitts

These require a little more time but if you keep these clean during the wash process, there’s rarely anything to need to remove BECAUSE these types of wash mitts wash-out clean so well in a washing machine.  This is also the important reason I keep a CLEAN 5-gallon bucket next to the car I’m washing so I have a place to put dirty wash mitts.  My priority goal is to prevent anything that touches the pant from getting contaminated because:

It takes HOURS to buff out a car, it only takes SECONDS to put swirls and scratches into the paint.

Storing Your Microfiber Towels & Wash Mitts After Washing

After inspection and folding, next you want to store your microfiber tools in a place where they will stay clean and uncontaminated from airborne dust.  The back of these NewAge cabinets have louvered air openings, which for storing some things is a good idea. 

But for my microfiber and buffing pad cabinets, (we have a lot of towels and pads here at the O.R.), I used some Gorilla Tape and sealed these air openings shut to ensure my microfiber tools stay clean!  And while I could just fold and place my drying towel in the cabinet, as an extra precaution, I keep the bags they come in and store the cleaned and dried towels back in the original packaging.

This is what you want to see, clean, uncontaminated Chenille Microfiber Wash Mitts so you can wash and maintain your vehicle’s paint while avoiding swirls and scratches.

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That’s how you wash microfiber towels and wash mitts! It’s pretty simple and majorly important if you want to avoid scratching your car’s paint while cleaning.

Proper maintenance of your tools and accessories for detailing cars is just one of the many topics I go over in my detailing classes for Dr. Beasley’s Future of Detailing program. You can learn more about upcoming classes here.

Sincerely,

Mike Phillips
Chief Education Officer for Dr. Beasley’s
Mike@drbeasleys.com
760-515-0444