Cost: £10 – £15 for 160z bottle.
Date of Review: 03/05/2018
Background:
Washing micro fiber towels with conditioner will ruin microfiber towels. The micro finer cloths need to be clean, soft and absorbent.
When my cloths get that dirty I bin them, but that seems like a waste. So how about washing them? That’s when I started to research these products. I started with one of my favourite brands; Chemical Guys.
But did it work and was I pleased?
The Sales Pitch from Chemical Guys:
Why Buy This Product?
- Cleans all microfiber towels and accessories
- Removes dirt, grease, and stains
- Dissolves wax, polish, and other detailing chemicals
- Clean Rinse Technology for ultra-soft residue-free fabric
- Restore softness to microfiber
- Highly concentrated
- Formulated to be safe for use with standard & high efficiency machines
- Available in 4 ounce, 16 ounce, and 1 gallon sizes
How It Works
Chemical Guys Microfiber Wash is a specialty detergent that cleans and restores microfiber. The advanced cleaning formula releases dirt, grease, and residue, leaving microfiber feeling like new. Microfiber Wash maintains the original condition of microfiber by gently cleaning the fabric to preserve its softness. Microfiber Wash removes wax, polish, dirt, grease, and stains, and leaves microfiber goods with a fresh scent. The versatile microfiber detergent can be used by hand or in any washing machine. Microfiber Wash is concentrated to easily clean and restore even the dirtiest microfiber. The innovative wash solution gently cleanses the microfiber of dirt and grime while restoring the soft feel back to any microfiber towel. The microfiber detergent is approved for high efficiency washing machines for easy cleaning. Quickly and easily clean microfiber towels, clothing, bedding, and upholstery using the versatile cleaning detergent. Gently clean and restore microfiber goods with Chemical Guys Microfiber Wash.
What’s Different About the New Formulation?
Clean Rinse Technology completely washes from fabric for residue-free microfiber
- New formula maintains softness and maximizes absorbency of microfiber
- Highly-concentrated formula cleans twice as much as before
- High efficiency formula designed for HE washing machines
- New color-brightening citrus formula
Clean And Rejuvenate Microfiber
Chemical Guys Microfiber Wash is the perfect detergent to clean and rejuvenate microfiber goods. The advanced cleaning solution removes dirt, stains, grease, wax, and grime from microfiber. Microfiber Wash restores microfiber towels back to original condition by releasing dirt and oil from the fabric for a soft feel. Citrus-based detergents penetrate each individual fiber for maximum cleaning results. While typical detergents stay locked inside cloth and garments, Microfiber Wash rinses completely clean for a perfectly-soft, residue-free towel. Microfiber Wash contains no bleach, no fabric softeners, and is safe on all color microfiber goods. Easily clean and rejuvenate microfiber towels, blankets, sheets, bedding, and clothing with fantastic results. Microfiber Wash opens the billions of strands inside microfiber fabric to gently release dirt and grime. Microfiber towels require special cleaning, and Microfiber Wash is specifically designed to clean sensitive microfiber goods. The innovative citrus-based formula is all-natural and will not chemically-burn microfiber, keeping it as soft as the day it was made. Microfiber Wash contains water softeners that neutralize minerals and calcium to ensure your microfiber goods rinse perfectly clean and soft.
Microfiber: The Secret To Scratch-Free Detailing
Microfiber contains billions of individual fibers that collect and trap dirt, dust, grease, and oil inside the plush fabric. Chemical Guys Microfiber Wash is specifically designed to cleanse the fabric and release the dirt and grime to restore the soft feel of microfiber. Microfiber Wash works on microfiber fabric, cotton, and chenille for ultimate versatility. Easily clean microfiber buffing pads in the washing machine using the all new wash solution. Chemical Guys Microfiber Wash formula rinses clean and residue-free to restore the performance of microfiber towels to improve cleaning ability, absorbency, and softness. The pH-balanced detergent contains no bleach, no ammonia, and no fabric softeners to ensure that your microfiber towels perform to the highest level after every wash.
Source: https://www.chemicalguys.com/Microfiber_Wash_Detergent_16_oz_p/cws_201_16.htm
What You Get:
Just he 160z or 473ml of detergent.
Product Description:
This is a specific detergent designed for microfiber Towels, it’s intended to clean your cloths and make them tip-top condition again.
The orange solution is very watery and not a thick normal washing fluid. The scent is of an orange citrus and quite nice.
Instructions:
Quite simple four cap full for a small load, eight to ten caps for a full load.
Results:
OK this is difficult how do rate a detergent. There is the cleaning of course then there is the effectiveness they say is there. So I came up with a couple of tests and the visual results.
Visual Results:
Some of the cloths were quite dirty but not horrendous. They came out the machine cleaner, but certainly didn’t remove the stains I had on the Meguiar’s water magnet on the left and a standard towel on the right. They did smell fresher and felt nice in the hand.
Softness:
The microfiber towels felt soft but I couldn’t show it on those cloths. I also washed my Chemical Guys Wooly Mammoth drying towel. This was going to be easier to show as the pile is much deeper.
The left is where I pressed my hand on the towel and the right is the mark left behind. The bottom set is where the towel was a little damp from next water test. An good softness result and the pile bounced back up.
Water Test:
This test was to spray on the towels a jet of water, then a mist to see what happens.
The test was simple enough to squirt a jet, and then quickly take a picture was the hard part. The jet hit the towel and the droplets that bounced up and rolled or beaded on the surface for less than a second before it broke down into the fibers without touching it. That is not a good sign of absorbency.
Next was the fine mist nozzle test, this was going to be a corner of the towel to see what happened.
The mist was absorbed and soaked into the towel no problem. I squirted some more and the water went through the towel where it touched the other side. The towel was soaked at this point now and spreading the moisture.
I then had an idea with the paper roll, not sure why, but it seemed a good idea at the time. I laid a sheet carefully on the surface to see what happened.
The towel had a slight pic up of water in the corner where iI had been misting. Then I pressed the towel into the fiber.
The towel released the water easily, so it should ring out nicely when it gets full.
I did the same with the Wooly Mammoth, exactly the same process. The jet soaked in with nothing to show apart from the wet patch, no rolling of water drops this time. The mist test was again absorbed into the deep pile fibers.
Yes it was soaking wet there, but no moisture had gone through to the other side. These towels are amazing by the way and I will be reviewing them soon.
Then came the paper towel test and the result was similar except nothing was released to the towel by laying it on the surface.
I pressed the paper into the towel and had a heavily soaked paper. The lighter spread was from the other misted areas. Again it will release the water well if rung out.
Practical Test
When I used the wolly mammoth on the car the towel was not as efficient as it was before. The towel now seemed to leave streaks behind and not pick up the water unlike being directly sprayed with water.
The other less deep piled micro fiber seemed to struggle again with picking up water until they got damp.
Once the clothes were damp and got wet they did ring out fine and worked as before when they were wet before they got wash, so back to normal function.
Rating:
I decided to give a score of an average of the tests.
The cleanliness wasn’t good from a stain point of view, but the towels felt clean and smelled nicer that for sure. 5 out 10
The softness was there, more so on the wooly Mammoth. 6 out 10
Absorbance was good on the towels with direct application of water, but knocked marks off for the rolling or beading droplets 5 out 10
Total is 16 out of a possible 30, divided by 3 gives a 5.3 score.
Rounded down to final score of: 5 out 10
Ease of use – measure out the caps straight into the washing machine, done.
Conclusion
I was sceptical about the product, is it a gimmick or a fad? Well I totally get the fact that normal washing powders will ruin the towels and clog them with detergent. and will lead to swirls and scratches on paint.
Am I worried about the stains? Yes, but as long as the towels are clean then I am happy and will keep using the towels for more dirty jobs, demoted from the paint. If they get to bad I will buy new ones as they are not going to break the bank.
To be fair the product does say to soak heavy soiled cloths, I didn’t do that this time as they were not that badly soiled.
Microfiber towels are cheap enough and I will buy them if the washed ones look a little tired. But for now they came up sort of clean, and can be used for most cleaning duties, not so much on the paint cleaning duties though now.
This product didn’t live up to my expectations, which is unusual for a Chemical Guys product.
Would I recommend it? No.
Would I buy it again? No, certainly not at this price.