When washing microfiber cloths, avoid harsh soap, fabric softener or detergent with laundry additives, including fragrances and fabric conditioners. These coat the fibers of the cloth and make them less effective for cleaning. Lightly dusty or dirty microfiber cloths can be hand-washed.
Add a small amount of detergent, especially if microfiber contains cleaning chemicals. Set the washing machine to Normal Wash with warm water. Manual Option: To hand wash use hot water and a small amount of detergent. Scrub with a soft bristled brush, if necessary.
Make sure to use a liquid detergent that is clean-rinsing, mild, and as free of perfumes and dyes as possible. Strong scents used in most detergents can actually coat the fibers of the cloth, which reduces their ability to pick up and grip dust/dirt.
Always wash new microfiber towels prior to first use to remove any loose factory production fibers. Always wash newer black, orange, and red colored towels separately from lighter colored towels to avoid any risk of bleeding.
Prep a separate bucket with VERY HOT clean water and add blue dawn dish soap along with gentle tide. Add towels. Soak towels for roughly 2 hours. If a towel ever becomes so contaminated that it doesn't wash clean, it may be time to retire it to a new job.
After the lint trap has been emptied, you can place your microfiber towels inside the dryer separately from garments made with natural fibers as they tend to shed. Avoid adding dryer sheets and using high heat settings to dry microfiber towels as this may damage the fibers.
Harsip said that the main reason why microfiber towels are ruined is drying them at high heat. Remember that it's not just bad for microfiber towels to be dried at too high of heat, but it can ruin them completely. Once the damage has been done from heat, it cannot be reversed.
Before you wash your microfiber cloths, it is important to know that you should never use fabric softener or bleach. Fabric softener will clog the spaces in the fibers and render your cloth useless. Bleach, on the other hand, will erode the fibers.
For starters, microfiber towels should be washed in cold or warm water, advises Sweeney, noting that the temperature should never exceed around 105 degrees Fahrenheit. When it comes to soap, Gartland states no detergent would be best, although it's impractical.
The combination of Dawn dish soap and vinegar is well known to be a miracle cleaning solution. You can use this cleaning mix on your microfiber if it is safe for water-based cleaners.
Wash microfiber cloths cold, maximum temperature 30/40°C (86/104° F). (Melting point of microfiber is 60° C / 140° F). Wash cloths according to their intended use to avoid cross contamination.
Dirt and other particles stick to microfiber cloths. If you use a dirty microfiber item without washing it first, it can scratch and damage surfaces. Microfiber cloths may also smell bad after just one use because they are holding on to moisture in their tiny fibers that also trap bacteria.
Washing Solo
First and foremost, you should never wash your microfiber towels with others. Lint from standard materials will cling to your microfiber and be incredibly difficult to remove, leading to more work down the line. Wash your microfiber towels alone instead.
Wash your microfiber towel after every 3 times you use it. It's also important to keep the towel dry when it's not in use. Check if it's getting damp while hanging in your bathroom.
Try cleaning with microfiber and water! Using just microfiber cloths or mop pads with water to clean can give your counters, glass, floors, and appliances a like-new appearance. It traps more dirt than you might think, all without chemical cleaning agents.
All those extra ingredients, lubricants, and fragrances from fabric softener and dryer sheets actually coat the teeny tiny microfibers. And this isn't a good thing. If you've ever used fabric softener or dryer sheets on microfiber, you may have noticed that your microfiber becomes waxy-feeling.
But, she warns, never use dryer sheets because they can coat and damage the fibers. Before washing and drying other brands of microfiber cloths, make sure to check their tag or website for proper cleaning instructions.
In fact, a UC Davis study showed that microfiber cloths can pick up to 99% of bacteria on surfaces compared to 30% with their cotton counterparts. This means that good quality microfiber cloths make cleaning easy and eliminates the need to clean with harsh chemicals.
One of the benefits of cleaning with microfiber is that it lasts a long time. Many microfiber cloths can take up to 500 washings. That's up to two years in a typical household. Unfortunately, they don't last forever; at some point, microfiber cloth cleaning won't have the same revitalizing effect it once did.
“If you take care of your microfiber towels and clean them properly, they should last you a few years before needing to be replaced,” says Willatt. Sometimes your reusable cloths will give you a clue that it's time to buy new ones.
Though dish soap is great as a stain pretreatment option, it's not meant for direct use in a laundry washing machine. That's because dish soaps are uniquely formulated to break up grease and stuck-on food particles with foamy suds—something you don't want to happen in your washing machine.