Regular laundry detergents are full of chemicals that can damage microfiber over time. Here are some changes you can make: Instead of using regular laundry detergent, use ¼ cup of clear apple cider vinegar. If you need to use bleach, replace it with ½ cup of baking soda.
Do not use bleach, dryer sheets or vinegar as this can cause damage to the fibers in your towel and make them less absorbent over time. Avoid using baking soda or oxygen cleaners on your towels as well!
If the microfiber towels have an odor that needs to be eliminated, add a tablespoon of white vinegar to the machine load. Allow the machine to complete half of the agitation cycle, then stop the cycle and allow the load to soak for 15 to 20 minutes. Resume the wash cycle and allow it to complete.
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.
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.
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.
Washing towels with vinegar and baking soda can bring them back to life in just three steps: Wash towels in hot water and one cup vinegar. Don't add any detergent. Wash the towels a second time (without drying them) in hot water and one cup baking soda.
Refresh Your Towels!
Over time, towels build up detergent and fabric softener, leaving them unable to absorb as much water and smelly, refresh your towels: Wash towels once with hot water and 1cup vinegar, Wash towels a 2nd time with hot water and half cup baking soda.
Run the towels through an additional rinse cycle to get rid of vinegar odor and residue. If your towels still smell mildewy after washing them with vinegar and hot water, try baking soda. Baking soda is a natural cleaner, whitener, and deodorizer that works wonders on foul odors like mildew.
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.
Musty towel smell is the same issue that happens when mop heads or cleaning sponges don't dry thoroughly between uses. A warm, moist environment is conducive to fungal and bacterial growth. And all it can take is leaving a damp towel balled up in a laundry basket or on the floor of the bathroom.
The first machine wash cycle kills the source of odors, but to fully remove odors themselves, you'll need to run your towels through a second washing cycle. Here's where the baking soda comes in. For the second cycle, add a half cup of baking soda to the basin. Adding detergent is optional for this stage.
All you'll need is one cup of white vinegar and one cup of baking soda. You'll be using these two ingredients separately, as using them together will only cancel out the effectiveness of each one, during two washes on the same load of towels.
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.
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.
These cloths should last a while if you follow the recommended care instructions. “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.
It is so easy! In the first cycle, use a cup of white vinegar to wash the microfiber towel but (no use of detergent). In the second cycle, in the same hot water, add half a cup of baking soda. Then, leave the towels to dry, and you get your results!
Re: Oxi Clean and Microfibers
I have used the granular oxi clean before in the wash with my towels and they came out fine. I pre-soak all my microfiber towels in the granular oxi clean.