Darn Fabric Softener!!! ARgh Help!

[TH0001]

Okay, when I was out in Tampa, I washed all my car cleaning fabrics in my parents washer. I have fabric softner all over them because I get streaking whenever I wipe the surface of my vehicles.

A coupel of quick questions....

1) How can I get the softner outta my washmachine so that I can use to wash my stuff. I usually run it through a cycle and add alittle dawn to the water before washing the fabrics. This seems to works pretty good.

2) Now that I have softner in my microfibers, washmitts, towels, ect, how can I remove it?

Please help, as I have several details coming up this week and I cannot afford to have streaks (including a just delievered Z06, black).

[SiriusRIMZ]

Before I wash all of my applicator pad/ MF/ terry's I'll give them a good soak in strong APC, proably 3:1. I find that this will remove most wax/ oily residue that remains on them. Then I'll throw them in the wash.

Try using some APC on them, then washing them again (with out fabric softener hehe).

[TH0001]

Won't residual fabric softener be left in the washing machine, is there a way to clean it out before hand?

[zr123]

Turn the washing machine on without anything in it, let it complete a cycle... This way anything extra will be washed away.

[miked2]

Doing a cycle in the washing machine with nothing in it will get rid of nearly all fabric softener. This is actually recommended by most washing machine manfuacturers to do on a periodic basis. I think once you do this once or twice, you shouldn't have much of a problem with residual softener even after a load is washed with softener.

To get rid of the softener, just re-wash all your stuff, with detergent, and using hot water. If you have an extra rinse option, use that too. Softener is typically applied in the rinse cycle, and doesn't stand up to hot water well (otherwise, your clothes would build up a lot of softener).

Rather than Tide, etc., I use an "eco-friendly" detergent, which is much nicer on my car stuff. Ecos is one brand, 7th Generation is another. It doesn't contain any fragrance, optical brighteners, or other stuff that brands like Tide do, and therefore there's less chance of crud being left on the car stuff . . . .

[The"X"]

An other thing to do is give them an extra rinse and add a cup of plain white vineger to the water.

[Toady]

When I wash my MF stuff, I use warm water and set the washer to extra rinse. Our machine does not build up softener.

One tip on MF that I'd share from experience is that you don't want to use excessively hot water or hot drying when cleaning these. Remember, microfiber is really just a plastic and melts under high temps. I learned this the hard way on the MF cloths I purchased last season. By October, they were really rough from all the hot washings/dryings. By using warm water on the wash and low temps on the dry, my new MF towels should last longer and perform better.

[F-150]

Originally posted by miked2
Doing a cycle in the washing machine with nothing in it will get rid of nearly all fabric softener. This is actually recommended by most washing machine manfuacturers to do on a periodic basis. I think once you do this once or twice, you shouldn't have much of a problem with residual softener even after a load is washed with softener.

To get rid of the softener, just re-wash all your stuff, with detergent, and using hot water. If you have an extra rinse option, use that too. Softener is typically applied in the rinse cycle, and doesn't stand up to hot water well (otherwise, your clothes would build up a lot of softener).

Rather than Tide, etc., I use an "eco-friendly" detergent, which is much nicer on my car stuff. Ecos is one brand, 7th Generation is another. It doesn't contain any fragrance, optical brighteners, or other stuff that brands like Tide do, and therefore there's less chance of crud being left on the car stuff . . . .

Tide Free contains no perfumes, additives, dyes or bleach/ fabric softeners. And original tide is perfectly safe to use on care car towels because is contains no additives as well . Just don't use Tide w/ bleach or downy n stuff like that.

[miked2]

Tide Free contains no perfumes, additives, dyes or bleach/ fabric softeners. And original tide is perfectly safe to use on care car towels because is contains no additives as well . Just don't use Tide w/ bleach or downy n stuff like that.

I forgot all about Tide Free! I thought Tide contained optical brighteners, but I could definitely be mistaken. Good post!!!

[inthedetails]

Originally posted by Toady
When I wash my MF stuff, I use warm water and set the washer to extra rinse. Our machine does not build up softener.

One tip on MF that I'd share from experience is that you don't want to use excessively hot water or hot drying when cleaning these. Remember, microfiber is really just a plastic and melts under high temps. I learned this the hard way on the MF cloths I purchased last season. By October, they were really rough from all the hot washings/dryings. By using warm water on the wash and low temps on the dry, my new MF towels should last longer and perform better.

This was posted in another thread, I believe DFTowel is a towel guy.....I just can't find where I read it....

quote:
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Originally posted by Lt1Corvette
First off fabric softener is bad! Just cold water wash them on a gentle cycle using a light cleaner. I usually use woolite as I have a lot of it lying around. Then I hang dry mine.
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You are doing everything wrong my friend. First of all use hot water, regular cycle, your towels won't melt or fall apart believe me. Woolite and gentle cycle is for delicate fabrics and won't clean as well as regular liquid detergents such as All or Era. Drying: if the towel is natural like cotton then hot air, if polyester then warm air or line dry.

.....................

Here is the rest of the thread:

Towel Thread

[TH0001]

Thanks for all your help guys and thanks for the link, I'm gonna check it out right now.