When detailing a vehicle we use towels for many different purposes: cleaning, dressing, waxing, drying, etc. Just like each purpose is different so should be the towel.
By separating your towels by their purpose you will increase the performance and life span of your towels.
Ideally, each of your main detail tasks should have there own towel. Each task's towel may be dictated by the type, construction, characteristics, or color of the towel.
For example: An efficient detail shop may use four types of towels - white terry towels for cleaning, red terry towels for dressings, green microfiber towels for windows and blue microfiber towels for wax application and removal. That detail shop would have 2 marked bins for each towel: one clean bin and one dirty bin for used towels to be laundered. In addition to having the bins marked it is a recommended that the 4 towel be different colors to reduce the risk of cross contamination among towels. This could mean the difference between streaky or clear windows and oily residue or a deep shine.
How you launder towels is also important. All towel types should be washed separately using a fabric softener-free detergent. Fabric softeners can leave an oily residue on the towels and cause streaks on windows and paintwork. Wash terry, or other cotton based towels in hot water and dry in a standard dryer or line dry. Wash microfiber towels in cool or warm water only. Set dryer to air dry or simply line dry. A hot dryer may melt the fibers and destroy the absorbent characteristics of a microfiber towel.
