Review: The Big Blue Drying Towel

[Mike Phillips]

Review: The Big Blue Drying Towel




You know... out of all the topics I've written on, the topic of paint is easily the most common and popular topic.

Why?

Because it's the paint that makes or breaks the appearance of a car. The car either looks great because the paint looks great or maybe it's a nice car but it doesn't look good because the paint is all jacked-up.

When it comes to the topic of car paint, the topic most people think about and ask questions about is how to polish paint. More specifically how to remove swirls, scratches, water spots and oxidation. This is a great topic and the segment of car care that I'm the most passionate about. But whenever I'm talking to someone about polishing paint I start the topic of polishing paint with the topic of washing cars.

Specifically I ask,

How are you going to wash and dry your car?


You see it doesn't matter if you polish the paint to 100% absolute perfection if you're going to run your car through an automatic car wash or just about as bad, wash it yourself without high quality car washing and drying tools.

What I tell people and what I've been typing for years goes like this,

"When it comes to washing and drying your car get the highest quality car washing tools you can obtain"



Now when I use the word obtain, what I mean by it is the word afford. I don't know what the budget is for every person I talk to or everyone that reads my articles or watches our videos? I don't know? Maybe a person has $10.00 and maybe a person has $100.00 to spend on wash mitts, car wash soap and drying towels. Instead of assuming or lecturing someone I just keep my recommendations real vanilla and let each person decide on their own budget.

That all said, if you are the type of person to take great care of your car's appearance including maintaining a swirl and scratch free finish then you probably already understand that modern clearcoats are scratch-sensitive (http://www.autogeekonline.net/forum/ask-mike-phillips-your-detailing-questions/74234-clearcoats-scratch-sensitive.html) and anytime you're working on the paint whether you're washing and drying the car or wiping off compound, polish or wax, the things that actually touch the paint, that is the tools you use that come into contact with the paint, need to be of the highest quality you can obtain. (there's that word again).



Enter The Big Blue Drying Towels

When washing a car it's important to use a clean wash mitt to reduce the potential for any accidental marring of the clearcoat during the washing process. When drying the car it's just as important to use a clean, soft drying chamois or drying towel to remove the water without accidentally marring the scratch-sensitive clearcoat.

That's why everyone loves The Big Blue Drying Towels.

These things are as soft and plush as a quality throw blanket on the living room couch for your wife, girlfriend or kids to snuggle into on a cold winter night. These towels are PLUSH. Let me say it again...

These towels are P-L-U-S-H

By the word plush I meant they are THICK and SUPER SOFT and it's these two features PLUS the way they absorb TONS of water that make them the perfect drying towel any of you paint perfectionists.



The key to owning and using these towels are,

1: Have a DEDICATED place to store these towels when not in use. A clean cupboard or a clean plastic container with a lid. Because the nap or pile is thick and soft you don't want any dirt or abrasive particles to get onto the towels and get buried in the nap.

2: Either place these towels directly into the washing machine after drying your car and then wash, dry and place them in the dedicated storage place mentioned above OR have a dedicated dirty towel hamper in your garage that's also CLEAN to place these into until you can wash, dry and store them.

3: Only wash them with a quality dedicated microfiber cleaner to preserve the performance, softness, water absorbency and plushness of the microfiber material.


If you can do the above and you love your car... then you're going to love these incredibly plush and absorbent microfiber drying towels.


Recently I wrote a how-to article on how to machine polish exterior glass to remove water spots. My practice is to machine polish glass BEFORE you wash your car. This way instead of taping off the inside of the window frames on the doors to prevent staining, you can simply wash this residue away by washing after polishing. And if you accidentally get any glass polish splatter over surrounding body panels instead of wiping it off you can wash it off when washing the car. The glass polishing article gave me a chance to then use the new Big Blue Drying Towels and gets some pictures showing these new towels in ACTION!



Drying a Mitsubishi Eclipse using the Big Blue Microfiber Drying Towels

After washing the car, the first thing to do was dry the convertible top. When it comes to cloth tops, the technique I show is the blotting technique also knows as the least evasive method for drying a top and/or a car. The idea being to place your drying towel directly onto the top and then using your hands, apply pressure to the towel to force the water on and in the canvas material to transfer into the drying towel via capillary action.

The benefit is you don't WIPE the top with a towel and thus prevent wearing the surface of the cloth potentially created a fuzzy appearance, which cannot be fixed.


Here's the smallest of the Big Blue Drying Towels

http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/3277/Big_Blue_Drying_Towe_001.jpg



I have purposefully placed the towel in a central location for the picture value which tells the story...

http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/3277/Big_Blue_Drying_Towe_002.jpg



Move your hands around the towel pressing the different sections of the towel against the canvas and pause for a few moments to allow the water in the canvas to move into the microfiber material.

http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/3277/Big_Blue_Drying_Towe_003.jpg




Now lifting the towel straight up you can see what happens....

http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/3277/Big_Blue_Drying_Towe_004.jpg

http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/3277/Big_Blue_Drying_Towe_005.jpg



The section under the Big Blue Drying Towel is almost completely dry. AND it was never rubbed.

http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/3277/Big_Blue_Drying_Towe_006.jpg

http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/3277/Big_Blue_Drying_Towe_007.jpg




Now let’s see what the LARGEST Big Blue Drying Towel can do....

http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/3277/Big_Blue_Drying_Towe_008.jpg



Pressing on the towel....

http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/3277/Big_Blue_Drying_Towe_009.jpg



Pressing on the towel....

http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/3277/Big_Blue_Drying_Towe_010.jpg



Pressing on the towel....

Note: This technique doesn't work if YOU don't press the drying towel against the convertible top.


http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/3277/Big_Blue_Drying_Towe_011.jpg



Removing the towel...

http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/3277/Big_Blue_Drying_Towe_012.jpg



And I think you get the idea....

http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/3277/Big_Blue_Drying_Towe_013.jpg




After drying the convertible top then move around the car as normal and remove the rest of the standing water.


Drying the window and side glass...

http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/3277/Big_Blue_Drying_Towe_014.jpg



This is cool...

The weight of the towel, even dry is enough to lay flat on a horizontal panel and stay flat as you pull it over the panel and in the process remove all of the water.

http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/3277/Big_Blue_Drying_Towe_015.jpg

http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/3277/Big_Blue_Drying_Towe_016.jpg

http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/3277/Big_Blue_Drying_Towe_017.jpg

http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/3277/Big_Blue_Drying_Towe_018.jpg




Not a drop of water left where the towel was pulled....

http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/3277/Big_Blue_Drying_Towe_019.jpg

http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/3277/Big_Blue_Drying_Towe_020.jpg

http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/3277/Big_Blue_Drying_Towe_021.jpg

http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/3277/Big_Blue_Drying_Towe_022.jpg

http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/3277/Big_Blue_Drying_Towe_023.jpg

http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/3277/Big_Blue_Drying_Towe_024.jpg

http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/3277/Big_Blue_Drying_Towe_025.jpg

http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/3277/Big_Blue_Drying_Towe_026.jpg

http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/3277/Big_Blue_Drying_Towe_027.jpg



For the vertical panels I use one of the smaller towels....

http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/3277/Big_Blue_Drying_Towe_028.jpg

http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/3277/Big_Blue_Drying_Towe_029.jpg

http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/3277/Big_Blue_Drying_Towe_030.jpg

http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/3277/Big_Blue_Drying_Towe_031.jpg

http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/3277/Big_Blue_Drying_Towe_032.jpg



These towels are plush and absorbent and the truly pamper your car's finish.

To give you and idea of the sizes, I've placed the three different towels on top of one another and laid them out flat on the hood of this Mitsubishi Eclipse.

http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/3277/Big_Blue_Drying_Towe_033.jpg

http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/3277/Big_Blue_Drying_Towe_034.jpg

http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/3277/Big_Blue_Drying_Towe_035.jpg

http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/3277/Big_Blue_Drying_Towe_036.jpg



:)

[Mike Phillips]

Beautiful!

http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/3277/Mitsubisie_Done_001.jpg




On Autogeek.com


The Big Blue Drying Towel

Big Blue Microfiber Drying Towel (http://www.autogeek.net/big-blue-drying-towel.html)

Big Blue Microfiber Drying Towel, 26 x 18 inches (http://www.autogeek.net/large-microfiber-drying-towel.html)

Big Blue Microfiber Drying Towel, 40 x 28 (http://www.autogeek.net/extra-large-drying-towel.html)


:)

[dcjredline]

The problem I have always come across with thick larger towels like these is this...HOW IN THE WORLD DO YOU WRING ONE OF THOSE OUT???? lol. The larger ones wont fit through a wringer, and you are not folding and twisting them unless you have jolly green giant hands.

[Nick McKees37]

Outstanding review, Mike. :props:


The problem I have always come across with thick larger towels like these is this...HOW IN THE WORLD DO YOU WRING ONE OF THOSE OUT???? lol. The larger ones wont fit through a wringer, and you are not folding and twisting them unless you have jolly green giant hands.

I've been testing all 3 sizes of Big Blue for well over 6 months now, and to be honest I've never had to wring one out. It drinks that much water. :)

[LSNAutoDetailing]

Great review Mike! I added them to my wish list... Mike, what would be an appropriate purchase amount? I typically use one large guzzler for horizontal panels and about 4 - 6 smaller guzzlers for vertical.
Would you state that should be about the same here?

[ronkh57]

Ordered

[chefwong]

Hey Mike

Are those tags paint friendly :poke::poke:

[fly07sti]

How do these compare to the GG PFM grey towels?

[WRAPT C5Z06]

Those looks VERY good!

[PA DETAILER]

Look's like GRIOTS PMF has a rival...

[MarkD51]

Very nice Mike.
In the AG Store, the Waffle Weave sitting next to this Towel looks like a sheet of newspaper.

[FrankS]

Nice review Mike!

Added to my wish list.

[KBsToy]

Ordered

Cyber sale 1 large.... 1 med also met sale requirements also :)

[FocusSTguy]

How do these compare to the GG PFM grey towels?
This!

I started using the PFM towels a couple months ago and couldn't believe how much better they were than my waffle weave towels.

[Mike Phillips]

The problem I have always come across with thick larger towels like these is this...HOW IN THE WORLD DO YOU WRING ONE OF THOSE OUT???? lol.



Like Nick said, they hold enough water that you don't need to wring them out. As I dried the water off this Eclipse I never had to stop and wring water out of any of the towels.






Great review Mike! I added them to my wish list...




Thank you and good to hear, if you have a car with paint in great shape you'll love these drying towels.

I have a boatload of products to use and review and we use a term here at AG called Double Dipping, this means getting more work done out of the same job. This project started out as me needing to test out the new Griot's Fine Glass Polish. I teach two ways of polishing glass to remove topical defects, (NOT scratches IN the glass), and my preferred way is to polish glass BEFORE washing the car. This way you can avoid taping off the inside of the window frames to keep glass gaskets clean and simply wash off all the glass polish residue when you wash the car. This turned into more double dipping as I used the Griot's Convertible Top Cleaner. This turned into more double dipping as I then used the Griot's new Fabric Protectant. And even more double dipping as I used the Griot's Wheel Cleaner. It's easy to take pictures, heck everyone I know has a finger and a camera. It's doing something with the pictures after taking them, that's the tricky part. That plus writing.





Mike, what would be an appropriate purchase amount? I typically use one large guzzler for horizontal panels and about 4 - 6 smaller guzzlers for vertical.
Would you state that should be about the same here?



I found that one of each of the three sizes to be more than enough water holding towel for this car. I like the smallest one for the vertical panels and the medium size for the horizontal panels. If a person were to forgo the largest size then get 2-3 of the medium and small towels. The largest one is freaking huge and by itself will tackle all the horizontal panels of pretty much any car I can think of.

As I wrote in my original post in this thread, the key to owning and using these towels is to have a washing and storing protocol IN PLACE.






Hey Mike

Are those tags paint friendly



Good catch chefwong, thank you for pointing the tags out to give me the opportunity to tell everyone how much I LOVE these tags. These tags are held on with adhesive and they pull off real easy. Plus there's only a small amount of adhesive used so after removing the tag from the towel you're not left with a large clump of adhesive still on the towel.


Here's the Big Blue Drying Towels.

http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/722/tags_01.jpg



Here's the descriptive tag

http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/722/tags_02.jpg



Before using, remove the tags. There's only a smidgen of adhesive so they will remove easily and won't leave a ton of adhesive residue behind.

http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/722/tags_03.jpg



There you go....

http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/722/tags_04.jpg




And for the record... always remove the tags before using any towel. All I can say was I was in a rush trying to not just wash a car but test out a lot of products and at the same time, take pictures, (which extends how long any process takes), and then put the pictures together to create reviews and write-ups like you're reading now.








How do these compare to the GG PFM grey towels?



Totally different look and feel for the microfiber material.

Since you asked, I just went out and looked at the microfiber of both towels.

Griot's
Closed loop nap.
More stout feel to the towel as compared to the Big Blue Drying Towel. More like terrycloth.


Big Blue Drying Towel
Open nap, not a closed loop.
Softer feel, more like fleece than terrycloth








Very nice Mike.

In the AG Store, the Waffle Weave sitting next to this Towel looks like a sheet of newspaper.




Here's a screenshot from the store page for the Big Blue Drying Towel. A picture tells a thousand words.

http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/722/tags_05.jpg


You know... I write very carefully. I normally pick and choose EACH word purposefully as my experience in the online world has taught me if I make a SINGLE mistake there's always someone out their gunning for me. Hoping for and looking for a mistake. Then they point it out, I guess as a way of playing gotcha. :dunno:



Luckily for me.... I rarely make a mistake. The tags on the towels that chefwong pointed out is a rare exception and that's the price I pay for hurrying to get a boatload of product reviews done BEFORE Thanksgiving day and the holiday weekend.

Point being, if we look at what I wrote in my review of these towels, I worded my review, like anything I wrote for the cyberworld VERY CAREFULLY.


Let's take a look...






Enter The Big Blue Drying Towels

When washing a car it's important to use a clean wash mitt to reduce the potential for any accidental marring of the clearcoat during the washing process. When drying the car it's just as important to use a clean, soft drying chamois or drying towel to remove the water without accidentally marring the scratch-sensitive clearcoat.

That's why everyone loves The Big Blue Drying Towels.

These things are as soft and plush as a quality throw blanket on the living room couch for your wife, girlfriend or kids to snuggle into on a cold winter night. These towels are PLUSH. Let me say it again...

These towels are P-L-U-S-H

By the word plush I meant they are THICK and SUPER SOFT and it's these two features PLUS the way they absorb TONS of water that make them the perfect drying towel any of you paint perfectionists.



The key to owning and using these towels are,

1: Have a DEDICATED place to store these towels when not in use. A clean cupboard or a clean plastic container with a lid. Because the nap or pile is thick and soft you don't want any dirt or abrasive particles to get onto the towels and get buried in the nap.

2: Either place these towels directly into the washing machine after drying your car and then wash, dry and place them in the dedicated storage place mentioned above OR have a dedicated dirty towel hamper in your garage that's also CLEAN to place these into until you can wash, dry and store them.

3: Only wash them with a quality dedicated microfiber cleaner to preserve the performance, softness, water absorbency and plushness of the microfiber material.


If you can do the above and you love your car... then you're going to love these incredibly plush and absorbent microfiber drying towels.







In the CONTEXT of the complete section I wrote above, I explain


It's important to use a clean towel to dry your car's paint to avoid instilling scratches
I describe the towels as being super soft and plush.
I go over three keys to owning and using these towels.



And the reason I wrote all of the above is because as long as you understand the above and wash, dry and store your towels like I describe above, then you'll be happy. Because these towels have a very plush nap you need to take care of washing and storing them to avoid having foreign debris landing on and lodging in the material. That's why I ended my list above like this,


If you can do the above and you love your car... then you're going to love these incredibly plush and absorbent microfiber drying towels.


If you can't wash, dry and store these towels properly then you would be better off with drying towels like the Guzzler drying towels because the Guzzler drying towels have a FLAT weave surface. It's really hard to have any type of foreign particle land on a Guzzler waffle weave drying towel and LODGE onto it or into it. This makes the Guzzler Waffle Weave drying towels incredibly bubba-proof when it comes to washing, drying and storing.

And when I use the word storing, this means both when the towel is dirty, as in where you place your towels until you launder them. And also storing clean dry towels.

I've been washing, drying, folding and storing more microfiber towels than most people on earth for going on 13 years. I washed, folded and stored all the towels while I worked for Meguiar's in Irvine, California and since coming to Autogeek I've been in charge of washing, drying, folding and storing all our microfiber towels.

I'm hear to tell you I've maintained a lot of towels over the years and I know what I'm talking about when it comes to all types of microfiber towels and the point is this...

If you're reading this and you're interested in these very soft, very plush and very absorbent Big Blue Microfiber Drying Towel and you are a Paint Perfectionist, then you're going to love these drying towels buy you need some knowledge about how to properly take care of them and that's what I've shared above.

Take a moment to go to Target or Wal-Mart and purchase some type of closed laundry hamper, that is a laundry hamper WITHOUT air passage holes in it. You don't want holes your microfiber towel laundry hamper for your garage with holes because DIRT will blow in and contaminate your towels. You want solid plastic walls.

Keep your laundry hamper clean before you put towels into it.

When washing and drying your car, (that's the thing most of us do the most to our cars), immediately AFTER drying your car take your towels and wash, dry and store them to ensure they stay clean and uncontaminated for years of use and satisfaction.

If you cannot immediately put your drying towels through your washing, drying and storage process then the next best thing is to place them into a laundry hamper or someplace where they will stay clean until you can properly wash, dry and store them.


With a flat weave drying towel like the Guzzler Waffle Weave drying towels, because they have a flat weave, it's not that you don't want to properly store them either when they are dirty or clean, or wash, dry and store them immediately after use it's just they are less prone to contamination due the flat weave of the material.

And for the record, the above protocols and recommendations for drying the Big Blue Drying Towels applies to ANY high quality microfiber product with a plush nap. Doesn't matter if the nap is open or a closed loop. Doesn't matter if it is a short pile length or a long pile length, it all has to do with the fact that microfiber is GRABBY. And it will GRAB onto foreign particles and this can lead to scratching your car's paint accidentally.


I hope all of the above makes sense and helps to break down something that's actually very simple but my guess is most people don't get this deep. I do. It's what I do.

When I worked for Meguiar's my goal was that Barry Meguiar's would walk out to the garage and at any time grab a clean, laundered microfiber towel and wipe down his car without the fear of scratching the paint.

When I came to work for Autogeek my goal was the same only instead of keeping the towels clean and contaminant free for Barry I did this for Bob McKee. Now that Bob has retired I don't revert back to shoddy laundry protocols, I do as I’ve always done, I do the job right.

Protecting your microfiber towel investment is easy, but you need to have a quality control process in place.


:)