4 way tire cleaner showdown - via waterless

[BadgerRivFan]

I use cotton/terry cloth hand towels for wiping the grime off, and yes I also think they work the best.

I do wash them (when I have enough for a small load) along with large bath towels that I use to wipe up my shop floor with after rinseless washes. I have a HE wash machine. Sometimes I throw a little degreaser in along with the load. You do get some residue left in your wash basin, which can be wiped out with some paper towels and APC, or I will sometimes run the wash machines cleaning cycle to take care of it.

My wife does not like me washing all my my car cleaning towels in our wash machine, but she does like driving a clean and shiny car so my obsession is tolerated.

[MattPersman]

I️ have been using red rags and or end of life microfiber towels. Haven’t tried the terry towels yet. I️ had just been throwing them away after using the product cause like you they are nasty and they look pretty much finished.

I’ll have to use some terry towels and see how that goes


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[Eldorado2k]

I use cotton/terry cloth hand towels for wiping the grime off, and yes I also think they work the best.

I do wash them (when I have enough for a small load) along with large bath towels that I use to wipe up my shop floor with after rinseless washes. I have a HE wash machine. Sometimes I throw a little degreaser in along with the load. You do get some residue left in your wash basin, which can be wiped out with some paper towels and APC, or I will sometimes run the wash machines cleaning cycle to take care of it.

My wife does not like me washing all my my car cleaning towels in our wash machine, but she does like driving a clean and shiny car so my obsession is tolerated.

What detergent do you use when you wash them? Do you add bleach?

Last time I washed my carpet mopping towels, I ended up running them through the washer twice and left them to soak with suds + bleach for a while during the 2 wash because they flat out weren't clean enough after the 1 wash.

[davidc]

Go to Costco and buy the package of terry cloths and yes I wash them in Persil. They may not be spotless but they are good enough for tires.

Dave

[BadgerRivFan]

What detergent do you use when you wash them? Do you add bleach? .

I just use the regular laundry detergent that we use for our clothes - Costco stuff I believe. Have not used bleach, but there's certainly no reason not to.

If the towels are not perfectly clean I don't worry about it too much. All I am going to do is use them to clean grime off of tires again or clean my shop floor, so no big deal. That is all these towels get used for.

[Eldorado2k]

Go to Costco and buy the package of terry cloths and yes I wash them in Persil. They may not be spotless but they are good enough for tires.

Dave

I've never even thought of getting them there.. I might have to check them out if they're decent quality at the right price. Thx.

If the towels are not perfectly clean I don't worry about it too much. All I am going to do is use them to clean grime off of tires again or clean my shop floor, so no big deal. That is all these towels get used for.

The reason I worried enough to run them through a 2nd time is because alot of them were heavily caked from recent interior detail jobs + the cleanest of them also double as my leather maintenance/wipedown towels for my daily driver. I need to buy more as the better batch of the 2 seems to have slowly disappeared 1 by 1. Lol.

[Eldorado2k]

Hey guys, just wanted to give a final update on my initial testing of the Mothers Back to Black Tire Renew using different kinds of towels to wipe off.

Earlier today I was able to do a quik test on a vehicle that was extremely dirty and that hadn't been washed in about 6 weeks. Here's the tire. As you can tell not only the tire, but the wheel is really dirty, making for a good test subject.

I wanted to test how this product would perform using paper towels, as this would by far be the most economical way to do it. I was crossing my fingers hoping it would work good enough...



But it was just flat out not a very good user experience..



I got 2 sides out of the several towels I used and that was as far as I could use that bunch before they were done. They shed alot of pieces and made a mess across the tire sidewall + the end result was poor. This was alot worse than the bad user experience using red shop towels.



I ended up re cleaning this tire with Megs Super Degreaser and the hose nozzle. Btw check out the great job Meguiars Wheel Brightener was able to do with no agitation at all. Excellent!



Final thoughts: This product, along with Mckee's Rubber & Tire Rejuvenator both works very good via spray on / wipe off to clean tires. The only drawback is you may borderline feel like thinking about trashing the towel[s] afterwards. IME cotton terry towels provide the best user experience + results with this method.

Good luck. Thanks for reading.

[RippyD]

Why not a brush rather than towels? I generally use a brush first on dirty tires wheels, then follow with a towel as needed. As for cleaning, for extra gritty ones I'll pre-wash in a bucket sometimes. All also run the self-cleaning cycle if something too dirty went in the washer. I don't recall ever seeing an issue with left over residue in the washer with the exception of polish or sealants. Can occasionally still smell these in the washer, which I take as an indicator that the towels aren't clean and give them another washing.

[The Guz]

Why not a brush rather than towels? I generally use a brush first on dirty tires wheels, then follow with a towel as needed. As for cleaning, for extra gritty ones I'll pre-wash in a bucket sometimes. All also run the self-cleaning cycle if something too dirty went in the washer. I don't recall ever seeing an issue with left over residue in the washer with the exception of polish or sealants. Can occasionally still smell these in the washer, which I take as an indicator that the towels aren't clean and give them another washing.

Good points and you are correct that this Mothers tire cleaner works great with a brush and towel just like you mentioned. I use black microfibers so no issues with me worrying about my light colored towels getting stained.

[Eldorado2k]

Why not a brush rather than towels? I generally use a brush first on dirty tires

I don't plan on using this as my regular tire cleaner. But I'd like to be able to have an option for those times when hose & water isn't available, that's why I'm experimenting with different towels.