A lot of towels I have to review... initial pics and thoughts

[Bryce H.]

Well I have ordered quite a few towels from various vendors recently so I can compare and find the ones I like the most. I still want to try some Erie MFs, Vroom, and from JT International. But I guess I have enough for now. Here some some pics of what I ordered (I actually ordered a few of each but just showing one). And I will see if I can borrow a better camera for some close ups next week so you all can see the differences.

Poorboys World:
I have the Mega Plush, Super Thick & Plush, Work Towel, Velvet Smooth Glass, and I think I have the larger Velvet Smooth and smaller Waffle Weave towels that are not pictured. Nothing that stands out to me but they all seem to have their purposes and seem like quality towels. The Mega Plush and Super Thick & Plush both seem soft, and the Velvet Smooth seems like it should be decent. Packaging was good with separate bags letting you know which towel is which.

DF Concours:
I have all different sizes. Its interesting because it looks as if there have been at least 3 different types of runs. Maybe they went through revisions at different times. I have 2 of the CBT from Autopia, which is very slightly different from the same sizes I ordered from Ultramicrofiber. And the small ones (8.5" x 8.5") ordered from the same place are different color (slightly tan) but appear to be the same texture as the CBT. The difference in textures between them are the loops are more defined in the small and CBT towels than the other DF towels, if that makes sense. They are all high quality however. Packaging was good. Separate bags for each and care info.

Meguiars:
The Supreme Shine Microfiber. Seems like a decent all-around towel. Good for OTC. So far it feels slightly less plush as the Poorboys Super Thick and Plush. But it is still soft. I dont really like the edging as it seems to stiff for my liking but it is not supposed to scratch so we will see. Ordered this as well as the CBT towels from Autopia. I got an email making sure my order arrived. Packaging was good. 3 to a pack.

Ultramicrofiber:
I have the orange Microfiber Chamois (not really a chamois though in my eyes) and a few of the white Microfiber Polishing Cloth. The Chamois is plush with a long nap on one side and the opposite for the other side. Pretty soft. The Polishing cloth is similar to the Poorboys work towel, however they have a tag that will need removing. Packaging was good. Each towel came in its own separate bag. Another note, I ordered the DF Towels from here as I mentioned above. I received an email from Steve Paski after I ordered making sure I wanted the small DF Towels as they were too small and impractical for car care, and more suited for odds and ends such as sunglasses he felt. I thought this was excellent service making sure I knew what I wanted before shipping.

Wayne`s Towels:
I ordered some of the new "High Performance" towels (as he calls them), MF mitt, Interior towels, Ultra Plush, Glass Cleaning towels, and a Luxury Soft towel. He emailed me the care instructions and kept good contact with me while I was emailing him deciding what I wanted and the easiest way to order and updating me when he shipped. I think he even followed up after I received the towels to make sure everything arrived on time. Excellent service. The only thing I didnt like was the towels were not in bags inside of the box. I guess it doesnt really matter as we wash them before use anyway, but separate bags gives a little more peace of mind. And it helps with labeling too. The High Performance towels really are something else. They are extremely soft and suprisingly heavy. The weave is not like any other MF towels. I really like the feel of these. In fact, these are my favorites for feel out of all my towels. I will see how they perform and I expect them to perform well. The Interior towels are unique as well. The nap is short but it is a random weave (dont know how else to describe it). Looking forward to these. And the Luxury Soft towels really are soft, up there with the softest towels from other manufacturers. Short nap however. The new High Performance MF mitt and glass towel seem nice, but nothing really catching my eye. The glass towel seems like the Poorboys Work towel and the mitt is soft, we will have to wait and see the performance. The Ultra Plush is very similar to the Poorboys Mega Plush. Almost identical. Should perform equally well. The difference I saw so far was the edge stitching was a different color of green.

Detailer`s Paradise:
I have the Monster Fluffy, Glass Cleaning cloth, Scrubbing cloth, and the Ultra-Suede. All of these seem great. The glass cleaning cloth is very different, you can see the weave but it is very flat. I think I will like it a lot. Ultra-Suede is very nice. I think I got the last one because I ordered 3 and they had a note in my order saying they could only send one because they are discontinuing them. It is edgeless. I actually bought it for my eyeglasses and expect it to do well for that purpose, but should be good for other purposes. The Monster Fluffy is exactly that. It is very soft with a long nap. Doesnt feel as "grabby" as usual MFs. Probably the plushest and softest towel. It appears as there are two towels sewn together because you can pull them apart. And you have the long nap on both sides which I enjoy. The Scrubbers I got just because they made me curious. They should be able to get bugs and stuff off when needed. Everything came in its own bag and labeled.

PakShak:
I ordered the Ultra MF, Ultra-Smooth, Ultra-Plush, Ultra-Fine, Ultra-Soft Waffle Weave, and the regular Waffle Weave drying towel. The Ultra Fine is different. Has the short nap on one side and a different type of nap on the other side which is very soft. Somewhat thick and looks like a good performer. The Ultra Plush is just that - plush, probably one of the plushest. It has a short nap on one side. The Ultra Smooth is slightly less plush. The Ultra is nice and soft, but the I like the others better. The Ultra Soft waffle weave is softer and slightly thinner than the regular waffle weave. The Ultra Soft one has a lighter blue border. And it seems the the weave is slightly different. It is hard to explain but you can see the waffle pattern more defined and clearer on the regular waffle weave towel. All the towels are very soft. I received excellent customer service when asking Ranney questions. The towels came in bags, some 3 to a bag and some 1 to a bag, depending on how many of that style I ordered. All with labels and descriptions and instuctions.

Excel Detail:
I received the Elite, Yellow Supreme, Blue Supreme, Aquaclear Optical, and Excel Edgeless. The Edgeless really isnt my cup of tea, but we will see how it performs. I am sure a lot of people will like it but it doesnt seem like it will be for me. Interestingly, the Yellow Supreme was slightly softer than the Blue Supreme. And they have tags that need removing. Both are soft however. Somewhat similar to the Luxury Soft towel from Wayne, but still different and not as soft IMO. The Elite is very soft and thick. Among the nicest towels I have ordered. Nice long nap on one side, and very soft. The Aquaclear Optical seems like it would do an excellent job at windows. It is similar to suede but different. Hard to explain. They all came in the same bag which was nice to keep them separated from the box. But they werent labeled or separated from each other. No biggie. As a note, I went to see if I could make a change to my order shortly after ordering (probably within an hour) and it was already shipped. That is good customer service in my opinion (the quick shipping) as the small order change wasn`t necessary for me. And I noticed I received a refund on the shipping charges.

The black towel:
The shop I work in is embroidery. My boss came to me the other day and asked if I had heard of microfiber. I just smiled and said yes. She gave me 2 of these towels. I dont know if they will be good for car care simply because of the edge. The edge is more like a dish towel or hand towel. But they are very soft. And the blend is something different. It is 55% Poly / 45% Cotton. Have any of you seen that blend? I thought it was interesting. Plus it came to me the day after I ordered all the other towels so I just thought I would throw it in.

I also have some cheap ones I got from ebay a few years ago that arent very good when I was just learning about MFs. And a couple different Waffle Weaves that I have from SMP and Autogeek. Both are excellent and soft.

All vendors and excellent service and prices. I wouldnt hesitate to order again from any of them. The prices really arent that bad after forum discounts IMO, and I feel the quality will probably be much better than OTC. After ordering, I received all of my orders within a matter of days, usually 2 days after ordering. I was very pleased with all the transactions.

There are a few towels that I noticed some defects. I wont mention who the vendors were because honestly I dont feel like going through and inspecting all the towels right now. But there were a couple from different vendors. I probably wont say anything to them because as long as I am careful it will be ok and I dont feel its necessary to cause more stress for the vendors when they are trying to make a living. It is so small (for instance 1 towel in an order) that it doesnt bother me and would be more hassle than what I want to cause.

Oh, and as a side note, I find the Micro-Restore superior to household detergents, I haven`t tried any other MF detergents though. Not because its supposedly safer for MF, but because I feel it cleans better. I had some oil stains on clothes that I tried everything, different soaps, different ways to treat the spots, and nothing worked. I finally had the idea to try some Micro-Restore and it got the spots right out. So based on that it should get most stains out of MFs.

Now I have to see which towels I will like for what purposes. It might take some time but I hope this post was a little bit informative. And when I have access to a better camera I will take close ups. Thanks for reading.

[Bryce H.]

Oh one other note... I will try not to be biased. But I really so far am liking the thicker, plusher towels compared to the shorter napped ones. Right now I prefer a different weave or suede style towels for purposes that require a short nap. So that is why I didnt give a gleaming report on those types of towels yet. But I will be fair and try them out for different uses.

[mrecktid]

If you`re having a hard time testing all the towels, I wouldn`t mind taking a few off your hands

Good luck though, looks like you`ll be quite busy the next few weeks.

[97F1504x4]

I have a few of the ones that are listed and was able to try out one of the PakShak towels that Ranney currently has on clearance due to them being discontinued and they are great towels soft and very absorbent. I also have the Blue towels from Dwayne and those appear to be a nice towels as well. I have really had a chance to try them out on anything other than with some PBS&W but they worked good for that also.

Richard

[jdoria]

Was there never an update to this?

[GregCavi]

totally off topic, but I have that same pool table.


Greg

[CalgaryDetail]

Wow thats alot of mf. Im sure youll have fun testing it. good luck with it, i have a feeling it may take a few washings

[n2_space]

Weird, I didn`t get any instruction sheets when I ordered 60 towels from Pakshak I guess maybe he thought I knew how to use them, dunno. Any chance you could scan those if there is any interesting info on them? I assume it is mostly stuff us regular detailers know, but just curious

[Mr. Clean]

When you get the chance, and if you are so inlcined, I would be interested in a head-to-head comparison (including photographs) of the following:

Detailer`s Paradise Monster Fluffy
DFT`s Concours
Excel Detail`s Elite
Pak Shak`s Ultra Plush
PB`s Mega Plush
Wayne`s High Performance

And a note regarding your initial reservations on the Edgeless from ED. This towel is my favorite for polish and paste wax removal.

[ZaneO]

Looks very similar to my brand collection. Good bunch of towels you have yourself.

[Bryce H.]

Ok... I have been trying to take better pictures with 3 different cameras but they all come out blurry, well except for a few taken of the darker towels. And I am still in the process of testing everything for different tasks. Hope I can get this done soon and figure out how to get one of these cameras to take clear close-ups. Sorry for taking so long

[SNike05]

Try using the flower setting on the cameras it might give you better result. I am definitely interested in knowing which ones you find to be better then others in like a scale or grouping method.

[DFTowel]

The alien towels will always be out of focus... a little UFO humor there, don;t shoot me please.

[GMCloud27]

Thanks for posting the pics! I`ve been curious what the other brands are like other than PakShak , thanks!

[gandblah]

Ok... I have been trying to take better pictures with 3 different cameras but they all come out blurry, well except for a few taken of the darker towels. And I am still in the process of testing everything for different tasks. Hope I can get this done soon and figure out how to get one of these cameras to take clear close-ups. Sorry for taking so long

There`s a macro mode on most digital camera. It`s denoted by a flower as another member suggested. That`s the mode you want your camera to be in for close up shots.