Color of Towels

[Robb]

Is it all right to use colored towels on paint? Pre-Autopia my thought was that only white should be used on paint because it had no dyes in it that could interfere w/ the paint of the car. Now we have all these different colors of microfiber to use, i currently use the blue mf`s as well as green waffles to dry with. Are using all kinds of colors cool is my question? Thanks

[Jngrbrdman]

I`ve never seen white microfibers so your only choice is pretty much to use colored ones. The ones I use are forrest green and I`ve never seen a problem. I`ve got a white car too, so if there was any dye transfering then I`d know about it.

[stevet]

Jngrbrdman,



Megs Ultimate Wipes are white MF.





Robb,



I have white, dark green, blue, yellow, mint green, and teal. None of the colors cause me a problem on the paint. You might get some color transfer in the washing machine, but I wash new MF by itself for the fist few washes than I can wash it with my other MF and not have the problem.

[jmsc]

I use diff colored mf but prefer white (can see the dirt easier) for polishing. Just pre-wash all new towels once.



Yeah, not enough different white colored microfiber towels around.

[tnoy66]

Originally posted by jmsc

I use diff colored mf but prefer white (can see the dirt easier) for polishing. Just pre-wash all new towels once.





:hm surely there should be no dirt while polishing....this might help



http://www.bettercarcare.com/articles.php?articleId=9





;) :p

[medic159]

FYI... a white towel is dyed or bleached white, there are no fibers that are pure white in their natural state.

[huangdong28]

Originally posted by DFTowel

FYI... a white towel is dyed or bleached white, there are no fibers that are pure white in their natural state. Are you only talking natural fibers, or are you including microfiber, of which the VAST majority is synthetic?



From some quick Google searching:



94%of worldwide fiber production is synthetic (2002). See:



http://www.fibersource.com/f-info/fiber%20production.htm



21 out of 36 metric tons of worldwide synthetic production, or almost 60%, is polyester



The first polyester I found that mentioned color is Wellman ComFortrel at:



http://fabriclink.com/pk/comfortrel/home.html



and states:

"This fine denier fiber is inherently extra-white so it gives color a boost, holds color longer. "



I knew I wasn`t imagining the millions of pounds of WHITE yarn (mostly nylon and polyester) that I saw going through the carpet mills in an earlier life.



Are you talking only natural (cotton, wool, flax, etc?) I`m not sure whether any of these are naturally white or not (I would call wool white, but it`s really off white) but I assure you first hand that synthetic fibers come out of the spinnerettes snow white.

[medic159]

No, there is no fiber, natural or artificial, that is pure white. What you are reading is thhat the fiber is white but you need to know what made it that way. To get a white extruded fiber such as polyester you need to artificially make the soup white by dadding dye or bleach.

[huangdong28]

Sorry, I can`t validate that. I find hundreds of references to "raw white polyester fiber" and it can be dyed other colors. You can`t bleach a plastic, and you can`t dye it lighter. Can you find any reference to support this? I`m talking about fiber out of the spinnerette, which looks like fiberfill before it is made into thread or yarn.

[Autofiber.com]

From what I understand, from what the people at the various microfiber factories that we buy from, all microfiber starts out white (I don`t know about "pure white", or how to define that). But prowler is correct, all Microfiber (the origianl polyester/polyamide blends, not necessarily the kind that DFTowel markets as microfiber), starts out white and then is dyed specific colors.



Ian

[medic159]

OK, I`m not sure why I`m even getting involved in this debate ( I`ve been in the textile business for over 30 years and I am a weaver by trade) or why it is important but despite what you see as "evidence" the raw state of any fiber is not white. It needs to be made white. Your "sources" are telling you the fiber is white which is true, but something had to make the soup (in the case of poly) white so the fiber could be extruded white.

[Autofiber.com]

Leo,



I agree with you, it is a moot point. And I think that you are correct. But I would have to say that since polyester is a man made product there is no "raw" state, as there is with cotton or other natural product.



I don`t know exactly how they make polyester so it is very possible that they have the option of making it any color that they want.



What I do know is that they make polyester and polyamide, from that make microfiber cloth, which is white, and then they dye it.



One reason that I think this is an interesting topic is because I have noticed that the lighter color microfiber products seem to be softer and more plush than the darker colors. It seems that the darker colors tend to weigh down the fibers. Also, dark color towels, like red, tend to bleed. So we stay away from those.



Any more of your insight would be greatly appriciated Leo, I enjoy your knowledge on the subject.



Merry Christmas,

Ian

[medic159]

If you use the proper dye for the material then dying should not make any difference in the "feel" of the fabric. The problem that many times occurs is that either the wrong dye formula is used or more often the wronn dye is used. You must use the proper dye for the fiber, that is, there are dye forumations ofr poly, others for nylon, others for silk, cotton, rayon, etc. If you use a dye for nulon on polyester you can get a bad reaction. To properly dye poly/silk for example you need to use two different dyes, one for poly and one for silk. Actually this is commonly used to "cross dye" fabrics so you get two colors at one. Use red poly dye and green silk dye and you get a fabric with threads dyed silk and others dyed green for a very nice effect.



Yes, red runs and fades easily as do some other colors. Usually, however, once washed a few times the running strops.

[TortoiseAWD]

Originally posted by Jngrbrdman

I`ve never seen white microfibers so your only choice is pretty much to use colored ones. NeatItems (http://www.neatitems.com) can get white towels (at least they were able to get some for me a couple of years ago). IIRC, white wasn`t listed on their website; I had to ask about it.



Tort