Well after one of my wash mitts died I started to look around for a recommended replacement – that lead me to a lot of threads were people had mentioned / complained that they fall to bits after a very short period of time ? That’s news to me … :?



I guess how they last comes down to how you look after them, I actually thought I was pretty harsh on mine and really didn’t care about them but in hindsight perhaps my care routine works well – my first Megs mitt that recently failed was bought when I joined this site (2004). The second Halfords mitt (used on wheels) is about to be retired but only because I snagged the hanging loop on a brake disk back plate and ripped the cuff, this mitt was also bought in 2004.



So how did they last so long ?



USE :



I don’t know if shampoo choice makes a difference but my mitts have only ever been used with Megs Gold Class, NXT, Ultimate and Turtle wax Zipp wax (for the wheels).



Not a lot more can be said on usage …











Note : the ‘new’ mitt was bought when I was in the states (winter 2004) as a spare. It was branded as turtle wax and has only recently made an appearance due to the demise of the Megs mitt.



RINSING



Chuck them on a grit guard and run an open hose through them to flush out residual shampoo and grit etc











DRYING :



Roll them up and wring them out (carefully), just to remove the excess water :







Unwrap it, and put it on your hand. With your free hand, kind of spike your fingers and get jiggy with it across the surface using a fast hand movement - similar to a pubescent male watching his first blue movie :becky: :







This removes a lot of water and fluffs them up again :











STORAGE :



Hang them up to dry :











Note that since the fatal rip the grey one now lives on the top of the bin.



You have probably spotted that they are hung up outside behind the house – That’s where they live, 365 days a year, regardless of the weather. The fence doesn’t get any direct sunlight but they will dry in a day (in summer) and freeze solid in winter. Most times they are a little damp, but not sodden. If they dry completely, the lining goes a stiff but it softens virtually instantly when thrown in the wash bucket.



So that’s it, no washing machines, no fancy chemicals, no turning inside out, no grooming etc and very little time spent caring for them.



I think the age of the mitts proves it works for me (in our crappy UK climate) so I hope this helps others get a bit more life out of theirs.



I have just put a bench in my garage so I will put some hooks on it and try the news ones in there (same process otherwise though). It’s a detached unheated garage so I think it should be OK, any sign of early failure though and they will be swinging on the fence again …



For info my new ones will be double sided thumb less mitts, I seem to like these best. They hold a lot of water and you can quickly flip them round on your hand (without removing them or using your other hand) to give you a clean side and reduce the number of trips to the wash bucket – just watch out for the hanging tab on the second side. I am actually going to chop the hanging tags of the new ones and sew longer tags on the inside so I can still hang them up but they won’t snag on anything and they are hidden from contact with the paintwork.



WD