hello which drying towel should I buy?

Hi,
Haven't tried Big Blue. I have been using the Griots synthetic Chamois in combination with a California water blade and I'm more than pleased with this. Easy to clean with regular chamois cleaner too. A quick detail spray after drying ensures no water spots as well.

http://www.griotsgarage.com/catalog.jsp?L1=L1_1000&L2=L2_1003&SKU=15400

Enjoy!

I've tried P21S, Absorber, and a variety of cotton and microfiber towels. My vote for the best drying towel goes to the Big Blue from CMA. Griot's sells a similar product called the Micro Fiber Drying Towel, but the Big Blue is slightly less expensive.

If price is a concern, CMA recently started offering a Little Blue towel. It's supposed to be a smaller version of Big Blue at a lower price. I have a couple on order (should be delivered today or tomorrow). The Big Blue can easily dry two small cars without wringing. I'm hoping to find that the Little Blue will be able to dry one small car without wringing. I'll post a reply to this thread after I receive my shipment.

Little Blue

The BBT beats anything else I've used to dry the car.. and I've tried a ton. awd, I love what you wrote in the link below..... "It puts the absorber & P21S to shame" LOL!!:

CMA Big Blue Towel

I thought the absorber and P21S absorbed water pretty well, but they were both way too 'clingy' on my paint....made them a little difficult to work with.

The BBT is obviously my favorite....next in line would be bath sized cotton towels, then the Wizards Water Bandit, the Absorber & finally P21S (too small!).

Little Blue Towel

I received my new Little Blue Towels and tried them out today. The LBT is slightly less than half the size of a BBT. I was able to completely dry my Mazda Miata with one LBT, but my 330xi was a bit too large for one LBT to handle without wringing. If used in conjunction with a California Water Blade, the Little Blue should be sufficient for drying a 3-series. Otherwise, the Big Blue may be a better choice.

I absolutely love the Big Blue Drying Towel. I bought one just to give it a try and it is the best. Actually, I bought two and gave one to my Dad. He was equally impressed. So, we ordered Four more. Now, I get two, my Dad gets two and my brother gets two.

Well worth the money. Now, if we could just get them. They are still on BackOrder. Fortunately, the guys at CMA are absolutely great to work with.

Towels

Some observations:

Cotton Towels Of any type will introduce microscratches into your clear coat. Even top quality towels will do this. The darker your car, the more obvious the scratches.

The Absorber I've got two. Junk.

Griot's Microfiber Towels Lint like mad. Lowest quality of any of my huge collection of microfiber towels.

THE GOOD NEWS

I've been sent some evaluation towels that are not only high quality (don't lint, bleed when washed or come with tags that ruin the stitching) but they're cheap. 2-3 of these 24x24 towels will dry your whole car (after using a CWB). Go to:

PackShak

--gary

Gary (and others)-

I've been really happy w/ your suggestion to try the Meguiar's MF towels- they've held up well over about 10 washes so far. No lint problems yet. The only annoying thing is that they come w/ those stupid tags sewn in. I don't really know what these manufacturers are thinking when they sew those stupid nylon tags onto products that are expressly designed to be used on a painted surface.

For drying, i've found that california water blade followed w/ a P21S drying towel works well without scratching. Even the P21S towel does a good job by itself (yes, you do have to wring it out a few times during the course of drying the car). Admittedly, both of these options are a little scary because they have the potential to drag dirt across the finish and scratch it--but i honestly haven't had that happen-- but with cotton I got scratches all the time.

I agree w/ the poster who advised not using cotton towels. I know some people are religious about only using cotton but I just don't get it. I bought top quality made-in-USA white bath towels and washed them several times in Ivory detergent prior to using them on my black car. Thanks to that mistake, my finish is covered in micro-scratches-- and I still have white lint stuck in the sunroof felt. The products that I now used haven't caused any new scratches and don't lint. Plus, I find that i'm able to dry my car much faster. ust say no to cotton-- synthetics rule!