Just like with computers, cell phones, and so many other pieces of modern technology, most people use microfiber without the slightest clue of how it actually works.
My name is Melissa Homer, and as a professional cleaning expert, I have researched and tested thousands of cleaning tools and chemicals from manufacturers across the globe during my 18 years as a cleaning consultant for one of the largest residential cleaning franchises in North America.
In the next 10 minutes, I will transform you into one of the elite few that truly understands WHY microfiber is the ultimate cleaning tool, WHAT to do to get the most out of it, and most importantly, HOW to avoid being ripped off by cleaning con artists!
Before diving into microfiber, you need to understand the main mechanics of how cleaning cloths actually work to know why microfiber is so special. When you spray down any cleaning liquid and wipe up the dirt with any towel or mop, the dirt always gets lodged on the surface, tucking in all of the corners and pockets of the material created by the weave pattern and thickness of the fibers.
The liquid is continuously absorbed into the center of the fibers, with the dirt remaining outside. This is true for cotton, cellulose sponge, chamois, microfiber, and more.
Simply put, it’s the surface area of a material that controls how much dirt you remove, not the absorbance in the center of the fibers. This means you can have cleaning materials made with thick, absorbent fibers but hardly leave any pockets and corners for dirt to nestle into.
This creates the illusion that they are cleaning well because they soak up a bunch of water, but they actually leave a ton of dirt and soap behind because it all falls back out as the water is absorbed.
So many terrible old cleaning tools, like sponge mops and cotton string mops, were used to trick our grandmothers by bragging about absorbency, never admitting they lifted mostly water, not dirt and germs.
This is why they had to constantly rinse and wring their mops because the dirt would fall out almost immediately, and they had to drop it in the bucket before it dropped on their floors!
Just from reading the name, you probably already figured out that microfiber is made of tiny fibers and that those fibers being small must do something cool to help it clean better. If you are like most people, though, you never really gave it more thought than that. Unfortunately, this surface-level understanding leaves you vulnerable to cleaning quacks trying to use fancy-sounding science half-truths to sell you inferior products for jacked-up prices, so it’s critical that we arm you with real science NOW!
Microfiber is a synthetic fabric, usually a blend of polyester and nylon (polyamide), with ultra-fine fibers that are so thin it takes 100 microfibers to equal the thickness of 1 human hair and to equal 1 cotton fiber! Why do the fibers being that tiny matter? The answer is surface area, slots, and friction.
As we explained in #1, the surface area is what actually determines how much dirt any cleaning cloth can hold. Compared to a cotton towel, inch per inch, microfibers produce over 10 times more surface area, creating % more spots for dirt to get lodged.
Microfibers are also shredded along their sides, known as split strands, which create even more slots for dirt to wedge in. The shredding of split-strand microfibers does so much more than trap dirt. This shredding also increases friction, so it is harder for dirt to slip back out once it has been trapped.
Shredding also increases the fibers' absorption, so they can hold seven times their weight in water while simultaneously making it easier for water to be released. This takes far less effort to wring out and dries much faster than cotton. The fibers' shape even creates an electrostatic charge, attracting dust to the fabric before you even move a muscle.
Net, net microfiber grabs more dirt and holds onto it tighter than any other material, so you can clean with fewer strokes and leave less residue behind, so everything shines with less effort. This is why microfiber excels at cleaning shiny surfaces like stainless steel, glass, furniture, and hard floors, since locking in dirt and soap residue means there’s nothing left behind to streak!
So what does all of this science actually do to make cleaning easier for you? Testing has proven that cotton mops only pick up 67% of dirt and germs, dropping an abysmal 33% of it back on your floors as you work. In comparison, microfiber’s increased surface area traps 99.54% of dirt and bacteria, with almost no measurable re-deposit!
Same with absorbancy, where microfiber can clean four times more surface area than cotton before needing to be wrung out! All of this means that when you use microfiber, you can clean deeper and faster, with less effort, reducing strokes, rinsing, and wringing.
Another advantage of microfiber is its durability. Microfiber products are machine washable and can withstand hundreds of washes, with some premium products like Microfiber Wholesale’s towels lasting 300+ washes without losing performance.
By comparison, cotton mops and rags usually only last around 30 washes before throwing in the towel, especially when used with bleach or other harsher cleaners that break down cotton far faster than microfiber. Simply put, microfiber lasts hundreds of uses longer, so you save incredible amounts of money not buying constant replacements.
Microfiber even saves the environment versus its old fashion counterparts. Not only do you avoid buying constant replacement towels and mop heads that just get thrown in landfills, but microfiber also drastically reduces the water and soap it takes to clean!
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Testing has shown that traditional cotton cleaning tools need a shocking 105 gallons per 100 patient rooms, but microfiber only needs 5 gallons! When you do the math across all the properties cleaned in a state, the water waste is absolutely staggering, never mind the carbon footprint and pollution of all that excess cleaning chemical bottles.
To put it bluntly, microfiber lets you clean better with less work and less harm to the environment and your bank account!
As we explained in #3, Microfiber’s unique fiber structure picks up more dirt and holds onto it longer. This can sound like a bunch of science flim-flam, though, until you really do the math on the labor savings.
Multiple studies have shown that microfiber can reduce cleaning labor by 20% versus traditional cleaning towels and mops. All those fewer strokes and less wringing really add up! Even this 20% number can still feel theoretical though, especially as a home consumer, until you pull out your calculator.
Whether you clean for yourself or as a professional, your time is worth money. At home, every moment you waste cleaning longer than you should has to be compensated for by processed foods, take out, daycare, less exercise, less time with family, less leisure, and so on.
The average person spends almost 90 minutes a day cleaning, and while not all of that is spent wiping floors and counters, a lot of it is. Running the numbers conservatively, if microfiber cut overall cleaning time only by 10%, everyone would get back 55 hours of free time per year!
Just think about how much more home cooking, quality time with loved ones, exercise, and more you could do with 55 daytime hours back. Think about the savings in the reduced reliance on convenience foods and other outsourcing tools everyone uses because they’re too busy and exhausted.
Microfiber already pays for itself with reduced replacements, but when you add in reduced soap, water, hours of labor, and convenience products, the savings are shocking!
If you clean professionally, the math is even more cut and dry but no less staggering! The average professional cleaner makes around $15 per hour. A high-quality microfiber towel costs around $1.15 and lasts 300 washes, so $0.004 cents per clean. That means if microfiber reduces a professional’s labor by 10%, the business saves $1.50, and the towel pays for itself on its first clean.
So now that you know how microfiber works and how it can increase cleanliness while saving money and energy, let’s help you identify the scammers and pick the best value microfiber for your dollar. There are swindlers on both the upper and lower ends of the microfiber market, so don’t think buying pricey products will save you!
Like Goldilocks and the Three Bears, you will find that some microfiber is too cheap, others too exploitative, while the good ones are just right. Let’s expose their lies one at a time.
First is the Bargain Basement Barkers, who pretend that microfiber is a commodity like sugar, saying that every towel performs the same, so you should just buy the lowest price. This is patently false.
Every microfiber cloth has different amounts of microfiber woven in, making it more or less densely packed. This density is measured in grams per square inch (gsm).
Quality microfiber towels like Microfiber Wholesale have ~330gsm, while economy brands often have as little as 200gsm, which is 50% less microfiber! That means 50% less dirt grabbing and labor savings, but that’s not even the worst of it.
The biggest trick of cheap microfiber is inferior, unshredded fibers. As already mentioned, split-strand shredded fibers are what give microfiber its best superpowers, increasing absorption, reducing dry time, creating friction, and making static electricity to attract and trap dirt.
Unscrupulous companies use unshredded fibers because it’s way cheaper, and they’re counting on their customers not knowing why shredding matters! Poor dupes are basically cleaning with an over-glorified polyester shirt and wondering why microfiber doesn’t work as well as everyone promised. It’s awful.
On the flip side are the Half-Science Hucksters, making wild claims through the power of lies of omission to convince innocent people to pay WAY more than they should for towels that really do half of what they promised.
The biggest lie of omission you’ll see in this group is implying features that are common to all microfiber are exclusive to their products.
They’ll brag about their towels picking up 99.5% of dirt and bacteria as if it were a new advancement they alone achieved when it’s actually true of all good quality split-strand microfiber. By implying it’s a feature unique to them, they can falsely justify charging 10x more per towel than competitors that do the exact same thing! It’s dastardly, but it’s not half as bad as their worst lie.
The most unscrupulous microfiber lie from Half-Science Hucksters is their false promises of germ-killing towels powered by the magical properties of silver ions. These companies, through carefully selected vague wording, let customers and their own salespeople falsely believe for YEARS that their magical towels woven with silver could kill germs on surfaces as you cleaned with them.
In reality, silver ions can kill germs, BUT only if they make direct continuous contact with the bacteria for several hours! Germs that land in between ions or were hidden inside small globs of organic matter inside the towel were unaffected.
This means that the silver ions did zippitydooda to improve microfiber’s germ-killing abilities while cleaning surfaces, and at most, it just helped kill some extra bacteria in the dirty towels when they were left out to dry.
This lie wasn’t just sneaky. It was downright dangerous, as swindled customers used their overpriced dirty towels over and over based on false assurances of germ control until they got themselves sick! It wasn’t till the pandemic that these types of companies were forced to more accurately word their claims so as to keep their customers from trying to fight a deadly disease with a towel that had nothing more than an overpriced odor control treatment.
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