The Best Shop Towels to Battle Grease, Oil, and Grime

The Ultimate Buying Guide to the Best Shop Towels

If your job involves working with heavy machines, equipment, upholstery, and other related work, you’re going to need more than paper towels to keep your workshop clean. This is where shop towels come in. Durable, resilient, and far more heavy-duty than paper towels or regular rags, shop towels are designed to be hyper-absorbant to deal with all sorts of oil, fluids, and grime. They’re the ideal cleaning tool in a workshop environment, but not all shop towels are made the same. You’ll need to keep a few factors in mind when choosing the right shop towels to maintain a neat and tidy workshop. 

Factors to Consider When Buying Shop Towels

Quantity

You need to know the correct quantity you’ll need before placing an order for shop towels. For instance, someone buying for their company might want to buy in large amounts, while an individual buying for personal use will buy a few packs. It would be wasteful to buy beyond or below the numbers you will likely use. Most shop towels come in packs of different amounts ranging from 20 to 200. 

Re-usability

Disposable shop towels, also known as paper towels, can’t be used for the second time around. However, shop towels can be washed and reused for as many times as you want.  Their life longevity depends on how often you wash them and what sort of tasks you expose them to. Many shop towels come with the manufacturer’s instructions on how to wash them to ensure their longevity.

Color

Many buyers have their color preferences when buying products in the market. The most common colors of shop towels are red, white, or blue. White is the most popular color, but many mechanics opt for red, blue, or other colored options to keep the illusion of cleanliness as dirt and oil are less visible on non-white towels. 

Workplace

Depending on the equipment or machine you will be working on, the workplace plays an important role in buying shop towels. You can’t use kitchen towels for industrial design workshops because they won’t function well compared to using the right shop towel. You will need durable towels for cleaning machinery and tools. For instance, shop towels with soft scratch-resistant will be the best for washing cars.

Price range

Having an idea of your budget will determine the kind of shop towels you want to buy. Most shop towels are of better quality than regular rags, but some have special materials that make them more durable, as well as expensive. Buying in bulk is also more costly than buying in packs of 20 or 30. Determine the quality you want in your shower towels, as well as how many you can afford. 

Durability and material

Durability is another factor to check before buying shop towels. Cotton is the most robust material you can buy that can serve you for many years, while shop towels with polyester and cotton blends are also very durable. A 100% cotton shop towel is ideal because it offers optimum luxury to users, and is suitable for grease and oil spillage. Shop towels made from Egyptian cotton weigh 650GSM, making them thick to retain water.

Benefits of Using Shop Towels

Drying hands

The primary reason for buying shop towels is for cleaning hands. If you want your workplace to be hygienic, then shop towels must be part of your station to keep your hands clean after dealing with greasy substances. 

Clearing greases

Shop towels are crucial in cleaning varying grease spills and oil in different quantities. Since they are highly absorbent, they absorb moisture to ensure the surface they are cleaning is neat.

Wiping inks and solvents

Printing firms also use shop towels to erase unwanted ink spillage on their working surfaces. A company without this shop towel would have a hard time keeping a clean environment.

Home or office cleaning

Due to the versatility of shop towels, they can function inside the kitchen for cleaning, and help clean up sinks and other surfaces. Better yet, they’ll help anybody with cleaning anything.

How to Maintain Shop Towels

If you have been finding it difficult to remove grease or stains from shop towels, it is advisable to rinse them with clean, warm water to eliminate stains. Also, you can opt to use sodium phosphate and water to remove marks. Keeping and washing the shop towel alongside your clothes is not advisable because the stain could be transferred to other clothes, but it’s important to regularly clean your shop towels to ensure their longevity.