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 The History of Microfibers: 

Although microfibers are gaining popularity in the United States, microfiber cleaning products are still considered, "brand new, exciting new technology, and revolutionary!"

In Europe however, businesses and families have been using microfiber cleaning products for about twenty years. Europe has always been ahead of the United States in regards to implementing new cleaning technology and environmentally friendly cleaning products.

The JanitorialStore is a great source of affordable products for people in the cleaning business.

 What is Microfiber? 

Microfiber is a man-made product, that when manufactured for cleaning applications, combines two fibers - polyester and polyamide (a nylon by-product). The two fibers are then "split" and formed into a blend of 80 percent polyester (the scrubbing and cleaning fiber), and 20 percent polyamide (the absorbing and quick drying fiber).

There are approximately 200,000 microfibers in one square inch of a microfiber towel. A single strand of microfiber is so small that it is almost invisible to the naked eye. Consider this -- if you took the fibers from one square yard of a microfiber cleaning cloth and laid them end-to-end, they would reach from Minneapolis, Minnesota to Miami, Florida!!

 Styles of Microfibers: 

Microfibers are available in several different styles. Each style offers different features and benefits. Ultra microfibers are the highest quality microfiber available, due to the use of superior quality raw materials used in the manufacturing process.

Two styles that are most common are the terry and suede styles. The terry style is used for general cleaning purposes. The suede style is used for polishing smooth surfaces such as glass, mirrors, eyeglasses, CDs, computer screens, and TV screens.

Both of these styles can be used wet or dry, without soap or chemicals (chemicals CAN be used with microfiber, but they're usually not needed). Unlike ordinary cleaning cloths that just push soil and dust around, microfibers actually "scrape" the soil from the surface, and then stores the soil particles in the towel until it is cleaned.

It is best to use the suede towel dry to avoid streaks. With both of these towel styles, when using wet, it is important to always ring the towel as dry as possible. If a microfiber towel is dripping water, it is too wet, and could leave streaks on the surface you are cleaning. It is recommended that when using a microfiber towel wet, you follow up with a dry towel.

 Buyer Beware: 

Some of the new microfibers on the market today are being made from non-split microfiber yarn. This refers to the splitting of the polyester from the polyamide during the manufacturing process. When this step is removed from the manufacturing process, the resulting product loses over 1/2 of it's cleaning and absorbing ability. This means that the cloth will clean poorly, often streaking, and absorbing little.

Also, some manufacturers are using cheaper yarn, which means the cloth will develop weak spots, so the yarn will eventually break and cause holes in the cloth.

Look at the composition of the microfiber products you buy. Some products on the market are not 100% microfiber. They may have 30% "fill", which helps manufacturers to keep their costs down, but results in a poor quality product.