KungPaoSchwinn

Any kinds of those sweater/cotton type you buy for cleaning dirty parts, can you reuse them after washing them? in what detergent or something else?

Machka 

Buy**********?

KungPaoSchwinn

To clarify my question,what can i use as cleaning agent to wash these dirty greasy towels?

Machka 

Soap ... with degreasing capabilities.

But you do know that when T-shirts wear out, they make great 'shop towels', right?

Retro Grouch 

I just throw them away.

I've thought about washing them (when Mrs. Grouch isn't home) but I'm sure I'd eventually get caught. I'm thinking that new shop towels are less costly than a divorce.

Zan

i'd chuck 'em. rags aren't expensive. you might be paying more for the water, electricity, and soap than for new rags.

KungPaoSchwinn

Thanks, i might just use regular washing powder or the right mixture of simple green,soak for a while and rinse them, i bought a bag of these from auto zone,it contains different material,sweat shirt and poly/cotton as in T shirts,seems like a waste if i just throw them away after each use, i use them to clean off degreaser between cogs and are very useful for that, i just bought a home use park tool working stand and it makes working on bike so much easier,it was on sale for $105 shipped.

chicbicyclist

Detergent is better than soap.

I like the feel of old towels anyway so I always wash, not throw.

mikewille

Wash 'em at the laundromat so you dont trash your own washing machine with greasy residue

rogerstg

That way you can ruin a batch of someone elses clothes - what a tool.

CCrew

In the washing machine with Simple Green.

Wanderer

Dishwasher detergent - excellent degreasers. They will still be stained, but clean.

enine

For some reason wives don't like it when we wash grease rags or parts in their nice washing mahcine. I was tempted to keep my old one and hook it up in the garage, but it was kind of big, I need one of those tiny apartment style ones.

MinnBobber

Dawn dishwashing detergent works the best for me, after experimenting with different soaps.
They advertise that it cuts thru grease the best, and it does.

Esteban32696

I agree with the use of Dawn. Hot water & add a little Dawn at a time to the washer as it is agitating. Too much== a mess !
After finished, immediately use something [ Simple Green, Fantastic, 409 etc,] to spray & wipe down inside of washer & agitator. I also run an empty washer full of hot water, bleach, & Dawn, to clean the entire washer out.
I am single , so I don't have anyone except my dog to nag me about it, & he is pretty forgiving.

Read this link;
https://www.ibrrc.org/dawn_alice.html

enine

Sams club had an orange cleaner one time, sort of like simple green but much stronger. We used it all up and they haven;t had it anymore, anyone ever use it and remember what it was.

I still remember the time I pulled the intake manifold for my 88 chevy truck out of the dishwasher and my wife wasn't as impressed as I was as to how clean it came.

pipes

Just dio them like any layndry ! Of course it a leave gresse stains but there rags I go thru a few piles a week here in my shop and bag them up and wife washes them and theylast yrs . Once in a wahile one gets bad enought to just toss .

mikewille

(wink was included to indicate facetious sarcasm, lighten up)

joe_5700

Eaxactly, you can soak dirty towels in a solution of Dawn. If you have sopped up a motor oil spill or especially a gear oil spill (man that stuff stinks), you are best to toss the towel in the trash. I have thrown a few rags in the washer when I probably shouldn't have and never heard the end of it from my wife.

capejohn

I saw on tv the oxyclean would do the job. But I usually use detergent in a bucket.

Garfield Cat

No washing machine. That's why I get the two gallon container from Home Depot, near the paint section. Let the dirty shop towels soak over night in a solution. Take your pick. Try detergent, try Simple Green. I tried Simple Green first just to see how much of the grease and oil I can get out. Then I agitate by hand and soak a second 24 hours with laundry detergent with some bleach added in. Afterwards, I hang dry outside for the sun to do the rest.

I have both the 2 gallon and the 5 gallon

Wordbiker

I have my butler take them to the dry cleaners.

enine

I've found that they don't work as well as those blue paper shop towels for getting in tight places, anyone have suggestions for what to use in place of them, I hate to see so much of those just go in the trash. I've started wearing rubber gloves too so I don't make such a mess of me and everything but I hate disposing of those too.

Velo Dog

Sorry, rant time. Can't resist: Wash the frigging things, in the washing machine, with ordinary detergent, and use them until they fall apart.
We've all heard of the environment, right? Landfills, waste, needless consumption? And most of us understand that the purpose of a washing machine is to remove dirt, which is emulsified through the magic of detergent and carried to a sewage plant (in my case a septic tank, but you get the point), where it's rendered benign. Wash the rags. Reuse them. Explain to your wife that that's what the machine is FOR.
"But they don't look clean." They don't have to look clean. They're rags. Wash them. And ride on your patched tubes, too.

mantszchun

mine are basically my plain white tees that have gone yellow
since i don't really discard t shirts that often (if at all) there's only 2 turned into "rags" so far
i just soak them in hot water with washing up liquid