How to Dry a Car after Washing It: An Expert Guide

We’ll keep this brief. Drying your car after a wash has several benefits. It prevents water spots and stains caused by salts, minerals, and other car detailing chemicals when the water evaporates. It also helps prevent the build-up of rust and corrosion caused by water seeping through small cracks or scratches in the paint, and ensures the spotless shine you were aiming to achieve.

Vehicle owners essentially have two choices when it comes to drying their car: blow drying or towel drying. Both work and have their relative advantages and disadvantages; however, realistically, most car owners are going to choose the towel-drying option as it is significantly more affordable and accessible. If you have a car blow dryer, please consult its manual for further usage instructions.

Tried and tested, towel drying involves absorbing moisture into a clean towel to wick water away from the car’s surface, protecting its paint and ensuring a spot-free finish. As straightforward as this might seem, choosing the right towels and using the right technique makes all the difference. 

There’s only one right answer here: dry your car with a clean microfibre towel after a wash. Don’t grab whatever rag is lying around, don’t reach for a kitchen towel because it’s convenient, and don’t share your shower towel with your car. While any of these would help wick away moisture, harsh fibres and embedded dust or other particles may damage or scratch your paint, and any chemical residue from the kitchen or bathroom will affect the final shine.

Microfibre towels offer several benefits that make them the only real choice. They are incredibly absorbent and effective at wicking moisture away from the surface for quick and easy drying; they’re ultra-soft, even when compared to softer natural fibres, for scratch-free cleaning and polishing; and they’re designed to trap dirt and debris within their fibres, reducing the risk of dragging contaminants across your paintwork. Combined with their durability and cost-effectiveness, microfibre cloths simply are unmatched when it comes to drying cars.

For the best possible results, we recommend a high GSM (600 GSM or higher) to dry the bulk of your car’s surface and smaller, lower GSM cloths for the interior or hard-to-reach places.

As a leading UK supplier of the highest quality microfibre products, we stock a broad range of car drying and detailing products. For the cleanest car around, we suggest drying your car with:

The right drying technique isn’t difficult to master, but it can make a noticeable difference to the final results. Ideally working in the shade to avoid water evaporating before you get to it, try to:

1. Have all your drying towels on hand before you start. On the right day, cars can dry pretty fast and you don’t want to waste time looking for your drying towels.

2. Dry from the top down to ensure that the water doesn’t drip onto already-dried areas.

3. Blot moisture into the towel as opposed to wiping from side to side to avoid swirl marks. A high-quality microfibre towel should instantly absorb almost any remaining moisture.

4. Work methodically, ensuring that you pay attention to areas where water may collect, such as around mirrors, door handles, fuel filler caps, and trim pieces.

5. Don’t walk away until the job is done. It shouldn’t take you more than 10 to 15 minutes to thoroughly dry your car; stick it out just a bit to consistently own the cleanest car on the street. 

Paragon Microfibre is a leading UK supplier of high-quality, ultra-absorbent, and long-lasting microfibre car detailing products. When our competitors' products start fraying, shedding lint, or losing their absorbency, Paragon Microfibre products keep working as advertised for up to 500 machine wash cycles. For the cleanest wash and the driest dry, check out our range of premium microfibre car detailing supplies.

You might also be interested in our blog post on Car Detailing Supplies in the UK