Sure, you could just let your car bake in the sun after washing it. But if you want to avoid water spots, you can dry your car's paint and glass with one of the best car drying towels. You'll do yourself a favor by ensuring that your car is spotless and shiny after wiping it down. Below, we'll share our top picks for car drying towels on any budget, as well as some general car care tips. Time to leave those bath towels and cleaning rags behind.
We need to talk about The Absorber. This is a synthetic chamois drying towel product from CleanTools that does a downright amazing job after a car wash.
You can use the chamois like a cotton towel to manually dry off smaller areas, or you can spread it across a larger part of the car -- like the roof or hood -- and drag it to suck up residual water without swirl marks. In both instances, the absorbency of the chamois cloth leaves a nearly dry surface that should take just a few minutes to totally clear up before you clay, wax or just call it a day.
The Absorber makes drying your car surface a simple process. It should be on your shopping list.
$15 at Advance Auto Parts$11 at Amazon
Not into chamois? That's not a problem because we also love Meguiar's X2000 Water Magnet towel. It's a traditional microfiber towel but it works like magic to leave your car's surface super dry after washing. What's also great about standard car drying towels is that you can just machine-wash them in liquid detergent to rid them of dirt and debris every so often. As long as they don't get trashed, this is a microfiber towel you can use to dry your car for a long time -- and it works darn well.
$7 at AmazonWe already gave our top pick to The Absorber, but we need to give some love to one of our other favorite dryer chamois: the Mighty Cleaner Shammy.
This chamois cloth does a great job picking up water and not leaving much moisture behind. The company also offers its product in a two-pack, which makes it a better deal if you want a couple of these around for drying duties. I like to have one per car hanging around the house.
$14 at AmazonIf you want more than one car drying towel, here's a two-pack of great towels. Not only do SHSCLY Microfiber Drying Towels work well to dry cars off, they're also really big: They measure 29 by 33 inches, so you can cover a lot of ground. We also love how much water these microfiber towels hold before you need to wring them out.
$30 at AmazonSuppose you have a pickup truck or an SUV that requires a much larger microfiber towel. How about a 24-by-60 inch towel that sucks up water from car paint like a pro? That'd be the Relentless Drive Car Drying Towel, and this five-pack can likely serve as all the drying towels you'll ever need.
$43 at AmazonThis microfiber cloth is a little smaller than our top pick. But Chemical Guys' Woolly Mammoth towel promises to dry a whole car in one shot, and it does. That's why we think it's a solid choice as a runner-up for big vehicles. Nobody wants to be swapping through tons of towels when drying their car off, and the Woolly Mammoth keeps things simple.
$17 at AmazonNot everyone has a ton of cash to spend on a car drying towel, and that's totally fine. We said there was something for everyone. There is: Mothers Waffle Weave Microfiber Car Drying Towel is a great choice as a cheap pick for a car drying towel. It does exactly what it's supposed to do after a car wash, and we can't fault it for anything at this price point. Yes, one of our picks is actually cheaper, but the value of having two waffle weave towels at this price to dry paint and glass made us want to place this product here.
$10 at AmazonIt's basic, and that's OK. This two-pack of chamois from the Amazon Basics brand works very well as a glass and paint dryer for the price. The towels aren't as usable as our other chamois picks, in our experience, but if you need a cheap chamois, look no further.
$11 at AmazonAll of these picks will ensure you're left with a bone-dry car -- you can't go wrong. So choose your preference and keep those cars clean!
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