$4.99 Shipping over $49 w/coupon DI499 | 3,000+ Products | 95 Brands | 12,000+ Reviews | 1,850+ Detailing Articles
Close Menu
Clean ⋅ Shine ⋅ Protect
Cookies are disabled in your web browser. To shop with Detailed Image, please turn cookies on and then refresh the page.

Product Review: DI Microfiber Autofiber Zero Edge Towel

by

I recently received a few of these towels for testing and I must say I’m extremely impressed.  As always, here’s the product description before my opinions and thoughts:

“The DI Microfiber Autofiber Zero Edge Towel is an outstanding towel that will help you with virtually any detailing task but it specializes in safely removing excess product from the paint. All microfiber is not created equal and this towel is the total package as it looks great, feels great and works even better. This towel comes in slightly heavier than most towels at 360 grams and the ultra soft fibers make it perfect for even the most delicate finishes. It has virtually unlimited uses but the edgeless design makes it perfect for removing clay lube, polish, glaze, sealant or wax from the paint. The fibers are short to medium in length so they are highly effective at not only removing sealants and waxes but also the stubborn polishes. Modern day towels have paint safe trim on the edge however they generally don’t help collect the particles on the surface. By removing the traditional edges you create a towel that is completely dedicated to cleaning and the trim is no longer a hindrance you have to avoid. With the Edgeless Towel you will clean the surface with less wipes and less effort which means you are working faster and more efficiently. So when you want an incredibly soft towel combined with a state of the art design the DI Microfiber Autofiber Zero Edge Towel is the one to choose!”

The DI Microfiber Autofiber Zero Edge Towel, as you can already imagine, is an edgeless microfiber towel designed to eliminate the worry and fuss that comes with pretty much any regular microfiber towel.  As its description states, the Zero Edge Towel features an edgeless design that is not only safer for the paint over its entire surface area, but also utilizes that edge to help in removing any residue during a detail job.

Right off the bat, the thing that greatly impressed me and something I really appreciated was the tag placement on the towel.

As you can see, the tag is a simple sticker attached to the inside of the towel.  Typically however, the tags are sewed into the edges of microfiber towels, which creates a couple issues I noticed over time.  One being that it’s necessary to tear off the tag, usually resulting in some of the fibers being torn from the edge, thus ruining a part of the edge on the towel.  Second, regardless of how careful you are tearing the tag from the microfiber towel, there will always be some leftover material from the tag where it was torn.  That creates the possibility of this area of the edge eventually scratching paint.  Yes the tag is sewn pretty well under the edge, but there’s always the chance this leftover material will reach the paint at the worst possible time.  Why not just cut it?  Well unless you have some very tiny scissors or a laser to cut it down completely, there will almost always be some tag material left where it was removed.  While we rarely see this happen and obviously professionals and enthusiasts alike are using edged towels on a daily basis with no ill effects, it’s definitely an unnecessary risk.  I believe the stick-on tag is something all towels across all manufacturers should utilize.  Not only does it leave the towel fully intact with no danger of scratching paint, but it makes it very easy to remove the tag before first use.  Moving on…

In the photo below, you can see a good comparison of the DI Microfiber Autofiber Zero Edge Towel and the All Purpose Towel.

Here we get a better perspective of how the new edgeless towel compares to the typical microfiber towels.  As you can see, while the All Purpose Towel has an edge that’s well sewn and poses no risk to damaging paint, the Zero Edge Towel’s edge is just as plush and practical as the rest of it, giving it the edge (no pun intended) over the competition.  Speaking of plush, here’s another photo to show the quality and weight of the Zero Edge Towel.

We can clearly see here that the Zero Edge Towel is a bit more plush than the already nice All Purpose Towel.  Another thing to notice is that different length fibers the Zero Edge Towel has between its two sides.  It’s always good to see a towel utilize both sides in such a way because there’s a use in detailing for both the longer and shorter fibers.

As you can imagine, the side with the longer fibers is ideal for removing polish residue, wax, etc.  It is much more absorbent and grabs much more residue from the paint than shorter fibers.  Also, let’s not forget the main characteristic of the Zero Edge Towel, which is the fibers extending all the way to the end of the towel, creating more surface area to collect any residue from the paint.  I find the shorter fibers great for tasks such as quick detail spray wipedowns or cleaning glass because these fibers don’t absorb as much as the longer fibers, leaving a nice streak-free finish after only 1-2 wipes.  In addition, this side is also  great for removing polish or wax residue from the paint.

To conclude, with this review I surely don’t intend to put down regular microfiber towels as something bad or unsafe.  Rather, I wish to give the new DI Microfiber Autofiber Zero Edge Towel the recognition it truly deserves.  It’s a great towel in every sense of the word and in every category we can think of for rating microfiber towels.  It’s plush, has both longer and shorter fibers, comes with the stick-on tag that’s quickly and safely removed and the edgeless design makes it stand out both practically and aesthetically.  At the end of the day, this is another one of those products which will be the next best thing in my arsenal, so I’ll be sure to stock up asap and add to the few I have been testing.

As always thanks for reading and I encourage everyone here to comment below on their experience with the Zero Edge Towel.

Ivan Rajic LUSTR Deatil
Ivan Rajic
LUSTR Detail
257 N Woodwork Lane
Palatine IL 60067
LUSTRDetail.com
Facebook | Instagram

22 comments on Product Review: DI Microfiber Autofiber Zero Edge Towel

  1. Jon says:

    Ivan,

    Nice write-up! How would you say this new Zero Edge towel stacks up to the DI Microfiber Ultra Plush Two Sided Towel (approx. 530 grams??), which sells for $1.00 more?

    Also, if using this Zero Edge towel for a ‘waterless wash’ (regardless of product brand), would you use the short nap or the long nap side?

    Thank you.

    Jon

    • Ivan Rajic says:

      Thanks Jon,

      First off, unfortunately I don’t have enough experience with the Ultra Plush towel to give you a good comparison. I have a few older ones and I know they’re very good paint towels, I just happen to use something else for the most part. I do remember them as very plush and a great tool with the two different sides, so it would probably be best to get one of each and compare for yourself. That way you know what works best for you.

      As for the waterless wash, I’m not sure exactly how you plan on using the towel. Do you mean using it as a wash media, to dry, or to simply wipe off the paint?

      • Jon says:

        Thanks for getting back to me, Ivan. By ‘waterless wash’, I specifically meant spraying one of the produccts specifically marketed for such a task (e.g., Ultima Waterless Wash Plus) directly on a panel, spraying a bit on a folded microfiber (to prime), then swiping the panel in one single direction.I would think the long nap side would be good since it has more room to trap dirt.

        • Ivan Rajic says:

          Jon,

          This towel, with the long nap side, would be good for such a task, IF you had to do it. I’m completely against any paint wipedowns as it will surely cause swirls sooner or later, depending on what you’re wiping off, how gentle your technique and softness of the paint. I’m a big advocate of touching the car as little as possible and when you are touching it, you should be washing it.

          In short, I don’t like to wipe cars with any waterless products or quick detailers unless the car is freshly washed and I’m simply removing some leftover water marks, etc. Otherwise it’s too much of a risk in my opinion.

          As I said above though, if you did have to do it, you have the right tool and technique in mind.

          Hope that helps,
          Ivan

          • Jon says:

            Thanks again, Ivan. Maybe that’s why I have swirls in my Jet black BMW paint even thought I use a quality MF chenille mit for ‘careful’ washing?

            Tell me this, what uses, other than drying, would you suggest for a bunch of Waffle Weave MF’s (approx 20×20 in size)? Yep, I realize this is a tangent, but still related to MF towels.

            Regards,

  2. Jon says:

    I forgot to ask, why is it called DI Microfiber “Autofiber”? What does “autofiber” imply?

    Thanks again.

  3. Greg @ DI says:

    The Autofiber label is a brand of microfiber towels we are carrying that is brand new. They will specialize in high end microfiber products for automobiles. So far everything we have tested has been top notch and we’re excited to offer more of the Autofiber products going forward. – Greg @ Detailed Image

  4. kyle says:

    I feel i love w that all purpose mircofiber towel but hate the edges. i feared it would damage the paint but i do not have soft paint so it was ok. my question is i loved the mircofiber all purpose towels cause they wiped off wax sealant very well and do not leave fibers behind, does DI Microfiber Autofiber Zero Edge Towel leave lent or fibers behind? from my experience the all purpose towels do not from what i saw.

    • Ivan Rajic says:

      Hi Kyle,

      I too like the all purpose DI towels and these are even better. I have used them mostly for polish and/or wax removal and they worked great. Also, I haven’t seen them lint at all and I’m sure they won’t for a long time to come.

  5. kyle says:

    Well i for sure will be picking up some of these soon. the all purpose towels were my work horse towels for a while when i was a mircofiber noob lol. excited to try these out.

  6. Ivan Rajic says:

    Jon,

    Yes, I would bet on it. Jet black BMW paint is one of the worst paints you can encounter (both to detail and to maintain, I’ve been on both sides many times!) and wiping them down like that will cause swirls 99.9% of the time.

    As for the waffle weave towels, I never liked to use them for anything but drying, so that’s what my towels do. I’m sure you can find other uses, but with towels like this zero edge mf towel, I don’t see why you would.

    • Jon says:

      Ivan,

      Awesome response! Thanks again and keep the articles coming! I love reading the stuff, you, Todd, Eric, Rasky and the rest of the DI Blog autors post! In fact, I wish I got an email when new topics are available. Hopefully that will be future feature for DI.

      Regards,

      Jon

  7. Jon says:

    That’s right, Ivan. No distractions during Ivan-time reading 🙂 Thanks for all of your articles…I am playing catch up with some of your older ones.

  8. Brian says:

    Ivan, I too love these towels. I agree, the Zero edge gives you more surface area and by rotating/folding the towel, I think you can do a job possibly using less of these than other microfibers. The light blue color also makes it easy to see when its time to grab a new one and they clean up really nicely with CG Microfiber wash. I throw them in the wash on hot and soak them. They come out clean and soft.

    So here’s a question for you: I normally use the longer, softer nap to remove wax/polish. The other side of the towel, like you said, has a shorter nap. I saw you said you CAN use it to remove wax, but would you normally? In other words, do you feel the shorter nap is a potential hazard for causing more swirls at all? I am very curious as the shorter nap is still pretty soft. Would you use the back side in emergencies ONLY or would you have no problem using either side equally? Thanks for the write-up, it originally sold me on them!

    • Ivan Rajic says:

      Hi Brian, glad I could help!

      You can surely use either side for wax/polish removal. I simply like the side with the longer nap when doing correction polishing and dealing with aggressive polishes, because I feel that the longer nap side helps with containing the abrasive residue rather than rubbing it on the paint. This is all very microscopic so it probably makes no difference if you’re following up with a finishing step, but I like to do it that way anyway. On the other hand, I use both sides when removing wax and even like the shorter side more as I feel sometimes the longer side gets saturated with wax and smears it around.

      In short, either side is fine doing any work, but since you’re already thinking about it I would say go ahead and experiment with it a bit and see how it works for you.

      Hope that helps!

  9. Vinny.P says:

    Sorry for the almost year old question lol… And Thanks for the review as with all of your reviews great work much appreciated/respected! I have a question about the edges alot of the edgeless towels I’ve seen are hot wire cut. Where this leaves a slightly hard edge do to the fibers being melted when there being cut do these have this issue?

    • Ivan Rajic says:

      No such issues with these towels Vinny. I’m not sure exactly how they cut the edges, but as you can see in the photos I took, they’re as soft as the rest and have the soft fibers all around.

Leave a Reply to kyle Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Commenting Rules

  • Try to keep your comments as relevant as possible.
  • Don't be abusive: no personal attacks or any other nastiness.
  • Feel free to express your opinion, but do so in an eloquent way.

If you do not respect these rules your comments may be edited or even deleted.

My Offers
25 Off Brand Sale
Free Stuff
Quantity Discounts - Buy More, Save More!
Big Discounts While Supplies Last - Clearance Items - Shop Now
Close overlay