Shammies are really horrendous car washing tools, especially for the BRP models. Can you say s-t-r-e-a-k-s?! I finally gave in and decided to use the oldest, softest, cotton bath towel I had to dry the car with. I'll live with the consequences for a better job.

Has anyone found a better alternative for shammies?

Chamois. Shammy is the bastardized spelling... it's like Tonite instead of tonight.
tonite \Ton"ite\, n. [Cf.L. tonare to thunder.] An explosive compound; a preparation of gun cotton.
That one really hacks me off.



Use The Absorber (tm)
It works.

Get a synthetic chamois.

As for the "streak marks," they aren't half as evident after you wax your car.

SHAMMY, you shmuck, is listed in the dictionary as a variant of "chamois". Learn the topic before you criticize others.

From www.dictionary.com

:sham·my (shm)
n.
Variant of chamois



No soup for you.

chamois are excelent for dryin the car....the synth ones anyway

just gotta use a bunch of them, they hold like 10x they're own weight

thing is they dont' weigh much

but just like like 3 of em to dry off the car

let it air dry a little first

shammy aint in my world book dictionary so they probably made it a word cause people cant spell it the right damn way

edit: and as for the usefulness of chamois, they work, but not great alone. i personally use a synthetic one, the absorber to be exact, in conjuction with a cotton towel. i use the absorber to soak up the water, then i use the cotton towel to wipe whatever streaks are left. works much faster then cotton towels alone and it saves me towels

absorber is the shít :)

...and I suppose you're going to tell me that a towel somehow IS NOT going to leave streak marks, lint marks, and doesn't wring out like a good synth chamois.


Umm, OK, I think NOT!


I use a rayon chamois...the super soaker...works great!


Skylab™

whooaaaa there cowboy, this is gett'n ugly in here. Did yo prep the chamie or however you spell it, I think your suppose to let them sit in a bucket of water overnight or something then let it dry and it should work..

why dont you try the california water blade, I hear it works great!

NOW PLAY NICE!

Jay McDade

shammies are amazing!! get the ones u see the olyimpc swimmers using. they do a faboulous job! have never had a streask.. plus i wax when i am all done washing my car so no streaks anyways!
Mike

you forgot they are expensive for good ones. not that i buy em i just see em for sale for too much
brat

"...and I suppose you're going to tell me that a towel somehow IS NOT going to leave streak marks,"

No streaks with the cotton towel. Strike one.


"lint marks,"

There is some lint towards the end. However, my California Dust Buster takes care of that. Strike two.


"and doesn't wring out like a good synth chamois."

I never said I was limited to one towel per dry. It takes roughly 2 1/2 on the contrary. Strike three.



"Umm, OK, I think NOT!"

You're out!



"I use a rayon chamois...the super soaker...works great!"

That's great. Now you can apply it in the showers while the rest of the team is still playing ball, Champ.:lol:

isidori, you fail to mention several things...

a cotton towel will leave streaks when wet. sure you can just go get a new one but i have found that cotton towels perform best when slightly damp, so every time i grab a new towel, i have to dampen it a little before putting it to use.

putting a handheld vacuum cleaner such as the dust buster up to your car is not a very smart thing to do if you wish to protect the paint of that car. with that out of the way, i'm going to now assume that that was just a typo and you actually meant to say the california car duster. in that case, the car duster does in fact leave tiny scratches in the paint. its not really a problem if you wax your car but it does make scratches nonetheless. i know, i have several and have witness the phenomenon on several cars. heck, i live a couple miles away from the place that makes them and have seen it happen there too. (but i'd also like to add the scratches are small. tiny enough to be hidden unless your looking for them)

chamois are cost efficient in the long run. reusability + easy maintenance make them ideal for long term use. sure cotton towels work great and can easily be replaced, but all that time washing them and getting new ones gets tedious after a while when there are easier solutions out there. heck, i already hate washing my clothes cause its so damn annoying and time consuming, so washing extra towels seems like an uneeded burden to me. yes i am a lazy bastard, but i'd rather call it being efficient. i try to conserve all the atp i can :p that and i hate towels cause they involve more physical work to dry the car. you gotta do all that rubbing with the towel to make sure it leaves no streaks. with a chamois, just throw it on and take it off. if theres any streaks, i just repeat the process except with a cotton towel and that works great for me. none of that rubbing crap. unexpected exercise sucks. car washing already takes long enough, especially with that waxing crap. *sigh* the damn things i do for my car...

with all that being said, in no way am i endorsing a chamois as the ultimate in car drying, nor am i really saying one is better then the other. both have their own benefits and thats why i use both.

just bust out outo the highway at blazing speeds for a lkong period of time and problem solved!!

A real chamois will not streak if prepared and used properly. It does not have to soak in water overnight, but it does have to be primed by getting it wet and wringing it out a couple times. Wring it out frequently when using it and rinse it in a clean bucket of water periodically to keep it clean. Works for me.

Did the little white button pop up on this thread yet? I think so... this turkey is done ;) Enough people have complained, and I think about 2 valid points were made in all the replys...

Brian
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