You can hand clean small areas with a brush, but for a washing machine use two cups of cleaner. Rinse thoroughly making sure all the cleaner is washed away, then just air dry. Light amounts of dust can be hosed off while the cover is on the vehicle.
If there isn't time to air dry a cover, is it safe to simply roll the cover up and plop it in a trunk? Williamson says yes, but make sure the cover is resistant to mold and mildew - even another reason to get a quality cover.
"All of Kimberly-Clark's fabrics are mold and mildew resistant so they won't support bacterial growth. The cover may be wet when you pull it out the next time, but if the cover is in your trunk for a period of time, the moisture will just evaporate away. The polymer technology will not melt. Well, our fabrics melt at more than 200 degrees Fahrenheit, but you don't see temperatures above that, so the cover is safe to leave in your trunk."
Here lies the reason not to put your cover in a clothes dryer where temperatures exceed 200 degrees Fahrenheit. The trunk of your car is fine, the dryer is not.
When storing your cover you always want to have the outside of the cover, well, on the outside, or in other words, exposed when storing. This is to prevent harmful particles from getting on the inside of the car where they may be dragged across your car's paint the next time you use the cover.
Much like a new car's resale value begins to drop the second you drive it off a lot, a car cover's protective chemistry begins to break down almost immediately when it is exposed to the sun, but better the cover catches the brunt of the sun, then your car's paint.
"There is a chemistry that's put into the car cover that basically decelerates or prevents the degradation of the car cover fabric," Williamson says. "So, the way we explain it is, if you didn't have your car cover on, the sun would be degrading your clear coat paint."
Much like a paint job, a variety of factors such as frequency of use, exposure and even the UV chemistry and how much a manufacture puts into a cover, determines how long the protection of car cover will last. There are, however, some guidelines Williamson can offer.
"Typically, for our customers who are using their covers a few times week, they can expect the cover to last about 10 years. In very harsh, sunny climates a good car cover will still last about six to eight years."
Now You Know...
The bottomline on car covers is this: if you love on your car, spend the extra money for a quality car cover. Why spend thousands on a paint job, or even more on a new car, and then turn around a buy a cheap "shower cap" cover to save 50 bucks? Cheap car covers do little more than simply cover your car. They offer minimal protection from dents and dings, the suns rays and other harmful elements, and may not even be there after a windy night outside. Even worse, they can actually trap paint-damaging moisture underneath the cover, which can be more harmful than having no cover at all. You spend a lot on your car, so give it the protection you would want by going the extra mile and plunking down the dough for a good cover.