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Rayon Mop yarn deconstructed

Rayon mop yarn deconstructed

Some varieties of mop yarn are especially good wick materials. Others are not useful at all.

You need a 'looped end' style mop head as these can be unravelled (with some care) into a single long length of yarn (often several hundred feet long).

Many mop yarns can be further deconstructed to provide various thicknesses of material. This is especially useful for making composite tri-string loops.

Preparing mop heads

Wash your mophead using a laundry machine a few times and dry it before deconstructing the mop. Washing and drying the mop yarn AFTER deconstructing is not very fun. Use dishwashing liquid instead of laundry detergent. Or, use laundry detergent for a first washing and then wash a couple of more times to make sure that the laundry detergents anti-foaming agents have been washed out.

You can make a spool for holding the mop yarn out of a couple of plies of cardboard.

RubberMaid Rayon Finish Mop

Fo most people that have tried this mop yarn, this is their preferred loop material. The mopheads are relatively easily desconstructed (the first time might take as much as 30-45 minutes).

One mophead unraveled provides about 540 feet of 4-ply yarn. The yarn is easily deconstrcucted to separate the plies to provide lighterweight wicks where applicable. In the U.S., this mop is available for less than $10 at Home Depot (price: Dec. 2011). The model number is FGD51528. It is labeled as #24 Rayon Finish Mop.

P1050159 mophead rayon finish mop home depotRESIZE
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RubberMaid MicroFiber Webfoot

This might be the best mop yarn in terms of capacity and release; although the RubberMaid Rayon Finish Mop yarn is only slightly behind. The MicroFiber webfoot is considerably more expensive than the rayon finish mophead and they are considerably more time-consuming to take apart. The yarn seems to be a bit less durable than the rayon finish mop yarn

One large microfiber mophead provides about 400 feet of yarn.The mopheads are a bit hard to find in stores but can be found online. Price is about $20 without shipping.

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P1050194 mophead webfoot microfiber tagCROP
 
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RubberMaid X884

RubberMaid makes many different mopheads.

Rubbermaid commercial packagefront IMG 0086

RubberMaid Professional+ mophead package front. Model X884.

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RubberMaid X884 package back

A few leading giant bubble afficionados like the commercial Rubbermaid mopheads available from Walmart and other outlets. The model number is X884. These are a synthetic/poly blend and seem to benefit from breaking in. Their performance will improve after a few sessions as the yarn softens. One mophead supplies about 350 feet of yarn. Some people find the X884 yarn 'drippy' but others love it.

There is a similar consumer-grade mophead but it does not seem to be as effective as the X884 yarn.

 

Libman

Libmanmop hi

Libman's Jumbo Cotton Wet Mop yarn has been mentioned by one of the leading giant bubble afficionados as a favorite material. It is quite widely available.

The mop heads yield four lengths of approximately 60 feet each for a total of about 240 feet per mop head.

 

Vileda

There are many mopheads from Vileda. I have seen videos of excellent results from a blue mop yarn from a Vileda mop. But, I do not know the model. Some Vileda mop yarns seem not to be good materials.

One Vileda mop yarn that was liked by a reliable source was described this way:

The Vileda blue mop yarn that I like has around 23 thin strands which are twisted together.

If you have had good or bad experience with Vileda mop yarns, please update this article or add your comment below.

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