I find it a bit humorous that reviewers keep saying "it doesn't absorb water".. then they state later on that they have to ring all of the water out all of the time. Are they ringing out "air" ? Of course is absorbs the water. It is just not good at drying the car for the final wipe. I use a towel after using this. That's worked well for many years. I tried a "waffle towel" and it was worse than the absorber. I tried a special auto towel, but that did not work as well either. I think that the absorber used with a towel is probably the best combo to use. I suppose you can turn on the leaf blower, but if you get any dirt in there you may do a number on your paint.