Hello Simon
If your red pad is being clogged with dirt, try using a green pad and mop the floor with cold water and cheap washing up liquid (less salt in the cheap stuff) scrub the floor while wet with the green pad, then mop up all the residue. Mop again with clean water and Leave to dry and then buff with a red pad. If you are using floor maintainer (pink) only use 30ml per 0.5 litre hand spray. And use very sparingly if the red pad becomes clogged when the floor has been cold water scrubbed with a green pad, it usually means you are using too much maintainer.
I usually clean my pads with a stiff loo brush under cold running water, and then leave to dry.
You can machine wash them, it depends on the quality of the pads you are using. 3M pads stand up well to being machine washed (40 degrees) but cheaper pads tend to fall to bits
Hope this helps
Russ
www.deep-clean.co.uk