It is important that you clean your polishing pads the same day you have used them, don't let them sit dirty overnight as the polish will have soaked into the foam of the pad, and if you leave it it will dry inside the pad creating hard sports.  This will do two things, it will make your pads 

Cleaning them is quick and easy, at home I run the tap in the sink and spray with pad cleaner and then scrub with this pad cleaning brush.  You can use our other stiff short brush but this brush makes the job much faster and easier and does a better job, as its wired design gives you mush more leverage to really scrub the pad properly.

Rinse and squeeze out and repeat until the pads are clean, then leave them to dry either standing upright (I use the dish rack), or Velcro side up but on a clean surface.  You do not want them to lay wet Velcro side down as the water can not drain away properly, instead it sites on the Velcro surface where overtime it can lead to the glues failing prematurely.

If your pads are not lasting its normally due to one of three things.

1.  You are not washing them properly like this

2. you are not swapping pads often enough (after 1/4-1/3 of a car pads are clogged and hot, you should swap to a fresh pad, hammering on will gave bad results and your pads will overheat and fail, also as the foam gets hotter it looses its rigidity and is less effective.  The Rockcar pads are better at handling this so you can get away with 2 pads per car if using Rockcar pads, but 3-4 pads is better.  If detailing as a profession you will find it more efficient to have a pad a panel, and swap, clean at the end of the day, and have more pads than you need.  The pads will last longer and over a year it will cost you less and you will get better results faster. 

3.  You are using cheap pads.  Better pads are worth the money, we recommend the Rockcar pads which are made in Germany.