Quantitative analysis Test 1: Absorbency To measure absorbency, we conducted two separate tests — one for water weight and one for volume. Weight First, we weighed a dry sheet of each paper towel.
As with toilet paper, I tested paper towels by buying a dozen brands rated highly by outside sources, contacting experts, and then testing them and using them in real cleaning and cooking in my home and in an office, trying to pin down the best value.
For this article we spoke with Gary M. We also tracked multiple reviews from Good HousekeepingConsumer Reportsand Real Simpleand we leaned on the obsessive paper towel research of blogger Len Penzo. Could you make do with the studious use of clean white towels?
But one toppled bottle of wine or leaking meat package can take out a slew of little white linens. To clean those white towels, you then have to use your washer, often in its own cycle, wasting water and energy. And using and reusing a dishrag is, according to food savant Alton Brown, a bacterial bacchanal.
You might sometimes feel as though paper towels are a first-world luxury. How we picked and tested Finding an expert opinion on paper towels is not easy. Professional kitchens have clean white towels and laundry services.
Cleaning services, daycare providers, and kennels tend to buy thin recycled towels on bulk contracts. Some people depend on them for just about every cleaning task, while others save them for kitchen work. Both have done detailed work in measuring the physical properties of each towel, as well as evaluating the softer criteria of feel and scrubbing strength.
I also found a few bloggers with smart takes and opinions on paper towels, and one in particular, Len Penzowho took it on himself to do his own rigorous tests, which were far more documented and explanatory than anything else we found online.
Penzo found that Bounty and Viva were the best performers of the seven brands he tested, but he gave Bounty third place and Viva fourth place behind the more budget-oriented Costco-brand and Scott towels he tried, because his criteria were more heavily weighted toward value a natural position for someone who primarily blogs about personal finance.
One of our multisurface testing tables. For a short moment during testing, this was the cleanest table in America. A good paper towel picks up the most liquid or semiliquid mess with the fewest sheets. But absorbency is not king, despite what blue-liquid advertising fantasies have emphasized.
In our tests, we wanted to determine what the exact delta in performance was between absorbency and toughness for the most current formulations of Bounty and Viva.
After all, our theory would go out the window if either Bounty or Viva was significantly tougher or more absorbent than the other.Product Features Viva Paper Towels are soft and strong like cloth, so they feel good.
The Paper Towel Experiment is a project about which type of paper can absorb more water. The Viva Choose-A-Size is part of the Paper towel test program at Consumer Reports.
In our lab tests, Paper towel models like the Choose-A-Size are rated on multiple criteria, such as those listed. We looked again at the paper towel category in February and didn’t see anything new. Our picks remain the best we’ve seen—Bounty for scrubbing, and Viva for absorbency.
After dozens of hours of research, interviews, and testing, we found that Bounty Select-A-Size paper towels had more. We looked again at the paper towel category in February and didn’t see anything new.
Our picks remain the best we’ve seen—Bounty for scrubbing, and Viva for absorbency.
After dozens of hours of research, interviews, and testing, we found that Bounty Select-A-Size paper towels had more. Research “A paper towel (also called kitchen roll) is an absorbent textile made from paper instead of cloth.
Unlike cloth towels, paper towels /5(1).