Which Brand of Paper Towels is the Most Absorbent?

Have you ever wondered which brand of paper towel is the most absorbent? While I was standing in the grocery store aisle the other day marveling at the variety and many different styles and types there were available, this is exactly what I thought. Name brand varieties were a lot more expensive than the store brand kind, and I wondered if there was actually a difference. They all looked the same from where I was standing!

So, I decided to do the only logical thing I could think of: buy a few of the name brands that were available and put them to the test to see which brand of paper towel absorbs the most water! Now that I've tested them I can tell you exactly which brand performed the best and the one I liked the most. For testing sake purposes, I decided to take the three main brands, Scott, Brawny, and Bounty and compare them side by side, just like they do in the commercials you see on TV. I also decided to also test using a regular towel, since that of course is the most environmentally friendly and economical thing to use.

Before now, I never really put a whole lot of thought about these handy disposable cleaning cloths, so I decided to make this article even more interesting I would share with you some interesting facts about paper towels. Surprisingly, there is actually a lot of information about this available online!

The paper towel was invented in by the Scott Company, and the first products to be marketed to consumers hit the grocery store shelves in 1931. Back then our questions about absorbency would have been easy to answer, since there was only one product to choose from! Legend has it the idea was thought of by a school teacher who had the idea of cutting up sheets of paper for students to use for blowing their nose so they wouldn't spread germs.

Most products are made with wood pulp, which is then bleached to make them white. The reason they work well for absorbing a mess is because the plant fibers in the product are made of cellulose, which soak up many water molecules. While you can't tell with the naked eye, there are also actually tiny spaces that can absorb the water, much like a sponge.

Paper towels have a variety of uses, not just for cleaning up spills and picking up messes. They can be used to catch crumbs instead of a napkin or a plate, or they can be used in many cases for the microwave. One thing I was surprised to learn is that if you are using ones with a printed pattern on them you may want to be careful, especially when washing glass or using cleaning agents, because the ink can actually transfer off the towel and onto the item you are cleaning!

There are also a lot of different kitchen gadgets that have been invented all because of the paper towel, such as paper towel dispensers in all shapes and sizes. There is even one that is a touch-less automatic dispenser for your home, such as the ones you see at many public restrooms. It's pretty hard to believe so many different types of things could exist for just one product!

To settle this argument of which brand is the best after all and begin my test, I decided to choose the top three main brands, since depending where you are located and live store brands will vary. These brands are Brawny, Bounty, and Scott. To conduct my test, I filled a glass measuring cup to the 1/4 cup water line and dumped the water on my kitchen table. I then used a paper towel to clean it up. Once the paper towel seemed like it could not hold anymore water, I squeezed it out into the cup an then used it again to finish cleaning up the mess. I did this test four times, once for each towel, and also for our control group, the common terry towel dishcloth.

Brawny was the first one I tested, and it took me about 3-4 times to clean up all the water, and the table still looked wet. When I squeezed the water back into the measuring cup, it was just a little less than 1/4 cup. I was impressed that it did not rip or tear despite me using it multiple times.

The next one I tested were Bounty Towels. I only had to squeeze it out twice to clear up all of the water, but it still had a wet and glossy look. The water line of squeezed out water was just about equal to before I dumped it out.

Then I used Scott Naturals Paper Towels. These ones felt much thinner than the others and had a different texture than I was used to, but they still performed pretty well, and the results were identical to when I used Brauny.

Lastly I decided to use the terry dish cloth towel to see how it compared with cleaning up the mess. I was amazed, because it really did the best job! I only used a small corner of the towel, and it absorbed all of the water, and did not even leave the table looking wet and shiny!

So which brand is the most absorbent paper towel? I would have to say Bounty really did perform the best, though whether it is worth the extra money for it is probably a personal decision, since in the end they all successfully cleaned up the spill. But from now on, I probably won't be needing any paper towels, because that terry dish cloth out performed them all!