Paper towels are great. There, I said it.
You rip a sheet, wipe up a mess, then toss the paper in the trash. No extra cleanup or washing, and most of the time—for small messes at least—you don’t need to reach for a second sheet. They’re not the best option for the environment, but there are some messes you just don’t want to have to wash out of a reusable paper towel (I’m looking at you, dogs and babies). I long ago stopped using them on a daily basis and refused to purchase a paper towel holder at all for my kitchen when I moved nine months ago to prevent myself from continuing to do so. But I keep a roll hidden in the pantry for the messes I don’t want to wipe up with the towels I’ll have to wash at the end of the week.
To find out which brand of paper towels is the best at cleaning up messes, we evaluated six of the most popular ones in our lab. Some of the qualities we considered were how much water they absorb, whether they were reusable, and how well they could pick up a simulated vomit (thick, chunky oatmeal).
For quickly cleaning up spills, you want a single sheet to hold as much liquid as possible so testers calculated the absorbency of each paper towel.
Consumer Reports also measured strength by slowly adding weighted test pellets into a cup held up by a single wet paper towel, until the towel gave out.
The more it can hold and for longer, the stronger it is.
Another machine helped testers evaluate scrubbing strength. The best paper towels scrubbed a piece of sandpaper for about 15 cycles before breaking down; the worst struggled after just six cycles.
And Consumer Report’s dedicated testers even simulated vomit with a concoction of chunky oatmeal and dehydrated vegetables to see how well each paper towel could pick up the mess.
“We also checked to see how fast each sheet ripped from its roll and whether or not a paper towel could be reused. And we evaluated the price -- both per roll and per sheet,” said Consumer Reports’ Jodhaira Rodrigeuz.
The winner? A name synonymous with paper towels for almost 60 years: Bounty. “The quicker picker upper,” had the highest overall score but it comes at a price. Bounty was the most expensive brand tested.
Consumer Reports said Brawny could be a good alternative if you’re trying to save a few dollars and don’t want to lose out on performance.
All of the paper towels in Consumer Report’s tests could be reused after light use. But paper towels aren’t recyclable. For routine cleaning, Consumer Reports recommends reusable paper towels and microfiber cloths you can wash and reuse.