White Cloud Ultra Soft and Thick 3-Ply Toilet Paper is the best toilet paper.
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The budget pick, Charmin Basic, was renamed to Charmein Essentials.The Toilet Paper Value Calculator helps deal-hunters figure out the price per sheet.
Over the course of four months, we surveyed more than 500 people, bought and tested 40 different types of toilet paper, and then had 10 people rate our nine final choices on a scale of 1 to 10.Cottonelle Ultra Comfort Care is the toilet paper.
Cottonelle Ultra Comfort Care has the best balance of softness, cleaning power, absorption, and prevention of lint or remnants.You will use less of it because it works better.
Cottonelle Ultra Comfort Care does the best job of cleaning up, feeling luxurious without leaving lint behind, staying together while absorbing liquid, and disintegrating when fully immersed in toilets and plumbing.You will likely use less of it than cheaper toilet paper because it works.
Charmin Ultra Strong absorbed the most liquid.It is almost as good as our pick and costs less.
Charmin Ultra Strong is a very close runner-up to Cottonelle's Ultra Comfort Care variety.It was close to being soft and linting, but our panelists didn't think it cleaned as well.Charmin Ultra Strong absorbed the most, it ripped more cleanly from its roll, and it seemed stronger when wet in our own observations, which makes it a better paper for trouble trips.It costs a bit more than Ultra Comfort Care because it may not be as easily dissolved in pipes.It is a good toilet paper, and you can usually find it at most grocery, big-box, or drug stores.
Charmin Essentials provides better softness and cleaning power than you would expect, but it is not as soft as our other picks.
If you need to save money or have the space to store a lot of toilet paper, Charmin is a good choice.It works and feels good, even though it is less expensive than Cottonelle Ultra Comfort Care and Charmin Ultra Strong.It isn't the kind of toilet paper that feels "premium" but it's not bad for the price.
Cottonelle Ultra Comfort Care has the best balance of softness, cleaning power, absorption, and prevention of lint or remnants.You will use less of it because it works better.
Charmin Ultra Strong absorbed the most liquid.It is almost as good as our pick and costs less.
Charmin Essentials provides better softness and cleaning power than you would expect, but it is not as soft as our other picks.
I spent 20 hours reading and researching the category before I wrote the original guide.I have written guides to paper towels and facial tissues, learning about the paper manufacturing industry, recycling, and how paper products break apart.I researched and wrote a guide to the best toilet brush.
I did another 20 hours of research for this update.I interviewed the owner of Consumers Interstate Corporation and author of The Toilet Paper Encyclopedia, Duncan Cross, as well as a representative of emergency plumbing firm 911 Restoration.I tested samples myself and solicited people to try our top contender.
One thing we learned from the original guide is that the best toilet paper doesn't do anyone much good if it's hard to buy.The White Cloud 3-Ply Ultra bathroom tissue was hard to find.We wanted a toilet paper that was significantly better than the competition, but also sold at widely accessible stores, online, and available in quantities that could provide a discount to those with the room to stock it.We looked at major store brands and major manufacturers and made a sweep of grocery, big-box retail, and drug stores to check availability.
The online survey drew more than 700 responses.The attributes people valued the most were softness, price, wet strength, cleaning power, and being lint-free.We asked what kind of toilet paper they buy, how much of it, what they think it should cost, and where they purchase it most of the time.
With our survey results, ratings by outside publications, and online buyers' reviews, we quickly sorted down the more than 40 brands and models we initially considered.
Before and after dunking them in water, we measured their absorption ratio by weighing sheets.We noted how well the tissue held together while wet, and if it fell apart when pulled from the water for weighing.They tore off a standing toilet paper holder and one set into a wall using both the left and right hands.
Getting actual humans to use different types of toilet paper and give feedback on how it performed in a real bathroom was the most helpful thing.We offered up a query and five people responded.We sent them packages of toilet paper labeled with letters and asked them to rate it on a scale of 1 to 5, matching the priorities of our surveyed readers.We recruited four Wirecutter staffers and one volunteer to do the same.The testers gave detailed ratings to bolster our own observations, research, and survey findings.
The author of the Toilet Paper Encyclopedia told us that some people use too much toilet paper, especially when using a multi-ply premium brand.If you have used more than 10 to 15 squares of toilet paper already, you should flush midway through the visit.If younger people in your house use too much toilet paper, you may want to consider buying a cheaper brand.
Cottonelle Ultra Comfort Care has the best balance of softness, cleaning power, absorption, and prevention of lint or remnants.You will use less of it because it works better.
Cottonelle Ultra Comfort Care was the best-rated toilet paper, and we understand why.Ultra Comfort Care left the least amount of lint because it had the best combination of cleaning power, softness, and strength.It was one of the best at absorption, yet it still dissolved in plumbing.It has a good balance of attributes that will work for most people and most bathroom visits, and it can be bought in bulk and stocked, if desired.
Ultra Comfort Care was rated the best at cleaning power and the second softest by our testing panel.The thickness holds it together, but the different texture picks it up.The two plies of paper are held together more tightly by the indented ripples.Ultra Comfort Care feels like one smooth sheet and doesn't slip into a thinner version of itself, unlike other cheaper papers.Ultra Comfort Care is good at cleaning.
Softness is relative from person to person, and from visit to the toilet, but Ultra Comfort Care tied for second in softness among the wide variety of brands we sent our testers.It can seem like a marketing trick, but it works.The toilet paper Scott Extra Soft had less cleaning power than Ultra Comfort Care.Costco, which tied for second with Ultra Comfort Care, ranked lower in cleaning power and linting than Cottonelle.Ultra Comfort Care is strong when wet.
The Cottonelle Ultra Comfort Care stayed together well in the water dunk test.
Charmin Ultra Strong tied for least lint with Ultra Comfort Care because it leaves little lint behind.The edges of Ultra Comfort Care squares are shaggy, and if a square tears off unevenly, it can release lint.Ultra Comfort Care is clean in use.
Women gave Ultra Comfort Care higher ratings than men.Ultra Comfort Care carried 11 times its dry weight in water.That is a bit more than Quilted Northern Ultra Plush.Scotts Natural Tube-Free and Charmin Ultra Strong were slightly behind Cottonelle Ultra Comfort Care.
As toilet paper moves through pipes, it should break down as it moves along.
Cottonelle paper is generally the most technologically advanced paper I know, with very good wet strength, according to Duncan Cross, owner of SupplyTime.com and author of the Toilet Paper Encyclopedia.Cottonelle's texture gives it good grip, while making it easier on tender parts, and it stands up to wetness better than most toilet papers, according to Cross.
Cottonelle Ultra Comfort Care does not always rip cleanly off the roll.Charmin Ultra Strong deserves a gold medal in sheet-tearing if you know you like a clean tear-off with every visit.
It is not a budget toilet paper, but you can get Seventh Generation for half the price.It is less expensive than Charmin's Ultra Soft and Ultra Strong brands.It does a better job than papers that cost more.
Charmin Ultra Strong absorbed the most liquid.It is almost as good as our pick and costs less.
Charmin Ultra Strong had less cleaning power, less softness, and a higher likelihood of lint than our top pick.The men and women in our testing panel found Charmin Ultra Strong to have less wet strength.Charmin Ultra Strong was the best at tearing cleanly off its roll and was more widely available than our top pick.
Cottonelle Ultra Comfort Care held about the same amount of dry weight in water as Charmin Ultra Strong.The sheets held together as they were dunked, removed, and carried over to the scale.It is important for toilet paper to retain water so that it doesn't leave wet remnants, and it is also important to not use a toilet-clogging amount for tougher bathroom visits.Charmin Ultra Strong is the only brand with a wet-to-dry ratio near our pick, Scott Naturals Tube-Free.
Our panelists gave Charmin Ultra Strong an average of 3.4 out of a possible 5 in wet strength, compared with Cottonelle Ultra Comfort Care's average.Having dunked these brands in water for testing, our own rating for Charmin Ultra Strong is at least matching the Cottonelle pick at 4 out of 5, or perhaps a bit higher.It feels like it holds together when it's dry.
Charmin Ultra Strong does the best when sheets are pulled.It tore right on its line 18 out of 20 times, and the two not- perfect rip resulted in very minor inward tears of less than an inch.Charmin Essentials was close to the Ultra Strong's perfect tearing.
Charmin Ultra Strong was recommended by the "Toilet Paper King".It was his ideal mix of comfort, linting and performance.It feels like a T-shirt and leaves the skin dry.
Charmin Essentials provides better softness and cleaning power than you would expect, but it is not as soft as our other picks.
The Charmin Essentials was thought to be a softer paper than the Cottonelle Ultra Comfort Care, but it easily beat the cheaper papers.It fell somewhere in the middle of the pack in our panel's wet-strength ratings, but we found it held almost as much water as our top pick.It was close to tying Charmin Ultra Strong on cleaning power in our ratings, but it did not have the same absorption.
Charmin Essential has a weakness.When it does break apart, it can leave some lint.I didn't find it as lint-prone as brands like Quilted Northern or Scott Extra Soft, but our panelists put it last out of nine brands, with a 3.2 average rating.
Unless you are willing to put your used wipes in your bathroom trash can or maintain a separate can for them, don't buy wipes.
Unless you are willing to put your used wipes in your bathroom trash can or maintain a separate can for them, don't buy wipes.In New York City, London, Miami, Louisiana, and almost any other city where someone interviews a local sewer systems manager, there is a huge problem to your sewer system if you flush them down your toilet.Unless you are willing to spare the effort, and you have made peace with using twice as much paper and binding products, wipes aren't worth it for your bathroom.
The toilet papers are made from virgin wood.The makers of Cottonelle and Charmin pledge that their wood sources are legal and that they only buy from vendors who practice sustainable forest management.The last major effort from agencies was in 2009.
According to experts in our guide to facial tissues, recycled toilet papers are not as soft or strong as they could be, and people often end up using more of them to make up for it.Office paper, cardboard, and other sources are used to make recycled toilet paper.It is a grab bag of wood fibers, put through all manner of treatments and stresses, not the soft, aligned virgin fibers made both flexible and strong by factory treatments.
None of the toilet papers we tested came close to a balance of softness, cleaning power, linting, or wet strength.Scott Naturals Tube-Free disintegrated during our testing.The National Resources Defense Council and Greenpeace give guidance to which toilet papers are the most earth-friendly if environmental concerns trump those criteria.
Scott Extra Soft was the highest ranked by our panel for softness, but it was only middle of the road for cleaning power and linting.It could be a good budget option for those who value softness above all else.
If it were more widely available, White Cloud Ultra Strong & Soft would still be the best toilet paper.The general dismissal is the same for most store brands.
Our panel gave high marks for softness, wet strength, and cleaning power, but it absorbed the least out of any toilet paper we tested.Some squares broke into wet, rolled-up pieces when they were handled while wet.Victor Ly crunched the data for the Toilet Paper Value Calculator and declared it to be a best-value toilet paper.
Scott Naturals Tube-Free, which appears to be discontinued, earned the lowest ratings our panel gave out in softness (averaging 2 out of 5) and cleaning power (2.75), and earned second-to-last place in linting and wet strength.It fell apart during testing.
Charmin Ultra Soft was not very soft.It averaged a 3 out of 5 in both strength and power.It costs the same as Charmin Ultra Strong and is not as good.
Quilted Northern Ultra Plush is a pillowy soft three-ply paper that fell in the middle of the pack for softness, strength, and cleaning power with our panel, but near the bottom in linting.We found it to have less cleaning power than Ultra Strong.
When tested for absorption, Cottonelle Clean Care came apart in wet strands when moved from water to scale, and ripped clean only half the time we pulled it off the roll.It was last in softness by our panel.
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