Relative Thickness Of A Variety Of Disposable Diaper Brands

[gah!ghost]

First off, hopefully this is useful to someone. For many of us, myself included, one of the most important aspects of a diaper's design is "how thick it feels". This is related to, but not strictly the same as the thickness of the diaper's padding. I have read and contributed to many discussions on this subject and there have been many photo comparisons of folded diapers. This is my attempt to examine and quantify the feeling of thickness. By the end I think the most useful number to answer this question is the width of the crotch padding multiplied by it's thickness. Somewhat unfortunately this number isn't really meaningful on it's own and is really only useful in comparing to other diapers.

I have measured all the diapers I currently have so some brands you like may not be represented. I will update these measurements anytime I try something new. For accuracy all measurements are in millimeters but I might post all the meaningful measurements in inches for us US people in a separate post in this thread. Finally all diapers unless otherwise noted are size Medium.

Folded Width by Length

Methodology: All diapers where measured with the waist band side facing upwards as there's some variation in apparent dimensions depending on which side is facing upwards.

Abena X-Plus: 131x200

ABU Cushies: 135x192

Active Ultra: 129x188

Bambino Bellissimo: 149x189

Bambino Classico: 133x193

Dry 24/7: 153x215

Dry 24/7 (small): 147x197

Molicare Super Plus: 139x190

Tranquility ATN: 125x173

Unique Wellness: 142x194

Folded Thickness

Methodology: Thickness was measured at the center of the folded diaper using digital calipers. The calipers where pressed tight against the diaper and then allowed to be pushed open as the padding re-expanded. This seemed to offer the most consistent results. I measured from both sides twice and variance all fell within less than half a millimeter.

Dry 24/7: 29

Abena 4 (X-Plus): 28

Bambino Classico: 28

Bambino Bellissimo: 27

Molicare Super Plus: 26

ABU Cushies: 24

Dry 24/7 (small): 24

Abena 3 (Abri-Wing): 23

Active Ultra: 22

Unique Wellness: 20

Tranquility ATN: 19

Attends w/Waistband: 18

Depend Protection w/Tabs: 15

Crotch Width

Methodology: Diaper was laid out flat on a hard surface and just the padding was measured across the center of the crotch. Some brands fold the edges of the crotch padding which causes a wider measurement than the folded width. The Active Ultra is the most striking example of this but it's also somewhat true of the Abena X-Plus.

Attends w/Waistband: 160

Bambino Bellissimo: 150

Dry 24/7: 150

Abena 3 (Abri-Wing): 145

Active Ultra: 145

Dry 24/7 (small): 145

Bambino Classico: 142

Depend Protection w/Tabs: 140

Molicare Super Plus: 135

ABU Cushies: 134

Abena X-Plus: 133

Unique Wellness: 118

Tranquility ATN: 110

Unfolded Thickness

Methodology: The crotch padding was folded lengthwise and measured directly in the center and then divided by two. This was done to make sure it was the center being measured and not the edge of the padding where it's thinner and more importantly has more variation when comparing two of the same diaper.

Dry 24/7: 10.75

Abena 3 (Abri-Wing): 10

Abena X-Plus: 8.5

Dry 24/7 (small): 7.75

Molicare Super Plus: 7.75

Unique Wellness: 7.25

Bambino Classico: 6.5

Active Ultra: 5.5

Bambino Bellissimo: 5.5

Tranquility ATN: 5.5

ABU Cushies: 4.25

Attends w/Waistband: 3.65

Depend Protection w/Tabs: 3.5

Relative Comparisons

Methodology: The first number is the rough volume of the folded diaper (width*height*thickness). This is only a rough number since the diaper's shape isn't a perfect cube nor is the thickness uniform.

The second number is the unfolded crotch width multiplied by the thickness. This number is just for a relative comparison of user perceived thickness since the perception of thickness for many, particularly myself, seems to be a combination of crotch width and padding thickness. This number seems to only be useful in comparison.

The third number is a relativistic percentage using the Medium Dry 24/7 as a baseline as it is the thickest. The comparison uses the second number. The first number (volume) was not used as the Medium Dry 24/7 gains an unfair advantage due to simply being a lot larger than the rest. Overall physical size does not necessarily equate to user perceived thickness.

These are all sorted by largest/thickest to smallest/thinnest.

Dry 24/7: 904075

Bambino Bellissimo: 760347

Abena X-Plus: 733600

Bambino Classico: 718732

Dry 24/7 (small): 695016

Molicare Super Plus: 686660

ABU Cushies: 576000

Unique Wellness: 550960

Active Ultra: 533544

Tranquility ATN: 410875

Dry 24/7: 1612.5

Abena 3 (Abri-Wing): 1450

Abena X-Plus: 1130.5

Dry 24/7 (small): 1123.75

Molicare Super Plus: 1046.25

Bambino Classico: 923

Unique Wellness: 855.5

Bambino Bellissimo: 825

Active Ultra: 797.5

Tranquility ATN: 605

Attends w/Waistband: 584

ABU Cushies: 569.5

Depend Protection w/Tabs: 490

Dry 24/7: 100%

Abena 3 (Abri-Wing): 90%

Abena X-Plus: 70%

Dry 24/7 (small): 70%

Molicare Super Plus: 65%

Bambino Classico: 57%

Unique Wellness: 53%

Bambino Bellissimo: 51%

Active Ultra: 50%

Tranquility ATN: 38%

Attends w/Waistband: 36%

ABU Cushies: 35%

Depend Protection w/Tabs: 30%

Conclusions

Your milage may vary but these seem to play out pretty true for me. The Medium Dry 24/7 does seem to be by far the thickest. The Small Dry 24/7, Molicare, and Abena do all seem pretty close with the Mol being the thinnest of the three. And the Bambino Bella does in fact feel a bit thinner than the newer Classicos, although I will say it's more comfortable. The only outlier for me is the Unique Wellness which does not feel thicker than the Bambino Bell but much closer to the ATN and Cushies.

[gah!ghost]

Measurements in inches

Folded Width by Length

Abena X-Plus: 5.2"x7.9"

ABU Cushies: 5.3"x7.6"

Active Ultra: 5.1"x7.4"

Bambino Bellissimo: 5.9"x7.4"

Bambino Classico: 5.2"x7.6"

Dry 24/7: 6"x8.5"

Dry 24/7 (small): 5.8"x7.8"

Molicare Super Plus: 5.5"x7.5"

Tranquility ATN: 5"x6.8"

Unique Wellness: 142x194 5.6"x7.6"

Folded Thickness

Abena X-Plus: 1.10"

ABU Cushies: .94"

Active Ultra: .87"

Bambino Bellissimo: 1.06"

Bambino Classico: 1.10"

Dry 24/7: 1.14"

Dry 24/7 (small): .94"

Molicare Super Plus: 1.02"

Tranquility ATN: .75"

Unique Wellness: .79"

Crotch Width

Abena X-Plus: 5.2"

ABU Cushies: 5.3"

Active Ultra: 5.9"

Bambino Bellissimo: 5.9"

Bambino Classico: 5.6"

Dry 24/7: 5.9"

Dry 24/7 (small): 5.7"

Molicare Super Plus: 5.3"

Tranquility ATN: 4.3"

Unique Wellness: 4.6"

Unfolded Thickness

Abena X-Plus: .33"

ABU Cushies: .17"

Active Ultra: .22"

Bambino Bellissimo: .22"

Bambino Classico: .26"

Dry 24/7: .42"

Dry 24/7 (small): .31"

Molicare Super Plus: .31"

Tranquility ATN: .22"

Unique Wellness: .26"

[Necros]

Outstanding comparison ~ This will greatly help the people who didn't know which one to buy!

[babylin]

I admire your due diligence and perseverance, but to a DL like myself the width, length, and thickness are only marginally related to how thick a cloth diaper feels.

Your stats seem to assume that all disposables are made of the same fabricated materials.

Cloth diapers, of whatever fabric, are folded to the perfect thick feeling every time you put one on. Nor does thick mean bulky or thin less absorbent.

Happiness Is Wearing Cotton Diapers

[gah!ghost]

I'm not sure I follow what you're saying. It sounds like you're talking about cloth diapers while this is specifically dealing with disposables? Maybe my thread title is misleading and you're more responding to that?

I changed the thread title and a few words here and there for clarity.

I do get to a certain extent what you mean by materials impacting the perceived thick feeling, at least I think I do. Like for example stiffer padding feels thicker because it has less give. Problem is I can't measure that, so this is the best comparative study I could think of to do. It's more a process of me figuring out what I liked and what I don't like and I'm just publishing the data just in case it's helpful to others

[Backindiapers]

This just enforces my idea of buying Dry 24/7's because of how big they are. I LOVE big, thick diapers. Thank you for the comparison though. That looked like a lot of work.

[Eir]

So, If I am reading this right, you are saying that dry 24/7's are 30% thicker than Abena X plusses? Also, on Amazon at least, Dry 24/7 is almost twice as expensive as Abenas. A 14 pack of Abenas is $25. A 12 pack of dry 24/7 is $25. An 18 pack of dry 24/7 is $47.95. The package price for dry 24/7 is twice the expense of Abenas, but per item it is less.

Abena's (m) $1.75

Dry 24/7 (m) $2.66

So dry 24/7's per unit are almost 1.5x more expensive than Abena X-Plus. Diapers must be a financial burden for those who are truly incontinent. To AB's, however they are more like...Cuban Cigars. (I, however have a preference for cloth prefolds because I can wear a babyish bulge without squandering my living dollars. To me, anyway being pinned in a powdered prefold feels far more babyish than taping on an overgrown figure 8 sponge. However the case of Abena's went through did grow on me, and once I got used to the thinness of disposables I began to enjoy them. I would consider ordering again but not now, bills and food come before hobbies, IMHO.

[gah!ghost]

So, If I am reading this right, you are saying that dry 24/7's are 30% thicker than Abena X plusses?

Sort of. Like I said it's a measure of combined padding width and padding thickness which gives you a number. I did it that way, as stated, because how thick a diaper feels is mostly due to those two factors. So Dry 24/7 Mediums "feel" 30% thicker than Abena X-Plus' which at least for me "seems" pretty true.

In just raw thickness the Dry 24/7 Medium is about 20% thicker than the Abena. The Dry 24/7 also has an 11% wider crotch which makes it seem just that much thicker.

Price wise, ordering from XP Medical by the package:

Dry 24/7 Medium - $1.76ea.

Abena X-Plus Medium - $1.50ea.

Amazon does not have good prices.

[WBDaddy]

I definitely have to make the Unique Wellness briefs my next buy.

I'm probably all by my lonesome when I say I can't stand how wide the crotch is on most diapers. I'm not particularly interested in having to put my hips out of their sockets in order to get a snug fit.

Don't the UW's also have the velcro "tapes" with the plastic backing? Or am I thinking of another product?

[Eir]

So Banter, can you walk normally with a Dry 24/7 under a pair of jeans?

[Bettypooh]

Excellent work Banter! Now if I could only afford to 'test drive' them all

Bettypooh

[gah!ghost]

WBDaddy: No you're thinking of the Active Ultra, which I do really like.

terryfighter: I don't wear diapers out of the house so I would never be trying. That said I couldn't wear any diaper under the sort of jeans I wear. I tend towards very tight jeans.

[oklahomatraveler]

Excellent work, Banter. If anyone would like any performance information in addition to Banter's excellent measurements, don't forget to check out XP Medical's Diaper Review and Testing page (although XP Medical does not test all the same brands that Banter did).

[gah!ghost]

I added Depend, Attends, and the Abri-Wing. I have to say though I am totally unsure of some of the numbers. The numbers I got with the electronic calipers still read right and I re-tested a couple of brands to make sure and they're all still the same. The folded dimensions and the crotch width though which I measured with tailor's measuring tape originally and used the same tape again this time, they are totally different. I don't know what the hell. For example originally the Medium Dry 24/7 I measured out as:

153mmx215mm

What I getting now is:

194mmx280mm

No idea what happened to screw up my numbers so conistantly. I'm measuring the same way I'm fairly certain. I didn't even include the new width/length measurements since they are so grossly out of proportion. Likewise the last relative comparison numbers may be misleading as the crotch width is being reported as wider than it should be.