LittleICme said:
How about the level of the crinkle?
How about general fit and comfort?
How about performance?
Fit is ... wide. Wide crotch, wide padding front and back. The tapes are fairly widely spaced on both sides so they do a good job of working to independently fit around the legs and around the waist. Comfort is somewhat subjective I suppose, but I find them
very comfortable myself.
Performance is excellent. This seems to be an area the industry has really started to get figured out, with fast wicking and high capacity. To be honest, I have YET to manage to fill one of these closer than 5' from the back top of the padding, and that still amazes me. They swell a fair amount, but with the extra wide crotch they don't "seal off" flow to the back as some others will. I think these
might be the best performing diapers available right now.
I decided to dig into my stash just now to test crinkle, because that's one of those things that is difficult to compare from one day to the next. To be subjective, I just pulled them out of the stacks where they had been laying on their side, allowed to fluff up on their own. I compared an original Crinklz, a version 2 Crinklz (based on comficare) as well as a paws and a SDK version 2. I've heard two people comment they don't like how the Crinklz forsaked their name and got quieter. I just held the diapers out in front of me one at a time, sideways, top facing me, one end in each hand, and gave them a rapid twist back and forth several times, to flex the diaper, and compared sounds. (this is much more consistent and controlled than putting them on and walking around etc)
What I found was a little surprising. The original and the revision 2 Crinklz were
identical in sound. I could not tell them apart, and they were quite loud. The paws and the SDK2's were also identical sounding, but noticeably quieter. I believe the biggest factor in crinkle sound in a diaper is the material the shell is made from, and to a lesser degree, the padding within and how it's glued down. The paws/sdk shell feel and appear identical. The old and new Crinklz shells look and feel different, but I think the outer shell itself is unchanged, but the padding below is quite different, giving them a different feel, but not a different sound.
Without audio gear and much better controlled conditions, it'd be hard to get a very precise judgement on sound. I think the best I could do here would be to say "low, medium, or high". Crinklz1/2: high. paws/simple/space/sdk2/cushies2: medium.
I'd also point out that the tape panel is a sepate sound issue. Tape panels don't usually contribute much to the sound because the stiffer material just doesn't make much noise when twisted. BUT I've found a hard tape panel does make a loud sound when pressed on, like if I press in on my fly. Even very quiet diapers like Waddlers make a very noticeable loud sound from that. In that regard, the paws/simple/space have a thinner/stiffer/harder panel and rate High, whereas the crinklz1/2 both rate medium with no panel and the sdk2/cushies2 rate LOW actually, because of their very thick and rubbery panel.
This bit of testing was quite educational for me
oh and a bit of a correction of sorts... there IS a difference between the tape panels on the paws/simple/space. All three appear to use the same panel AND same shell, but there's some sort of manufacturing difference (maybe in the glue or the stretching) that makes the space and simple look more "wrinkled", but only the space is actually louder. I don't know why this is, but it's a noticeable difference. You can feel a wrinkle in both the space and simple's tape panel as applied. But only the space is louder as a result. It's weird, and may also be something that varies from run to run.
So since there are two factors at work that can be measured, I'm going to a scale of 1-5, 5 being loudest.
SDK2/Cushies2: 2
Simple/Paws: 3
Crinklz1/Crinklz2: 4
