ABUniverse LittlePawz, Space, and Simple Advanced Diaper Review

Fruitkitty

Est. Contributor
Messages
697
Role
  1. Diaper Lover
  2. Diaperfur
In October 2015, ABUniverse (ABU) released Space, its first completely new diaper since being bought out and relaunched under new management at the beginning of that year. ABU followed up in early 2016 with two additional prints: a furry print, LittlePawz, and an all-white unprinted and lower-priced version, Simple. Space was released with substantial marketing fanfare, and proceeded to deliver on that hype, becoming one of the highest capacity ABDL diapers ever released and a benchmark diaper that was not seriously challenged in the US market for about 2 years.

I am reviewing the medium size LittlePawz, Space, and Simple diapers as purchased for review in January 2018. The small is listed as fitting waists of 22"-29", the medium is listed as fitting waists of 31"-36", the large is listed as fitting waists of 37"-44", and the extra-large is listed as fitting waists of 45"-52".

This is a review that has been updated and upgraded to our advanced diaper review format and to include additional prints, as this diaper is not known to have changed, save for a minor upgrade to ABU's clear tapes, since our original review in October 2015. This means that this review contains a mix of older work that we believe is still accurate alongside our additional testing, which was gathered using a mix of all three diapers purchased in January 2018.


Appearance, Size, and Features


The ABU LittlePawz, Space, and Simple have packaging similar to other ABU products with printed panels partially filling the front of on other otherwise transparent package. The LittlePawz panel has its logos and character art, the Space panel has an alien and the letter denoting size filled in with the print, and the Simple panel is just the letter denoting size by itself.

293-6-LittlePawzPackFront.JPG


293-5-SpacePackFront.JPG


293-4-SimplePackFront.JPG



The ABU LittlePawz has an all-over furry-themed print made in collaboration with prominent babyfur artist MarciMcAdam. The print features a white center with pawprints as a wetness indicator in the very center with baby animal characters and baby items to the sides, bordered by wavy blue dotted line on the sides of the diaper, and a green and blue plaid pattern on the wings. A glossy, transparent landing zone lies over the front. The design is certainly unique, and has babyish elements to it, but it's unlike any baby diaper print I can think of. It's more of a "what-if" furry print than it is authentic.

The ABU Space has an all-over space-themed print, with a blue background, orange and red space-related icons on the sides, and fade-when-wet green aliens filling most of the space in the middle. The design is colorful but the blue base color predominates. A glossy, transparent landing zone lies over the front. It's an interesting and unique idea for a diaper print, where one "fights" the aliens as one uses the diaper and causes them to fade, sort of a "diaper as game" concept. It's not a babyish design at all, with toothy aliens and aliens holding ray guns; this is a pattern more age-appropriate for a grade-school boys.

The ABU Simple is an all-white diaper, with a transparent glossy tape panel that has the ABU logo and size at the sides, presumably to help guide placement of tapes.

The outer plastic of these diapers has a slick, oily feel to it, and feels substantial. The plastic on Simple seems a bit less slick in my hands than on LittlePawz and Space.

293-10-LittlePawzComparisonFront.JPG


293-11-LittlePawzComparisonBack.JPG


Front and Back of Folded Space, LittlePawz, and Simple


To test their dry thickness, I stacked three diapers on top of each other, placed a heavy book on top of them, and measured their height. Together, the 3 diapers had a height of approximately 9.0 cm (3.5 in). Thus, the dry thickness of a single folded diaper is 3.0 cm (1.2 in).

272-3-stacked.JPG


3 Diapers Stacked

These diapers use a double-tape design with tapes that measure 4.1 cm (1.6 in) wide each.

293-12-LittlePawzTapes.JPG


The Tapes


The insides of these diapers are all white, arranged in an hourglass shape, and soft. The material has a cotton feel that is neither particularly packed nor diffuse. These diapers have standing leak guards and an elastic waistband in the front and back.

293-13-LittlePawzOutside.JPG


293-14-LittlePawzInside.JPG


Front and Back of Unfolded LittlePawz


293-18-SpaceOutside.JPG


293-19-SpaceInside.JPG


Front and Back of Unfolded Space


293-20-SimpleOutside.JPG


293-21-SimpleInside.JPG


Front and Back of Unfolded Simple


With the diaper outstretched, it measures 76.5 cm (30.1 in) in length, 65.0 cm (25.6 in) in width at the wings, 32.2 cm (12.7 in) in width at the center, and 23.3 cm (9.2 in) in width between the leak guards.

293-15-LittlePawzLength.JPG


293-16-LittlePawzWingWidth.JPG


293-17-LittlePawzCenter.JPG




Performance and Fit


To test the capacity of this diaper quantitatively, I performed two tests.

First, I weighed a diaper and put it on. I then repeatedly dosed water into the front of it in 100 mL increments using a metered laboratory bottletop dispenser, followed by sitting down in a chair for 30 seconds each time to give the diaper a chance to absorb the liquid, then checking for leaks. When a leak occurred, I weighed the diaper again, and recorded the change in weight.

Over 4 replicates of this H2O capacity test, a mixed selection of the three diapers averaged 2438 mL with a standard deviation of 91 mL.

During a previous trial of this test, I recorded qualitative information about the diaper as I added water to it. After 900 mL of water, I first noticed liquid running near the legs. At 1200 mL, it felt generally moist to sit in. At 1800 mL, I felt like I was sitting in a puddle. At 2200 mL, I felt like I was sitting in a pond. At 2400 mL, I felt wetness at the cuffs and the diaper started to leak.

I folded the diaper back up to compare its thickness to a dry diaper. It measured roughly 11.6 cm (4.5 in), roughly 3.1x its original size.

The tapes held steady through all of these trials.

272-10-heightfull.JPG


Dry Diaper Next to Full Diaper After Quantitative Test

I then performed a second test in which I made normal saline (0.9% NaCl in H2O), weighed a diaper and put it on, then used a metered laboratory bottletop dispenser to dose 160 mL saline every 5 minutes until it leaked, sitting down between increments. I weighed the diaper afterwards and divided the resulting change in grams by 1.0046 to account for the density of saline to determine the change in milliliters. 160 mL is approximately equivalent to half of an average adult urine void, and this increment is loosely representative of a "half-flood".

Over 3 replicates of this saline capacity test, a mixed selection of the 3 diapers averaged 1021 mL with a standard deviation of 89 mL. Rounded to numbers of integer "half-flood" doses, the diaper averaged 6.3 "half-floods" with a standard deviation of 0.6 "half-floods".

The average dry mass of this diaper, based on 7 replicates across both tests, was 211.9 g with a standard deviation of 3.0 g.

I weighed and put on a fresh diaper and wore it while going about ordinary activities. The diaper lasted a total of 4.5 hours before beginning to leak. During my test, I had 5 moderate wettings and then flooded it, causing it to leak. I measured a change of 1278 g or roughly 8.0 "half-floods", which is towards the high end of what would be expected from my test results but consistent with filling the diaper to near-capacity and then leaking on a flood.

With a 36" waist, I am at the top of the listed size range for the medium LittlePawz, Space, and Simple. I normally wear size medium in other diaper brands. The fit was similar to other mediums, and this diaper fit thickly but comfortably. The tapes held firm on these diapers during my tests, and I have anecdotally had only infrequent issues with tapes sliding on these diapers since the move to the current clear tapes.



Price and Final Thoughts


I bought packs of these diapers for the purposes of a review from https://abuniverse.com/. Without shipping, ABU LittlePawz and ABU Space are available as single samples for $6.00 (with a $5 discount for a future order for every two sample diapers ordered across brands), 10-diaper packs for $34.99, 40-diaper half-cases for $84.99, and 80-diaper cases at $155.99. Without shipping, ABU LittlePawz and ABU Space are available in 2-diaper sample packs for $6.00, 10-diaper packs for $32.99, 40-diaper half-cases for $78.99, and 80-diaper cases at $134.99. ABU no longer includes shipping in its prices, and now adds $1 for samples, $5 for single packs, $8 for half-cases, and $12 for cases, bringing the final case price to $167.99 for LittlePawz and Space and $145.99 for Simple.

At the case size, this works out for LittlePawz and Space to $2.10/diaper which based on my test results means these diaper holds 3.0 "half-floods" per dollar, and to $1.84/diaper for Simple which based on my test results works out to 3.4 "half-floods" per dollar. LittlePawz and Space are priced near the middle of the pack amongst ABDL diapers while Simple is priced towards the cheaper end. Given their excellent capacity and reasonable pricing, all three diapers are in the top third in terms of efficiency of capacity for price.

For nearly two years, these diapers set the gold standard for ABDL diapers in America, and have only recently been challenged with their lead having eroded due to multiple developments in the past 6 months. Tykables released new Overnights diapers at a matching price point with similar capacity and additional features, NorthShoreCare made Thrust Vector Crinklz widely and cheaply available in America for the first time, and the recent addition of a shipping surcharge amounted to a nearly 8% price hike which was enough to shift their position behind a couple closely competing diapers. On top of all of that, ABU itself is taking the step to surpass their previous benchmark with the impending release of PeekABU and Simple Ultra at an even higher tier of capacity.

ABU LittlePawz, Space, and Simple remain among the best overall diapers on the market today – they just no longer lead the pack. The market has caught up and US customers now have several other similarly high-quality options to choose amongst including a few that I'd say edge them out in the contest for best overall. They are still a great buy and continue to stand tall on the "super-premium" tier that ABU Space was among the very ABDL diapers to define in 2015.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
  • Love
Reactions: MegaLugia, smolguy and Chinababy888
With the diaper outstretched, it measures 76.5 cm (30.1 in) in length, 65.0 cm (25.6 in) in width at the wings, 32.2 cm (12.7 in) in width at the center, and 23.3 cm (9.2 in) in width between the leak guards.

Hi Fruitkitty,

Thank you for posting such thorough and thoughtful reviews - I really appreciate your measurements, like the length and width at center as they allow me to get an idea of how a reviewed diaper would fit without having to try it for myself; that being said, currently the ABU Simple remains my favorite diaper overall.

I did try a couple samples of the ABU Peekabu, but I didn't care for them being thinner and I found that they leaked quicker than the Simple in my albeit limited trial. If I had a wish for the ABU Simple it would be to add a couple of inches to the length so the diapers come up a little higher to the belly button.

As far as absorption rating goes, do you know if there is a posting on what determines a manufacturer's claimed capacity? It seems strange to me that many of these diapers boast about having a capacity of 4500 mls and higher, but your testing and my personal experience show that roughly 15-25% of the listed capacity is a more realistic figure before leaking occurs.

All the best,
tenbelow
 
tenbelow said:
With the diaper outstretched, it measures 76.5 cm (30.1 in) in length, 65.0 cm (25.6 in) in width at the wings, 32.2 cm (12.7 in) in width at the center, and 23.3 cm (9.2 in) in width between the leak guards.

Hi Fruitkitty,

Thank you for posting such thorough and thoughtful reviews - I really appreciate your measurements, like the length and width at center as they allow me to get an idea of how a reviewed diaper would fit without having to try it for myself; that being said, currently the ABU Simple remains my favorite diaper overall.

I did try a couple samples of the ABU Peekabu, but I didn't care for them being thinner and I found that they leaked quicker than the Simple in my albeit limited trial. If I had a wish for the ABU Simple it would be to add a couple of inches to the length so the diapers come up a little higher to the belly button.

As far as absorption rating goes, do you know if there is a posting on what determines a manufacturer's claimed capacity? It seems strange to me that many of these diapers boast about having a capacity of 4500 mls and higher, but your testing and my personal experience show that roughly 15-25% of the listed capacity is a more realistic figure before leaking occurs.

All the best,
tenbelow

Did you try the peekabus before or after the June update? According to the company news letter they redesigned them and shipped out new ones in June. At this time of posting, fruitkitty has not re-reviewed them. I've found the post update peekabus to be a clear step up from littlepawz. Also, I've found that sometimes it takes a few tries to get a diaper to fit correctly.
 
hex000f said:
Did you try the peekabus before or after the June update? According to the company news letter they redesigned them and shipped out new ones in June. At this time of posting, fruitkitty has not re-reviewed them. I've found the post update peekabus to be a clear step up from littlepawz. Also, I've found that sometimes it takes a few tries to get a diaper to fit correctly.

Hi, I'm happy to hear the Peakabus have been improved as I read that ABU were making some improvements to the second batch - were there any specific features in the second batch that you liked about the Peakabus over the littlepawz or just overall found they are a better diaper? Lately I find that I enjoy the thickness of the padding and fit between my legs of the littlepawz/simple line of diapers as well as the plastic outer shell a little more than that of the Peekabus - using a booster pad when increased absorption may be called for...with that said, like most here, I pretty much enjoy ALL diapers and will certainly give Peekabus another try. :biggrin:
 
Little Pawz has to be my favourite ever. They have the cutest ever designs and I love the fading paw designs when they are wet
 
  • Like
Reactions: smolguy, BabySkye75 and jdj1
Thank you for ypur great reviews on these diapers/nappies.

At tgis moment in time I am wearing a abu simple ultra diaper it comes as your aware in all white with four tags, this diaper has a maximum capacity of 6,500 mls of fluids.

Something I am greatfull of because Ive been incontinant since 2010 due to no faultbof my own and I have beennlooking for a diaper with a decent amount of absorbancy as I leak in other products which is very embarrasing.

I did read your review earlier before choosing these diapers because you have all the imformation that I needed, so again a big thankyou goe's to you.

The Abu simple ultra diaper is very comfy bulky and crinkles like the original pampers I remember from my youth as well as being less embarrasing with markers or other things other brands have.

Yours sincerly
Chinababy888.
 
" I remember from my youth as well as being less embarrasing with markers or other things other brands have."
Yes I agree. The Abu Simple is one that I have yet to wear and I'm encouraged by your review. The Space is definitely
high capacity. I have gone 7 hours in one - only leaking at the legs when I flooded it.
 
Back
Top