comparing capacity (dry weight) of the best Rearz diapers

[bambinod]

I was just looking at my (yes, geeky) spreadsheet, at my favorite Rearz diapers, and I noticed the Dinosaur Elite I wore to bed last night are lighther than the Safari / Inspire+InControl. I was expecting they were the same diaper just with different prints, and usually weight translates pretty well to capacity, but these Elite seem to have really good capacity, at least as good as Safari. So I was wondering why they're lighter? Are they using a higher grade of SAP? (I definitely see the Alpaca as weighing the most, and those are rated the highest capacity of all Rearz)



The numbers do vary slightly, I'm not the most scientific of person with a tape measure, and some of these measurements are pretty old, but the weight should be pretty accurate. Those were taken more recently, using a precision food scale, averaging several diapers where possible. (I can only usually measure two Rearz at a time due to how heavy they are because of the upper limit of my scale, in those cases I usually do several measurements with different pairs of diapers to make sure I'm not including an outlier) My scale has two more units of precision, so I've decided to round to the nearest tenth of an ounce for my table. (diapers do vary a bit by weight, +/- a tenth of an ounce is common, though I've seen A LOT more variance in some diapers)

My last measurements have the Elite at 7.9 oz, the Safari/IIC at 8.3 oz, and the Alpaca at 8.6 oz.

I don't recall the username of the Rearz rep - I'd have direct messaged you if I had, but I don't see hw to search for a rep here. (there's no Rep group in Members)

 

[Blue2006]

I’m curious if they’ve gotten lighter over the years. They claim they haven’t. Their absorbing characteristics have changed IMO as well as overall thickness. Probably due to every company using more sap. I do not think at all diapers wick all over as well as they used to due this. Just my opinion…. Overall, capacity in some brands have definitely increased without much overall thickness, tykables Camelot’s and others. Just do not wick as efficient seems like.

 

[bambinod]

I suspect that's due to recent improvements in SAP. If you can get a 50% increase in the absorbency, you can use a little less (meaning lower weight) and still get the same or even greater overall capacity. Even if the reduced amount and increase in cost are break-even, you end up saving money in product shipping. Plus you have selling points for thinner while dry with same capacity, and also those that just plain like diaper swell when wet. I've seen diaper manufacturers discuss using "premium sap", I suppose that means higher capacity and probably a little higher cost too.

 

[PCBaby]

Are you aware that quoted capacities are from lab results rather than real world figures. They lab test using distilled water for not only capacity but for absorption rates. This has a different "weight" to normal tap water and to urine. So the amount of urine a given nappy will absorn and the time it takes to absorb will be different and can even be different in the same bag of nappies.

 

[bambinod]

Are you aware that quoted capacities are from lab results rather than real world figures.

yep, though that doesn't matter much when comparing capacities under similar circumstances. (unless one sap absorbs urine better than another of course, but I'm making the assumption that there's little difference in absorbing preferences between the differnet kinds of sap, which may be a bad assumption)

 

[mikedp7815]

The SAP amount. I use ABU Simple and Abu Simple Ultra. The Ultra is more absorbent, thinner and lighter. It does swell and become more squishy. Simple Ultra is also the same as Peek a boos