I can’t turn on the sound while I’m at work so maybe it explains it…but doesn’t the idea of adding water to the towel to expand it defeat the purpose of a towel? Like if I’m wiping up a spill, a soaking wet rag isn’t going to be super helpful. I guess it depends what you want to use it for. Maybe I’m just caught up on the world “towel” when it’s really more like an expandable wet wipe. Idk.
I think the key is to use a few drops of water or use the water you’re soaking up to activate it. Like if you took a solar shower while backpacking and wanted to dry off it would activate when you started wiping yourself dry with it which would make it easier to towel with which would increase the rate at which it activates in a positive feedback loop.
If you only consider the context of the demonstration it sucks but if you consider you might have a pot/pan that has some water on it still that you’d like to dry off before putting it into your pack it would activate from that water too right? If anything the fact that they’re so thoroughly dehydrated probably means they can pick up more water than another towel of similar size and weight.
I’m just talking here but wouldn’t you take in and take out everything when you go camping? What do you do with these towels now that they’re big after being used? If you carry them back then wouldn’t it just defeat the purpose of having a pill towel when you could just carry a regular small one?
Usually you’d have a bag for garbage that you can put it in. It mainly saves space to start with in your pack. You have other supplies like food and water which will be used up over the course of the hike, providing more space on the way back that wouldn’t be there at the start, so the towels expanding after use isn’t as much of a problem.
Less weight and saves space. Note how in the post image it mentions they’re good for hiking, weight and space are a big thing when packing for hiking. They expand after use yeah, but you might not use all of them. So you have them just in case but still generally save space.
Is it really less weight though? If you have to carry in the towels and carry in the water, then combine them, isn’t that the same as carrying them already combined? Same thing with space. You’re compressing the towel but you still have to carry in the water.
You already have to take water anyways even if you take regular wet wipes, and you should already be taking some extra water just in case. You don’t need as much water for these towels as wet wipes use, and in a lot of cases you can use water from the environment (like a river/stream/lake/rain/etc) so long as you’re not ingesting it or putting it on wounds, say if you’re using it to keep cool or clean yourself. You can also use excess water from what you already use for other stuff like if you’re washing dishes or washing your hands and so on. So you don’t really have to take more water than you would have anyway. Some hiking trails provide occasional stations with potable water as well, at least where I live, particularly if they’re near/around a campground.
If there’s water available you don’t have to carry it in. Treatment tablets and filters are lighter than water, and let you make potable water as you need it.
If you used it to wipe up a spill you wouldn’t have to wet it first, just throw it on the spill and it’ll soak up the liquid, then when it starts expanding from that you can use it to wipe more thoroughly.
I bring these around during travel because sometimes restrooms don’t have towels and I don’t want to touch the wet handle to get out. Pretty niche and I only go through a few a year but it’s better than wet public restroom door handles
I can’t turn on the sound while I’m at work so maybe it explains it…but doesn’t the idea of adding water to the towel to expand it defeat the purpose of a towel? Like if I’m wiping up a spill, a soaking wet rag isn’t going to be super helpful. I guess it depends what you want to use it for. Maybe I’m just caught up on the world “towel” when it’s really more like an expandable wet wipe. Idk.
Yeah it seems to be an expandable wet wipe, where you have to provide the wet. Not sure how this is more useful than a pack of wet wipes.
The ultralight community would pay $500 just to save 2 oz.
Ounces become pounds, bro.
Tell that to my weed pls
Then nutnfancy will talk about it for an hour.
I think the key is to use a few drops of water or use the water you’re soaking up to activate it. Like if you took a solar shower while backpacking and wanted to dry off it would activate when you started wiping yourself dry with it which would make it easier to towel with which would increase the rate at which it activates in a positive feedback loop.
If you only consider the context of the demonstration it sucks but if you consider you might have a pot/pan that has some water on it still that you’d like to dry off before putting it into your pack it would activate from that water too right? If anything the fact that they’re so thoroughly dehydrated probably means they can pick up more water than another towel of similar size and weight.
I’m just talking here but wouldn’t you take in and take out everything when you go camping? What do you do with these towels now that they’re big after being used? If you carry them back then wouldn’t it just defeat the purpose of having a pill towel when you could just carry a regular small one?
They’re the size of a paper towel.
Tie it on outside of backpack to dry? Never used these specifically just spitballing based on experience.
Usually you’d have a bag for garbage that you can put it in. It mainly saves space to start with in your pack. You have other supplies like food and water which will be used up over the course of the hike, providing more space on the way back that wouldn’t be there at the start, so the towels expanding after use isn’t as much of a problem.
Less weight and saves space. Note how in the post image it mentions they’re good for hiking, weight and space are a big thing when packing for hiking. They expand after use yeah, but you might not use all of them. So you have them just in case but still generally save space.
Is it really less weight though? If you have to carry in the towels and carry in the water, then combine them, isn’t that the same as carrying them already combined? Same thing with space. You’re compressing the towel but you still have to carry in the water.
You already have to take water anyways even if you take regular wet wipes, and you should already be taking some extra water just in case. You don’t need as much water for these towels as wet wipes use, and in a lot of cases you can use water from the environment (like a river/stream/lake/rain/etc) so long as you’re not ingesting it or putting it on wounds, say if you’re using it to keep cool or clean yourself. You can also use excess water from what you already use for other stuff like if you’re washing dishes or washing your hands and so on. So you don’t really have to take more water than you would have anyway. Some hiking trails provide occasional stations with potable water as well, at least where I live, particularly if they’re near/around a campground.
If there’s water available you don’t have to carry it in. Treatment tablets and filters are lighter than water, and let you make potable water as you need it.
If you used it to wipe up a spill you wouldn’t have to wet it first, just throw it on the spill and it’ll soak up the liquid, then when it starts expanding from that you can use it to wipe more thoroughly.
Way to be a dampener.
I bring these around during travel because sometimes restrooms don’t have towels and I don’t want to touch the wet handle to get out. Pretty niche and I only go through a few a year but it’s better than wet public restroom door handles
these are wet wipes to freshen ones hands before a meal. restaurants will often give these out with little warm water