Walmart's best and worst toilet paper
You can buy Consumer Reports’ top-rated toilet paper at Walmart or you can wander farther down the paper goods aisle and buy the toilet tissue that did the worst in our tests. Sure it costs a lot less—6 cents per 100 sheets compared to 25 cents—but in this case, you get what you pay for.
Tops in our tests was Walmart’s White Cloud Ultra Soft & Thick. It’s soft to the touch, strong when you need it, and falls apart fast once tossed in the toilet. It’s our only toilet paper pick and also a CR Best Buy. But in our toilet paper tests, Walmart’s dubiously named Great Value Bathroom Tissue was neither soft nor strong, and it didn’t disintegrate well. It scored a lowly 9 out of a possible 100.
The TP challenge
Judging by our latest tests, it’s still pretty hard to make toilet paper that’s both soft and strong. Most of the softest toilet papers weren’t very strong. And some of the strongest toilet papers were too strong, which can cause plumbing or septic problems once you flush. Three varieties of Charmin—Ultra Soft, Ultra Strong, and Basic—and two varieties of Quilted Northern—Ultra Plush and Ultra Soft & Strong—took longer to disintegrate than any of the other 21 toilet papers we tested.
Not a Walmart shopper? Our next best toilet paper, Nice Premium Ultra, is sold at Walgreens and costs 33 cents per 100 sheets. It was so-so in strength but very soft and disintegrates well. We also tested toilet papers sold at CVS, Target, and Costco but they ended up in the middle of the pack or worse. At your supermarket, choose Scott Extra Soft, 20 cents, which was okay in strength and softness and excellent at disintegrating. Its brandmate, Scott 1000, 9 cents, however isn’t very strong or soft but it won’t hurt your pipes.
–Celia Kuperszmid Lehrman (@cklehrman on Twitter)
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