Compact Towels

Am Fri, 22 Jun 2007 01:50:58 -0700 schrieb toad:

Quoted message said:

Like these: http://www.millets.co.uk/millets.storefront/SearchList.aspx?q=towel

Are they worth it? What are the advantages? Do travel towels dry
quicker after use?

In the past I've just taken a hand towel which packs up tiny and works
fine. (I've even considered taking a tea towel.) Is it worth changing?

If you just want to try it - i found one of those on offer in that cheapy
shop 'home bargains' the other day. It just cost a pound or so IIRC,
including a little sac. They do indeed dry very quickly. And if you don't
like it as a towel - you can use it for cleaning in the house :-)
I've had some of these quick dry towels before - larger and thicker though.
One disadvantage is IMHO that dirt tends to stick on the material. Once in
the dry summer in southern France I put it on the ground to sit in some
grassland. Afterwards the whole towel was full of dried grass (straw-like)
bits and it took me quite a while to clean. With a cotton towel I would
have just shaked it a bit and it would have been clean.

Andreas

In message <[email hidden]>, toad
<[email hidden]> writes

Quoted message said:

Like these: http://www.millets.co.uk/millets.storefront/SearchList.aspx?q=towel

The only experience I have of anything like this was with a friend of
mine who loved all things Rohan. He had a Rohan (Pertex I think) travel
towel. It dried fast, mainly because it did not appear to actually
absorb any water, simply spread it about.

I have an old worn towel sitting in the airing cupboard for my camping
trips. My wife hates it because it's tatty, but it is light & very
absorbent. Unfortunately it doesn't dry too fast, but I can put up with
that.

My personal opinion, for what it's worth, is to save your money and
spend it on something useful, like beer.

Regards,
--
Neil Pugh

Neil Pugh said:

I have an old worn towel sitting in the airing cupboard for my camping
trips. My wife hates it because it's tatty, but it is light & very
absorbent. Unfortunately it doesn't dry too fast, but I can put up with
that.

My personal opinion, for what it's worth, is to save your money and
spend it on something useful, like beer.

It's always easy to follow advice which fits with your own pre-
conceived ideas! So I'll stick with my light, absorbant, tiny hand
towel!

toad said:

Like these: http://www.millets.co.uk/millets.storefront/SearchList.aspx?q=towel

Are they worth it? What are the advantages? Do travel towels dry
quicker after use?

In the past I've just taken a hand towel which packs up tiny and works
fine. (I've even considered taking a tea towel.) Is it worth changing?

If what you have works, might as well stick with it. Especially if
it's just for an overnighter.

We have travel towels in a couple of flavours (Cascade and
LifeVenture) and we do find them good for multi-day trips. They're
not as good as a "normal" bath towel when both start off dry, but
they're easy to wring out and dry fast, and IME you can get
acceptably dry from an all-in wetting with a smallish one which
isn't possible with an equivalent weight/bulk of "normal" towel.

I used to just dry myself on a fleece, but one of the problems of
modern day super non-absorbent fabrics is that it justn't doesn't
work as well as it used to!

Pete.
--
Peter Clinch Medical Physics IT Officer
Tel 44 1382 660111 ext. 33637 Univ. of Dundee, Ninewells Hospital
Fax 44 1382 640177 Dundee DD1 9SY Scotland UK
net [email hidden] http://www.dundee.ac.uk/~pjclinch/

Peter Clinch said:

toad said:

Like these:http://www.millets.co.uk/millets.storefront/SearchList.aspx?q=towel

Quoted message said:

Are they worth it? What are the advantages? Do travel towels dry
quicker after use?

Quoted message said:

In the past I've just taken a hand towel which packs up tiny and works
fine. (I've even considered taking a tea towel.) Is it worth changing?

If what you have works, might as well stick with it. Especially if
it's just for an overnighter.

It's for 14 days, but yeah, am gonna stick with it.

toad said:

Peter Clinch said:

toad said:

Like these:http://www.millets.co.uk/millets.storefront/SearchList.aspx?q=towel
Are they worth it? What are the advantages? Do travel towels dry
quicker after use?
In the past I've just taken a hand towel which packs up tiny and works
fine. (I've even considered taking a tea towel.) Is it worth changing?

If what you have works, might as well stick with it. Especially if
it's just for an overnighter.

It's for 14 days, but yeah, am gonna stick with it.

If it's 14 days I think you might actually be quite a bit better
off with a pack towel. The pertex ones are, as suggested
up-thread, a bit too minimalist for their own good but the fluffier
ones do have significant drying advantages IME over a normal towel,
and respond better to wringing. All the damp you don't wring out
or doesn't evaporate is extra weight as well as rather contrary to
helpfulness next time you want to get dry.

Pete.
--
Peter Clinch Medical Physics IT Officer
Tel 44 1382 660111 ext. 33637 Univ. of Dundee, Ninewells Hospital
Fax 44 1382 640177 Dundee DD1 9SY Scotland UK
net [email hidden] http://www.dundee.ac.uk/~pjclinch/

Peter Clinch said:

If it's 14 days I think you might actually be quite a bit better
off with a pack towel.

It depends what sort of travelling you are doing but if you are ever
at a campsite with fairly primitive showers then I don't think it is
overkill to take three pack towels (occupy the space of one small
fluffy towel). I have one small rough, cheap one to stand on, one
small soft one for hand/hairwashing and one big soft one to do the
sarong thing. They dry very quickly

BUT

don't think they are much use for lying on the beach. They tend to
absorb any moisture from the sand ...

Pam S

Peter Clinch said:

toad said:

Peter Clinch said:

toad wrote:
> Like
> these:http://www.millets.co.uk/millets.storefront/SearchList.aspx?q=towel
>
> Are they worth it? What are the advantages? Do travel towels dry
> quicker after use?
> In the past I've just taken a hand towel which packs up tiny and works
> fine. (I've even considered taking a tea towel.) Is it worth changing?
If what you have works, might as well stick with it. Especially if
it's just for an overnighter.

It's for 14 days, but yeah, am gonna stick with it.

If it's 14 days I think you might actually be quite a bit better off
with a pack towel. The pertex ones are, as suggested up-thread, a bit
too minimalist for their own good but the fluffier ones do have
significant drying advantages IME over a normal towel, and respond
better to wringing. All the damp you don't wring out or doesn't
evaporate is extra weight as well as rather contrary to helpfulness next
time you want to get dry.

and damp towels are mouldy, smelly towels. The high tech travel towels
not only dry out quicker, but also have anti-bacterial, anti-fungal
treatments. They're not that expensive either if you look on ebay rather
than Millets. I have an Aztec Nobac bath sized towel that cost about £15.

-Antony.

Peter Clinch said:

I used to just dry myself on a fleece, but one of the problems of
modern day super non-absorbent fabrics is that it justn't doesn't
work as well as it used to!

True of most of the pack towels too, though, I think : I have a
Paramo one and although it's a very much thicker fabric than the
Lifeventure style it still doesn't hold much water - as someone
else said, it mostly spreads it out.

You need to use these things in a quite different way from a big
fluffy cotton towel : I use the hand-towel sized Paramo for a shower,
getting as much water as possible off with a flannel (wringing it out
frequently) and then just drying off the remaining dampness with the
pack towel. The towel distributes this small amount of water into
the fabric, and that dries off easily when left in a tent or car for
the day. If the same method is used with cotton it won't dry as
quickly .. but it won't appear to be wringing wet either because
it simply hasn't absorbed very much water.

-adrian