@AaronLeeJohnson Larger but thinner, I think? For spreading out like a picnic blanket on the beach, but maybe able to dry you off a bit if the need arises.
@AaronLeeJohnson@xobzoo
And bright fun colors… I think beach towels should be bright, fun and colorful!
A beach blanket needs to be all of the above plus be BIG!
A shower towel can be white but really just needs to match your bathroom and of course dry you off!
I paid a lot more for “dog towels” that are smaller but exactly the same material. They work great post bath. I was just thinking I need some bigger ones because I like to cover the floor in towels so they can roll around afterward and get dry.
@tkocka They’re beach towels. Cotton is terrible at the beach, it gets way dirtier than microfiber. It’s the one time I would always choose microfiber, since it sheds sand and water quickly and almost completely. Unlike thick cotton towels.
@Flipflops4evah
Ah ha, love your username! We’re kindred spirits, I’d be barefoot 4evah or beach baby, maybe it’s time for me to change up! Now I forgot what I came to say, jeez, I hate my brain sometimes…
Edit… Everyone at Meh is pretty amazing and creative, have you ever dealt with their CS, top notch for sure! They’re worth just stopping in to wish them a happy day!
@Flipflops4evah@Lynnerizer I second this comment. My IRKs may suck but Meh customer service never does! Every interaction has been stellar and some even give me a chuckle and a smile.
We have a pool in our backyard that our kids and their friends enjoy each summer and we always try to keep extra towels available for kids who don’t bring them. These will do well in freshening up the stock.
@werehatrack woah, they aren’t thick but you must be using paper towels wrong if you’re finding them thicker than these… They’re about twice as thick as a normal paper towel. Maybe the same thickness as blue shop paper towels but even comparing to those there’s also material/density to think of… Hold these up to a bright light and nothing gets through, they’re super dense and very sturdy.
Not trying to be a shill for these, but the paper towel comparison was really ridiculous. I got some of the other ones they sold aThey’re closer to those fake chamoises for car drying.
If you want to fairly criticize something I would say 1) these won’t keep you warm, especially once they’re even a little wet. 2) imagine all the places the tiny microfibers that come off these I’ll inhale in a year… Oh and 3) for the beach this may not insulate enough to keep you from getting burned by the scortching hot sand
I use them to dry things, cover things, or wipe off things. Got these huge ones to throw on dusty outdoor chairs when I want to sit outside without having to hose them off first. Might try to use them to avoid touching the nasty workout mats at the gym while stretching. And they are an excellent way to wrap the bodies and transport them to their shallow beach graves. Just seeing if you’re still reading this essay.
@bobthenormal Measured thickness: 0.38mm for the Wise Owl fabric. Measured thickness of four different brands of household paper towel, 0.19mm to 0.41mm. (The thinnest was Sam’s Club Member’s Mark.) Blue shop towels, off-brand, 0.27mm, Scott 0.43mm. Unknown brand small microfiber non-terry kitchen towel, 0.61mm. Blue ShamWow, 0.84mm uncompressed (used, washed several times) (The yellow ones are a lot thicker.) Compressed thickness of the blue sham is dependent upon the clamping pressure, but the micrometer’s thimble friction would only take it to 0.53mm.
As for density, yes, there is emphatically a lot more mass per square meter in this microfiber fabric than in any of the nonwoven fiber products, but it appears similar to or a bit less than the unknown-brand kitchen microfiber towel.
I will note that this fabric is much less snaggy/clingy than the budget-price microfiber much fluffier towels from Harbor Freight.
The water transport capacity of the cloth appears to be about twice the weight of the cloth itself. (The small cloth was 40g dry, 134g dripping wet, 111g squeezed enough to not be actively dripping.)
When dunked in hot water with a small amount of detergent and agitated for 45 seconds, the water showed some dye shedding, but not a huge amount. Many Gildan 100% cotton t-shirts in dark or bright colors shed worse on first washing than this cloth.
Seriously, nice work! If anyone can nerd out on some good metrology, you found them
I’m shamed by how lazy I am, I did not even imagine breaking out the calipers, much less a bucket and scale!
I’m surprised by the thickness, I would have guessed they were closer to 1mm by looking at them. At least my guess comparing them to the Scott’s towels was pretty good! Also love the shade on Sam’s club lol.
Measuring a soft material with the caliper is rough (no pun intended).
You could try folding them and pressing harder to get a more repeatable averaged thickness?
I hear the ideal number of folds is 8
The way these MF cloths compare to the typical fluffy MF is Interesting because they’re so dense they’re getting closer to feeling like a plastic sheet than towel. So like a softer, fuzzier tarp, but still absorbent. The tiny threads are so densely matted but not really woven, I am curious about long term if they might start to loosen and break down into a fuzzy mess.
The price per sqft seems way better than any other MF, I think a beach towel worth would cost like $20 for the costco kind.
The mental image of 30 something yellow costco towels sewn together into a giant quilt looking beach towel is much funnier though. And would be thicker, more insulating.
I don’t suppose you have the equipment to work out thermal k?
Idk why the dye transferred so hard on mine - I use oxyclean prewash (and vinegar for softener during rinses), I would suspect the oxyclean might loosen up the dye more though? I apologize for not following up with my own experiments. Oh wait, I don’t have any new unwashed ones to test… That’s definitely why I didn’t do it…
@bobthenormal I will also note that although the fabric has a brushed surface that gives the appearance of nonwoven, the fact that it stretches only on the bias but not on the length or width shows that it’s actually woven in fact. That’s a feature. If it was nonwoven and employed a bonding agent to maintain its structural integrity (like ShamWow or paper towels), it would be far less durable. (And were you aware that paper towels exist as a thing because a bonding protein that was easy to incorporate was added by Scott Paper Company back in 1907 to create Scott Towels? Without that bonding protein, the paper didn’t hold together long enough to be useful, but with it, it did. Fast forward, and today much of that product line is actually durable enough to be washed and reused at least once, but almost nobody does it!)
@bobthenormal@werehatrack
You never know what you’re going to get when you poke the bear…
I’d love to be a fly on the wall when you two get together for a discussion.
OH YEAH, I just was!
And to think, I originally came to ask what’s up with all the fake chamoise these days? I can’t even find any comparable to the kind my dad bought when I was a kid!
¯\(ツ)/¯
@bobthenormal@Lynnerizer The original chamois is the skin of a specific mountain goat species found in southern Europe, but most of what’s sold under that name is from sheep now. Needless to say, being leather, it’s expensive enough to have caused many imitations to be devised in recent decades.
This should be obvious but just a reminder since I forgot… DO NOT WASH THESE NEW WITH OTHER CLOTHES.
You would think I learned this lesson with the costco microfibers turning a shirt and some towels yellow. But now I own some actually very nice looking baby blue undershirts, which is okay but they were of course plain white T’s until recently.
They also turned the white “meh” lettering on one of my meh shirts blue, which is actually an improvement. Got lucky I didn’t have any nice clothes in there.
Yikes, these really are super thin. I don’t understand how they could possibly work or be useful. The beach sand gets very hot for something this thin to be able to protect against, so you’d have to get there pretty early before the Sun heats the sand up. Very disappointed but should have read the Amazon reviews (many of which are clearly made up; I guess Amazon is up to its old tricks again. You can tell the real ones because they tell you exactly what you’re getting). Hopefully the people I plan to gift them to will find some use for them.
These are not towels!! They are just thin material. They might actually work for what I bought them for which was to cover the floor of my house after my dogs have their baths so they don’t get anything on them while they roll around. I’m just glad I didn’t buy two sets.
I ordered a 2-pack for my old lady aquafit class. I want a large towel to cover all my lady parts in the locker room and sauna. I also need it to be light and portable in my swim bag. I’ve used it once already and I really like it. It’s big enough to dry me off quickly, then it dries quickly when hung up. Yes, it’s very thin but it’s supposed to be. I can roll it up into a small bundle and tuck it into my bag. Several old ladies have asked me where they can get one. Not sure how to explain Meh. to a senior crowd.
After having them for a while, they have come in handy repeatedly. It rained recently and I used them to cover the area by the front door to keep the wet paw prints from getting everywhere. And they do a great job when the dogs are done with their baths to keep their wet fur off the furniture and floor
Specs
Product: 2-Pack: Wise Owl Outfitters 48"x84" Oversized Beach & Yoga Towel
Model: B07ZQNBDVM, B07ZQNCS4J
Condition: New
What’s Included?
Price Comparison
$49.98 (for 2) at Amazon
Warranty
90 days
Estimated Delivery
Thursday, Nov 21 - Monday, Nov 25
I don’t need these.
/image cogent-aquamarine-gate
/giphy cogent-aquamarine-gate
/showme cogent-aquamarine-gate
@mediocrebot Yep. There it is.
@shahnm Yeah, me neither. So I’m in for two pairs.
@shahnm
Same here, and yet,
/showme vicious-cheerful-bottle
A beach towel is just a bath towel that is…
wait, what is the difference?
@AaronLeeJohnson Larger but thinner, I think? For spreading out like a picnic blanket on the beach, but maybe able to dry you off a bit if the need arises.
I think.
@AaronLeeJohnson Beach towels tend to be wider and longer.
@AaronLeeJohnson @werehatrack However, beaches vary wildly in size.
Gulpiyuri Beach, said to be the world’s smallest beach.
@AaronLeeJohnson @xobzoo
And bright fun colors… I think beach towels should be bright, fun and colorful!
A beach blanket needs to be all of the above plus be BIG!
A shower towel can be white but really just needs to match your bathroom and of course dry you off!
@AaronLeeJohnson @macromeh @werehatrack
I wouldn’t pass on it, especially IF it was attached to my back yard!
Maybe I’m reading it wrong but I looked on Amazon and there are two of them would be about $17?
@bugger $24.99 each on my end. There are small versions for less which may be what you are seeing
/image hellish-perfect-stingray
Go Lions.
The reviews on Amazon say this towel is incredibly small.
@ardycake There are small variants on this same listing. Gotta make sure its filtered for the large size
Microfiber? Hell with that, can’t stand it, it catches on my fingertips and fingernails that I always gnaw at
@xterraguy ok, there’s a dietary fiber joke here somewhere
@xterraguy
My hands are softer than soft and I KNOW what you mean! I hate to touch microfiber! It makes me think my fingers are prickly rose thorns!
/image jerky-misleading-nation
/showme crowded ravishing wing
Why did I never get invited to those parties?
/giphy quilled majestic illusionist
/showme fancy-minimalist-neptune
/giphy fancy minimalist neptune
/giphy joyful-disastrous-behavior
/showme joyful-disastrous-behavior
@blaineg
@blaineg “pie eatating outsquets”
@blaineg @Kyeh Well, I don’t know how you’d avoid them with all the “BALLLOON FIGHTES” and “RACE KNICKKING” going on.
I paid a lot more for “dog towels” that are smaller but exactly the same material. They work great post bath. I was just thinking I need some bigger ones because I like to cover the floor in towels so they can roll around afterward and get dry.
@Fuzzalini
/giphy exquisite-brutal-ogre
@Fuzzalini
/showme exquisite-brutal-ogre
@mediocrebot I need to save this image…for reasons.
/showme arid-fatherly-chin
Birds Aren’t Real. And neither are microfiber “towels.”
/showme narcissistic-wandering-warrior
Give me thicker and give me cotton. Microfiber picks up every pet hair in the house. Same with sweat shirts and pants.
@tkocka They’re beach towels. Cotton is terrible at the beach, it gets way dirtier than microfiber. It’s the one time I would always choose microfiber, since it sheds sand and water quickly and almost completely. Unlike thick cotton towels.
/showme disturbing-turbulent-winter
/giphy unusual-keen-blade
/buy -q 5 --color blue
@dave It worked! Your order number is: unsightly-waxing-dracula
/showme unsightly waxing dracula
@mediocrebot No one seems happy about this experience at all
$5 each for adventure towels!! (less a $5 coupon and this a no brainer!!)
@ticklescratch care to share said $5 coupon?
@ticklescratch
Yeah, where’s the $5 coupon?
@Lynnerizer @ticklescratch The coupons that people mention are specific to their account.
@Lynnerizer @ticklescratch @TimW
Probably an apology coupon for an item arriving really late or something.
I love meh.
I get a good laugh every time. Whoever writes copy for these emails is amazing.
@Flipflops4evah
Now I forgot what I came to say, jeez, I hate my brain sometimes…
Ah ha, love your username! We’re kindred spirits, I’d be barefoot 4evah or beach baby, maybe it’s time for me to change up!
Edit… Everyone at Meh is pretty amazing and creative, have you ever dealt with their CS, top notch for sure! They’re worth just stopping in to wish them a happy day!
@Flipflops4evah @Lynnerizer I second this comment. My IRKs may suck but Meh customer service never does! Every interaction has been stellar and some even give me a chuckle and a smile.
/showme flawed-tawny-group
/showme teal-frozen-gold
@mediocrebot
That’s pretty, I would print it on a canvas, but it would be better in 3D. Hmm… maybe I will!
We have a pool in our backyard that our kids and their friends enjoy each summer and we always try to keep extra towels available for kids who don’t bring them. These will do well in freshening up the stock.
/showme ecstatic-fresh-basket
I only bought these because of Dave’s email.
@ChadP I’m taking a second look because of his email…
@ChadP
/image rick and morty i’m in
Winter is coming…
…and we have a dog who needs to be toweled.
Today, what prompted me to buy was the price of thr towels. And also seeing the photos of just how large they were. Better than Temu pricing!
Do I need them? Yes. Do I need them in microfiber? Hell nawl. When will Meh ever get the fact that we like cotton around here?
/giphy duly-sad-hook
/giphy permissive-heartsick-fork
Very thin. As in, kitchen towel thin. Most paper towels are thicker.
@werehatrack woah, they aren’t thick but you must be using paper towels wrong if you’re finding them thicker than these… They’re about twice as thick as a normal paper towel. Maybe the same thickness as blue shop paper towels but even comparing to those there’s also material/density to think of… Hold these up to a bright light and nothing gets through, they’re super dense and very sturdy.
Not trying to be a shill for these, but the paper towel comparison was really ridiculous. I got some of the other ones they sold aThey’re closer to those fake chamoises for car drying.
If you want to fairly criticize something I would say 1) these won’t keep you warm, especially once they’re even a little wet. 2) imagine all the places the tiny microfibers that come off these I’ll inhale in a year… Oh and 3) for the beach this may not insulate enough to keep you from getting burned by the scortching hot sand
I use them to dry things, cover things, or wipe off things. Got these huge ones to throw on dusty outdoor chairs when I want to sit outside without having to hose them off first. Might try to use them to avoid touching the nasty workout mats at the gym while stretching. And they are an excellent way to wrap the bodies and transport them to their shallow beach graves. Just seeing if you’re still reading this essay.
@bobthenormal Measured thickness: 0.38mm for the Wise Owl fabric. Measured thickness of four different brands of household paper towel, 0.19mm to 0.41mm. (The thinnest was Sam’s Club Member’s Mark.) Blue shop towels, off-brand, 0.27mm, Scott 0.43mm. Unknown brand small microfiber non-terry kitchen towel, 0.61mm. Blue ShamWow, 0.84mm uncompressed (used, washed several times) (The yellow ones are a lot thicker.) Compressed thickness of the blue sham is dependent upon the clamping pressure, but the micrometer’s thimble friction would only take it to 0.53mm.
As for density, yes, there is emphatically a lot more mass per square meter in this microfiber fabric than in any of the nonwoven fiber products, but it appears similar to or a bit less than the unknown-brand kitchen microfiber towel.
I will note that this fabric is much less snaggy/clingy than the budget-price microfiber much fluffier towels from Harbor Freight.
The water transport capacity of the cloth appears to be about twice the weight of the cloth itself. (The small cloth was 40g dry, 134g dripping wet, 111g squeezed enough to not be actively dripping.)
When dunked in hot water with a small amount of detergent and agitated for 45 seconds, the water showed some dye shedding, but not a huge amount. Many Gildan 100% cotton t-shirts in dark or bright colors shed worse on first washing than this cloth.
@werehatrack
Sciencey!
Seriously, nice work! If anyone can nerd out on some good metrology, you found them
I’m shamed by how lazy I am, I did not even imagine breaking out the calipers, much less a bucket and scale!
I’m surprised by the thickness, I would have guessed they were closer to 1mm by looking at them. At least my guess comparing them to the Scott’s towels was pretty good! Also love the shade on Sam’s club lol.
Measuring a soft material with the caliper is rough (no pun intended).
You could try folding them and pressing harder to get a more repeatable averaged thickness?
I hear the ideal number of folds is 8
The way these MF cloths compare to the typical fluffy MF is Interesting because they’re so dense they’re getting closer to feeling like a plastic sheet than towel. So like a softer, fuzzier tarp, but still absorbent. The tiny threads are so densely matted but not really woven, I am curious about long term if they might start to loosen and break down into a fuzzy mess.
The price per sqft seems way better than any other MF, I think a beach towel worth would cost like $20 for the costco kind.
The mental image of 30 something yellow costco towels sewn together into a giant quilt looking beach towel is much funnier though. And would be thicker, more insulating.
I don’t suppose you have the equipment to work out thermal k?
Idk why the dye transferred so hard on mine - I use oxyclean prewash (and vinegar for softener during rinses), I would suspect the oxyclean might loosen up the dye more though? I apologize for not following up with my own experiments. Oh wait, I don’t have any new unwashed ones to test… That’s definitely why I didn’t do it…
@bobthenormal I will also note that although the fabric has a brushed surface that gives the appearance of nonwoven, the fact that it stretches only on the bias but not on the length or width shows that it’s actually woven in fact. That’s a feature. If it was nonwoven and employed a bonding agent to maintain its structural integrity (like ShamWow or paper towels), it would be far less durable. (And were you aware that paper towels exist as a thing because a bonding protein that was easy to incorporate was added by Scott Paper Company back in 1907 to create Scott Towels? Without that bonding protein, the paper didn’t hold together long enough to be useful, but with it, it did. Fast forward, and today much of that product line is actually durable enough to be washed and reused at least once, but almost nobody does it!)
@bobthenormal @werehatrack
You never know what you’re going to get when you poke the bear…
I’d love to be a fly on the wall when you two get together for a discussion.
OH YEAH, I just was!
And to think, I originally came to ask what’s up with all the fake chamoise these days? I can’t even find any comparable to the kind my dad bought when I was a kid!
¯\(ツ)/¯
@bobthenormal @Lynnerizer The original chamois is the skin of a specific mountain goat species found in southern Europe, but most of what’s sold under that name is from sheep now. Needless to say, being leather, it’s expensive enough to have caused many imitations to be devised in recent decades.
@bobthenormal @werehatrack
Do you really have ALL THIS INFORMATION in your head or do you look this stuff up? 
My goodness, you never cease to amaze me!
And thanks, I had no idea what kind of skin chamois!
)
(And never bothered to Google it!
@bobthenormal @werehatrack These aren’t towels. These are “shop towels”…whatta rip. Ugh
/showme itchy-madly-church
/giphy itchy-madly-church
@dewaynelawson
This should be obvious but just a reminder since I forgot… DO NOT WASH THESE NEW WITH OTHER CLOTHES.
You would think I learned this lesson with the costco microfibers turning a shirt and some towels yellow. But now I own some actually very nice looking baby blue undershirts, which is okay but they were of course plain white T’s until recently.
They also turned the white “meh” lettering on one of my meh shirts blue, which is actually an improvement. Got lucky I didn’t have any nice clothes in there.
No real Georgia red. . . For that alone, meh
I’m hoping these don’t feel yucky. They’re for gifts. If they suck, can I send them back or do I just have to gift them to crappy friends?
@RAPSMIMI It’s my understanding that Buyer Remorse is not a supported reason for return.
@RAPSMIMI https://meh.com/warranty
Yikes, these really are super thin. I don’t understand how they could possibly work or be useful. The beach sand gets very hot for something this thin to be able to protect against, so you’d have to get there pretty early before the Sun heats the sand up. Very disappointed but should have read the Amazon reviews (many of which are clearly made up; I guess Amazon is up to its old tricks again. You can tell the real ones because they tell you exactly what you’re getting). Hopefully the people I plan to gift them to will find some use for them.
These are not towels!! They are just thin material. They might actually work for what I bought them for which was to cover the floor of my house after my dogs have their baths so they don’t get anything on them while they roll around. I’m just glad I didn’t buy two sets.
Very thin. Not sure they can really be considered beach towels. More like beach sheets.
I ordered a 2-pack for my old lady aquafit class. I want a large towel to cover all my lady parts in the locker room and sauna. I also need it to be light and portable in my swim bag. I’ve used it once already and I really like it. It’s big enough to dry me off quickly, then it dries quickly when hung up. Yes, it’s very thin but it’s supposed to be. I can roll it up into a small bundle and tuck it into my bag. Several old ladies have asked me where they can get one. Not sure how to explain Meh. to a senior crowd.
@user12720844 I think there are a lot of seniors buying from Meh, if you go by the forum comments!
After having them for a while, they have come in handy repeatedly. It rained recently and I used them to cover the area by the front door to keep the wet paw prints from getting everywhere. And they do a great job when the dogs are done with their baths to keep their wet fur off the furniture and floor