Do microfibre towels dry quicker and absorb more water?

Question

I am going to be doing a tour of Europe, visiting like 20 countries in 49 days and staying in hostels and cheap hotels. Given all this travelling, I think it is possible that my towel may not always have enough time to properly dry. One of the items Kathmandu is selling is microfibre towels. The salesman claimed that they dry twice as fast and be able to absorb as much water as a towel of normal thickness. How accurate are these claims?

Answer 1

I use Lifeventure Hydrofibre Trek towel and must say that it is amazing. That's a subjective description and now for the objective one:

• First my tests at home

  1. I tried putting it in a pint glass (0.5 liter) full of water and it absorbed about 85% if not more of it. It did drip though but let's be honest, you'll never gonna be that wet to start with.

  2. It doesn't drip at all if you spill half a pint of liquid on it.

  3. It can dry up any surface much quicker than the cotton towel as it absorbs the liquid more efficiently.

  4. After a "pintful" test, the towel dried up in about 40 minutes in a room with 40% humidity and around 20°C (68°F).

  5. A damp towel dries in about 15-20 minutes in the same conditions mentioned above.

• In the wild

  1. It is unbelievably light, only 150 gram (⅓ lb).

  2. It will be a bit weird at first but you don't wipe yourself with it, you just pat it over your skin.

  3. It dries in half an hour in shade or only 5-10 minutes in sun. Of course, you can't just bundle it and expect it to dry that quick, just put it on a clothesline.

The company offers other models as well, check them out here.

Answer 2

onebag.com has an opinion about that: The recommendation is viscose towels, in particular MSR PackTowl Original. Synthetic microfibres are said to be inferior to viscose.

I have one: it is great!