Aldi Paper Towels

Last Updated on July 9, 2023

When you need to clean up messes, Aldi has a few paper towel options. Let’s take a look.

Boulder Classic

These compare to name brand Sparkle paper towels and are sold in either a single pack or a 6-pack. They feature “multi sizes.” What that means is that each towel is 11 inches by 5.5 inches, so they are rectangular and smaller than a traditional square paper towel, because sometimes you only have a small mess to clean. If you need a larger, regular-sized paper towel, you simply tear two towels together off the roll. Each roll has 128 2-ply sheets with floral/geometric printed designs, for a total of 53.8 square feet per roll. These paper towels are advertised as absorbent “everyday towels” that are “a great choice for any household task.” The package has an FSC seal indicating the paper came from responsible sources.

Boulder Ultra

These paper towels compare to name brand Bounty and are sold in two ways: a 2-pack with 121 11-inch by 6-inch “multi size” sheets per roll for a total of 110.9 square feet per roll, or an 8-pack  with 52 11-inch by 10.4-inch full-sized sheets per roll, for a total of 330.4 square feet per roll. All the sheets are 2-ply, feature no prints or images, and are advertised as absorbent and quilted. The packaging states these are “uniquely designed to provide maximum strength and performance to wipe away mess in an instant.”

Daily Basics Strong & Absorbent Paper Towel

These plain white paper towels are sold as single-roll packages with 52 11-inch by 9-inch towels with a total of 37.8 square feet per roll. Towels are 2-ply, quilted, 100% recycled, whitened without chemicals containing chlorine, and contain no added dyes or fragrances.

Daily Basics is an Aldi brand that sells very little. All we’ve seen is toilet paper (which is pretty good quality), some salad dressing, and fruit jelly. It’s totally random.

The Verdict

We’ve crunched the cost per square foot, and here’s what we’ve come up with:

From a cost perspective, it’s no contest: the Daily Basics is by far the cheapest per square foot. Daily Basics comes in a single roll, so if you need a lot of paper towels, you’ll have to stock up.

On the other end, Boulder Ultra is easily the most expensive per square foot, especially if you buy the two-pack. Boulder Classic falls somewhere in between, although a single pack of Boulder Classic costs about the same per square foot as a Boulder Ultra 8-pack. (Moral of the story: when possible, buy the larger packs.)

But how do these paper towels hold up in terms of performance? How good are they at absorbing messes?

For lack of a better scientific method, I laid out one square (in some cases it was two rectangle towels attached to form a square) of each of the three paper towel types: Boulder Ultra, Boulder Classic, and Daily Basics. Then I dropped one teaspoon of water in the center of each square paper towel and noted how well the towel absorbed the water and how far the water traveled.

Here’s the Boulder Ultra:

And the Boulder Classic:

And the Daily Basics:

The Boulder Ultra — while the most expensive — was the best at sopping up the water, while the Boulder Classic and Daily Basics didn’t do as well, and performed about equal to each other. Any of these paper towel brands will do just fine for home use, but if you want something that is more absorbent, definitely go with the Boulder Ultra.

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