Best Toilet Paper

Top premium toilet papers balance softness and strength

Super-soft toilet paper has one big drawback: It's tougher on the environment, according to the Natural Resources Defense Council. The bleaching process manufacturers use can contaminate water with chlorinated pollutants. Premium toilet paper is also made from virgin wood fibers -- harvested from freshly cut trees. Additionally, some experts say these super-soft products take more energy to manufacture than recycled toilet paper. These more expensive toilet papers also offer a more intimate downside: The fluffed-up fibers on their sheets can flake off during use, leaving behind irritating dust and lint.

Still, Quilted Northern Soft & Strong (*Est. $5 for six rolls) strikes the best balance for big softies at sites such as Drugstore.com and PoopReport.com. This two-ply paper also gets the highest possible rating for softness in one leading test, and users at Drugstore.com say it doesn't shred or leave lint behind. Additionally, if you're worried about clogs, Quilted Northern Soft & Strong is one of the experts' top choices; it disintegrates readily in professional flushing tests, earning it the National Sanitation Foundation's safe-for-septic seal of approval.

Quilted Northern Soft & Strong costs about the same as other premium toilet papers, but a little less than its even fluffier new sibling, Quilted Northern Ultra Plush (*Est. $4 for four rolls). Ultra Plush boasts three plies (other premium brands are two-ply) and claims to deliver "a spa-like experience." Ultra Plush does get top scores for both strength and softness in a leading test, but this new product has attracted fewer reviews than the more traditional Quilted Northern Soft & Strong.

Charmin Ultra Soft (*Est. $2 for four rolls) enjoys a fervent fan base of its own. User reviews at Drugstore.com rate this two-ply paper second only to Quilted Northern Soft & Strong, but several users do complain that the Charmin leaves lint and dust in its wake. Although Charmin has a great reputation for softness among users, it lags slightly behind both Quilted Northern varieties in one professional comparison test that has trained sensory experts feel and compare more than a dozen brands of toilet paper. Tests show that Charmin toilet papers also take longer to disintegrate in water than other brands, but the makers of Charmin say they extensively test the paper to make sure it won't clog plumbing.

Cottonelle, the other big player in the premium toilet paper market, gets a recommendation here and there, but not as many as Quilted Northern or Charmin. Professional testers and some users find Cottonelle more difficult to tear off the roll than other premium brands. And although Cottonelle Ultra (*Est. $6 for six rolls) is two-ply, regular Cottonelle (*Est. $4 for four rolls) and Cottonelle Aloe & E (*Est. $6 for six rolls) have just one ply, and some users at Amazon.com and Drugstore.com find them too flimsy.

Budget toilet paper

Store-brand toilet papers -- and some environmentally friendly recycled products -- cost less than showier brands. The reason: These budget products typically spend less on advertising, and they're more likely to be made with cost-effective paper factory scraps rather than the pricier virgin wood fibers used by bigger brands. We found these cheaper toilet papers are often judged just as strong, but are not as soft as pricey more premium papers.

Marcal Small Steps Bath Tissue (*Est. $7 for 12 rolls) is the best budget-priced toilet paper you can buy, according to reviews. One professional review's testers describe it as strong and adequately soft, with a nicely embossed two-ply texture. It's not as plush as pricey premium toilet papers, but Marcal Small Steps is a lot more environmentally friendly, according to the Natural Resources Defense Council: It's made of 100 percent recycled paper (30 percent post-consumer) and is not manufactured with chlorine.

A few other budget brands are recommended by one top-testing organization, including Costco's bulk-buy Kirkland Signature (*Est. $21 for 36 rolls) and Walmart's store brand, White Cloud (*Est. $2 for four rolls). Both brands are judged adequately strong and quite soft, and at half the price of some premium brands they can save a family of three about $130 per year, testers say. These are both two-ply, quilted toilet papers. Thinner one-ply budget toilet papers such as Scott 1000 (*Est. $4 for four rolls) get lower marks in lab tests that objectively measure strength and softness; user reviews say it's like the toilet paper you find in public restrooms.