I was very intrigued when I found a pitch for Mizu Towels in my inbox. Mizu Towels are antibacterial towels with natural cleaning silver fibers that change color when dirt builds up. You use them every day, so why not buy the best towels you can?
Say what?! Exactly my reaction 😉 And so I was actually excited (yes, it does not take terribly much to excite me these days 🤣) to test Mizu Towels out – and see how this “MIZUTECH” stacked up against my every day box store and warehouse club towels.
Okay, before we dive into our review, let me tell you a bit about the backstory of Mizu Towels first.
The story begins in Imabari, Japan. This city is known as the towel making capital of the world. So the folks at Mizu watched spinning, weaving, and precision at levels of quality there, that challenged them to create something truly special for home use. They wanted to put a modern, hygienic spin on the towel. That simple notion sparked a complex idea - what if they engineered home products that could detect and prevent bacteria? So in 2017, they shared our ambition with IndieGOGO and Kickstarter audiences and they loved it.
How we tested
We didn’t just receive the towels and use them for a couple of days and then throw up this blog post. Nope, we spent nearly four weeks using them (and perhaps even abusing them). Because these towels don’t come cheap, and right now nobody needs to be spending good money on something that may not be worth it.
We made sure to test them against our other hand and bath towels for absorbency, drying speed, washability, strength and real world use.
MIZU TOWELS AN OVERALL WINNER
Okay I won’t keep you in suspense the Mizu towels live up to their claims. Let me tell you why.
☞ Ultra-plush and absorbent – These are definitely luxury level towels. They are made from bamboo cotton and pure natural silver. They arrived plush, and they come out of the dryer plush. To be honest, the first wash there was a fair amount of lint in the dryer trap, but the subsequent washes and dries did not have as much. They say the bamboo cotton is the most luxurious in the world, and I am open to believing it because these towels are super soft and fluffy. Definitely the softest towels I have ever owned, even after repeated laundering. I haven’t seen any noticeable shrinkage either.
The plush loops easily soaked up the water after our showers, and when checking afterward, also dried quickly. This supports Mizu Towels claims that they are hyper absorbent and can hold 5x their weight in water, as well as their proprietary technology that allows the towels to dry 3x faster than an average towel.
☞ Innovative technology – Yes, I put the plush and absorbent above the amazing feature of ‘self cleaning’ and alerting to bacteria. Because… real world use y’all!! I want towels that make me feel like I’m in a high-end spa 😉 The soft, plushness will win every time. BUT hear me out that natural silver to prevent 99% of bacterial growth and the solvatochromic dye strips that change from blue to red, so you know it’s time to give them a wash …. those are pretty amazing. Sensing areas change color after contact with oil, bacteria, residual soap, chemicals, fat and sweat to show contamination. AND THEY WORK! I had my doubts but this is our actual towels, from actual use in our home. And ta-da! like magic…
I had my doubts at first because my husband has a lot of oil and a high pH level, and after a week with the hand towel by his sink.. it was still blue. I was like, “these are a scam, I knew it!” But I was going to do my due diligence in reviewing them and so even though I thought it was gross, after a week, we kept using them. And then, about 11 days in … WHAM – those strips were red! Wow (really, I said “Wow!”) How cool is that?! The bath towels lasted even longer before we were alerted to needing to wash them.
Okay let me give you one downside though. If I could change anything it would be this; the Mizu towels only have stripes on one side of the towel (in two ways). I’m not saying it affects the effectiveness of the silver fibers in the material, but I do wonder if the towel would show more bacteria/oils present on the solvatochromic dye strips if the strips were on both the outside/inside of the towel, or on each end side or in the middle of the towel. The way the towels are designed currently, the strips go along just one edge of the towel on the outside portion. If you are not using that portion to wipe… is it accurately reflecting the build up? I mean maybe it is (I’m no scientist!), but it’s just something that made me go hmmm….. The strips obviously work though, so there’s an assurance that if you haven’t thrown it in the laundry before they turn red, then you definitely know it’s time to when they have!
Who Would Benefit From Mizu Towels
As I mentioned previously, these towels as great as they are, don’t come cheap. The set we reviewed included two hand towels and two bath towels. The retail price on those is $300, although they are on special for 60% off and Free Shipping currently making them $120.
So who would benefit from spending that amount for the Mizu Towels?
- Anyone who likes luxury. Yep, these are bougie towels. And now that I’ve used them, there may be no going back for me 🤣 . They are definitely high end and if you are into that for your linens, they pass the test.
- College students. Now don’t scoff yet. I had one of those a few years ago. And I know how often she did laundry (not often as it turns out). While expensive, at least they’ll know when the stripe turns red, wash the towels! Get even more bang for your buck and tell them when the stripe turns red, wash the sheets too. If you want to go all out Mizu actually sells sheets as well.
- Conservationists. If you’re looking to save water, energy, or even just time, Mizu towels might be for you. In our testing, we found even if its just by a few extra days, chances are you can extend that laundry cycle. Meaning you save some water, you save some electricity and you save some time. Win/win/win.
So here is where you can get ☞ Mizu Towels . You can get them in different set configurations and they come in a few different colors. When you check out you can use the code TDD10, for an additional 10% off.
Interesting. Now my towels can tell me when they are dirty. I like it but the price is a bit high for me.