No one wants to sit—or sleep—in sweat-soaked fabric. While many products claim to be moisture-wicking, it’s not always easy to tell how they’ll perform in real life until you’re home and the sheets are washed and on your bed. Then, if it turns out they leave you in puddles of sweat every night, it’s often too late to do anything about it.
If you’re curious about whether a fabric will actually wick away sweat, here’s a simple test you can try at home or even while shopping.
What you need for the test
- A dropper (optional)
- Water
- Fabric (this would be the product you’re curious about)
How to complete the moisture-wicking test
Once you’ve gathered your supplies, use the dropper to place a small amount of water on the fabric, or flick some onto it with your fingers. From there, keep track of how long it takes the droplet to fully spread and how far it spreads. This is known as the wicking distance.
On a moisture-wicking fabric, water will spread quickly, as shown below, rather than pool on the surface. Generally, the faster and farther it spreads, the faster the fabric will dry.
If the water spreads very slowly (or hardly at all, like below), the fabric won’t wick moisture as efficiently. As a result, the fabric may trap moisture and feel damp for longer.
While it’s not a substitute for Lab testing, this quick trick can help you get a better sense of how a fabric may handle sweat.
Sweeter and less sweaty dreams lie ahead.
Textiles, Paper & Apparel Lab Product Analyst
Grace Wu (she/her) is a product reviews analyst at the Good Housekeeping Institute’s Textiles, Paper and Apparel Lab, where she evaluates fabric-based products using specialized equipment and consumer tester data. Prior to starting at Good Housekeeping in 2022, she earned a master of engineering in materials science and engineering and a bachelor of science in fiber science from Cornell University. While earning her degrees, Grace worked in research laboratories for smart textiles and nanotechnology and held internships at Open Style Lab and Rent the Runway.
Source: Home Ideas - goodhousekeeping.com
