WELLNESS SUPERIO SIGNATURE SERIES PLASTIC BACKED ADULT BRIEFS FULL REVIEW

Wellness Briefs has been working very hard on bringing a new product to the incontinence care market and they’ve done well so far with this product!  For those who are familiar with the pinhole issues on the original Wellness Brief, you need not fear that with these.  Also, if you tried the “first generation” of this diaper and were seriously underwhelmed (or ticked off) by the lack of quality in poor tapes, bad cutting die placement, etc... I urge to you retry this product.  Read this review to find out why!  Wellness Briefs has done a great job at improving this product!

SIZING

The Wellness Superio Signature Series Diaper comes in three sizes:

    •Medium 24” to 36” waist or hip

    •Large 36” to 46” waist or hip

    •X-Large 46” to 67” waist or hip

As you can tell from the measurements above, the Superio Signature Series Adult Diaper by Wellness Briefs, like several of the new offerings in the market, is not sized like the average diaper on the market.  That said, I find that the waist and leg openings of the diaper fit very well in the measurements noted.  They do fit VERY well under regular everyday clothing without a bunch of bulk showing and protect pretty well.

CONSTRUCTION

The Superio Signature Series diaper has a PLAIN WHITE plastic outer backing, two line printed wetness indicator, elastic leg bands, very tall standing inner leak barriers, decent padding size and shape, a clear plastic tape landing zone and two VERY strong all white tapes with blue ends on each side. We're going to cover each feature one by one here:

Plastic Backing

The plastic backing on this product is very thin.  Without the tape landing zone, this would be a serious issue, as on the first generation of this diaper, the tapes, although they were supposed to be refastenable would rip the plastic backing and/or the plastic backing would stretch leading to diaper sag.  With the addition of the new tape landing zone and incredibly strong one piece refastenable tapes on the new generation of this product, that issue is solved!  The landing zone and tapes are CRAZY strong and the plastic on the rest of the diaper, while thin, is plenty strong and has a little elasticity so that when you move, the diaper flexes with your movement to keep a good fit.  The tapes can be fastened SUPER tight to the point the diaper actually cuts into you, but if you tape this product on SUPER tight, it hurts performance.  More on that later.  Even though the backing is plastic, it does not make much noise at all under everyday clothing like other brands do. I have found that the noise that it DOES make tends to come from the tape landing zone, which is a bit stiff.  Under jeans or heavy cotton pants, there is nearly no noise.  The noise that is there might be heard if you were in say, a quiet library.  Otherwise, it is no big deal.  If you are wearing this product under sweat pants, pajama pants or some other very thin pant or short, yes, you will hear noise from the plastic backing, as you would with any other plastic backed diaper.  I have seen NO problems with “pinholes” in the plastic backing on this product like has been a real issue with the original Wellness Brief as of late.

Elastic Leg Bands

OK, those of you who know me know I think elastic waists are an extra cost gimmick that is not really necessary. On this product, I am happy to report, there is NOT one.  With the absorbency and fit of this product, along with the crazy strong tapes, it is NOT needed and would be a waste of an extra expense.  The elastic at the legs is wide enough to work well and be comfortable but not so wide as to get in the way. It is very effective.

Standing Inner Leak Barriers

I am happy to report that this diaper has some of the tallest standing inner leak barriers I have seen on any product.  They are VERY effective in cases of bowel incontinence and run from a couple inches of the waistband in the front to just a couple inches from the top of the waistband in the back.  I did find however, that they are not very effective at keeping urine from running through them but the leg elastics keep urine contained just fine.

Padding Size, Shape and Thickness

The padding in this diaper is in a “figure 8” shape with slightly wider padding in the rear. Some of you will complain there is no padding out in the wings of the product like I did when I first saw it. With the current design of this product (pulp to polymer mixture), padding in the side wings of this product would be a big improvement, as once the padding gets wet, it can tend to gel allowing wetness to run around to the sides of the diaper where there is no padding.  I am aware that they are working on improvements to make the diaper absorb better and faster, so this may not be an issue in the future.  Now, if you try to use this product overnight and are a side sleeper, this could become an issue if you are a heavy wetter.  In my opinion though, this is a great daytime diaper, but I’m not sold on it for overnight use for the average wetter.  If you are a very light wetter at night or just dribble at night, it may work OK, but I would use caution.  Unlike most other brands, this product is very wide in regards to padding between the legs. Many women will not like this but for us guys, this is AWESOME! Many times, leakage happens between the legs for us guys as the padding is not wide enough to surround our genitals on each side and wetness heads for the side where there is not enough padding or diaper and leaks there. The width is also important in cases of bowel incontinence to prevent leakage.  Women may not mind the width due to the thinness of this diaper though, so that may not be an issue for them either.  The standing inner leak barriers seem to be very effective in containing bowel movements, although loose or watery bowel movements, if they get past the standing leak barriers, may leak out the back some due to the cut of the product, but that would have to be an extreme case.

Now, on to a topic some folks who like a really thick diaper are going to find disappointing...padding bulk, or in this products’ case, lack of bulk. For its’ absorbency, this product has very thin padding with a generous amount of polymer (maybe too much in comparison to pulp).  The thing you run into, as noted above, is there is SO much polymer in this product that it gels and can tend to keep wetness from spreading to drier parts of the padding, reducing the effective absorbency of the diaper.  I have emailed with Steve at Wellness Briefs and he says they are working on a better acquisition layer that may eliminate that problem.  If it does, the absorbency of this diaper with be CRAZY good for how thin it is.  The really nice thing is that the wetter it gets, it does NOT swell up like a balloon.  I did find that if you are a very active person, when the padding gets really wet in the front, it can tend to sag down toward the crotch a bit, but I did not find that it affected performance too badly.  One disturbing problem I have with this product is that if it tape it on SUPER tight and the product is already wet, and you are standing and flood the diaper, it will go right out through the leg openings and down your legs.  Again, I think this is a failure of the standing inner leak barriers and the rewet absorbency not being good due to the super heavy concentration of polymer.  This is why the diaper got an “average” rating on the rewet absorbency.  A diaper HAS to protect well in ALL positions...wet or dry to get a good or very good rating.  If the tapes are fastened COMFORTABLY without being super tight, this problem does not seem to be as bad, as the wetness can run around your anatomy in that area to drier parts of the diaper.  If, however, you sit down before the hefty polymer concentration has time to absorb the wetness, you’re probably going to leak. 

Under regular comfortable fitting clothes, this diaper completely vanishes!  Could the noise the plastic tape landing zone or backing makes “give you away”?  I really doubt it and if the diaper DOES make a little noise, I don’t think anyone would even give it a second thought.  In all my years of living with incontinence, I have never had anyone say to me “...hey, are you wearing a diaper?”. 

This diaper seems to buck the idea that BULK is needed for heavy absorbency.  Wellness Briefs has created a nice trim product that could be a crazy good performer if the polymer to padding ratio and padding construction were tweaked a little.  This product performs quite well during daytime wear with reasonable change timing.  Can you eventually MAKE it leak? Sure, but under normal conditions, (NOT 12 hours of wear time, which is not healthy for the body anyway) leakage should not be a problem.  During an “average” day of total urinary incontinence, you should be able to get up to six hours our of this product.  In cases of bowel incontinence, it goes without saying that you would be able to wear it less time.  You should ALWAYS change IMMEDIATELY in cases of a bowel movement, so wear time is not long for that issue.  I’ve heard people complain because a diaper does not work for 12 hours.  Come on, don’t be stupid!  If you are wearing a diaper for 12 hours and you can still stand your own stench, please don’t go out in public, because the rest of us won’t be able to...not to mention the potential skin breakdown, urinary tract infections, etc... that come with wearing a soiled/wet diaper that long.  So, yes...this diaper works just fine for normal, responsible change schedules.

Single Layer Refastenable Tape Tabs

Like the Absorbency Plus Diaper from XP Medical, this product has got to have the strongest tapes of any diaper I have EVER used, the difference with these tapes being that they ARE refastenable.  They consist of a one piece tape (two tapes per side) that once stuck to the tape landing zone they DO NOT move, stretch or come off until you unfasten them, which takes a good grip and some pulling force to do, hence the “average” rating in the ease of removal category.  While they are a one piece tape, they ARE refastenable ON the tape landing zone and hold crazy good when refastened!  For those of us who are dependent on diapers full time and do not need to unfasten the tapes at any other time than at change time, these tapes are awesome!  They do not slide across the landing zone, they do not come loose and they do NOT rip off of the back wings.  If you try to fasten them OFF of the tape landing zone though, they can tend to stretch or tear the plastic and they are NOT refastenable.  Use of the tape landing zone is a must with these tapes.

QUALITY

So far, having used about a case of these briefs, I have found the quality to be outstanding!  I have not found one tape loose and stuck to the other part of the diaper, I have not had one issue with the cut, padding thickness, plastic backing strength, etc.. that I have had with most all other brands. If Wellness Briefs’ manufacturer keeps this quality and consistency up, this will be a fantastic regular product on the market.  These diapers are made in China though, so it will remain to be seen how well Wellness Briefs is able to keep a handle on quality control.  The first “beta” run of these diapers was abysmal in the quality department, but apparently Steve really got on the manufacturer because this run with the tape landing zone has been great!  So far so good with this new product though!

APPEARANCE

Ahh, another manufacturer who gets the fact that incontinence can be embarrassing enough without wearing a pink, blue, purple, peach or tan diaper! Who in the world ever decided on pink for a diaper color anyway?? They should be fired. Well, with this product, that factor is not there! These diapers are ALL WHITE.  They do have a blue wetness indicator that consists of two lines of light blue dots printed side by side down the middle of the diaper.  If you were wearing this diaper under very thin white pants it would look like you were wearing plain white underwear, as I did not notice the wetness indicator lines showing through my pants. The nice thing is the tapes are clear with light blue ends and they do not seem to show through either.  This white color applies to the medium, large and x-large sizes.

COMFORT

These diapers are cut reasonably in the areas they need to be, such as between the legs, room in the front for us guys and in the rear.  For us guys, this diaper is very comfortable as it has the space we need. While dry, they are very comfortable and fit very well. Once wet, they remain very well fitting without sagging and falling apart. Skin dryness is EXCELLENT and stays that way for the most part, until the padding that has gelled will no longer absorb any more or wick the wetness elsewhere...then it gets a bit wet against the skin.  The only complaint I really have is odor control. They do control it well for the most part, but if you wear the product long enough and you are not drinking a lot (meaning your urine is concentrated), an ammonia smell will build up after about 4 or so hours. If you are drinking normally and stay well hydrated though, odor is not a real big issue.  Since this information pretty well applies to every diaper on the market, it’s not a big deal.  Overall comfort is very good.

VALUE FOR THE PRICE

OK, this version of the Superio Signature Series Brief is MUCH better than the original “beta” version that didn’t have the tape landing zone or the excellent tapes, but it is a bit on the pricey side at $1.48 per diaper on the Wellness Briefs Web Site.  They are working on a new acquisition layer that will improve absorbency, etc... so I am not going to say it is not worth the $1.48.  I definitely urge you to try the product, as you may have better results than I did and then you may not.  Each of us is very different and this is just my experience with this product.  I personally will continue to use them, as I think Steve at Wellness Briefs (also known as EBM Ventures as noted on the sides of the diaper cartons) is really working hard to bring us a top notch product.  Give this one a try!

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