Two Oodles of Noodles tubes can look identical from the far end of the pool and differ by half the price. Look at the cut end: one has a hole down the middle, the other is foam all the way through. That single difference explains the cost, the weight and the lifespan.
A hollow pool noodle is an extruded foam tube with a channel through it, usually around an inch wide on standard 2.5 inch stock. The channel saves material, cuts the shipping weight and gives you somewhere to thread rope — rafts, lane dividers and tethered floats all rely on it. For a child in the shallow end it is everything a noodle needs to be.
The weakness is the fold. Press a hollow tube hard in the middle and the wall buckles. Do it often enough and the crease stays, which is the usual way a noodle dies.
A solid core noodle has no channel. There is more foam per inch, so the tube weighs noticeably more in the hand, floats higher in the water and shrugs off the fold that finishes a hollow one. The approx. 55 inch solid length sold here is longer than the standard 48 inch tube, which gives an adult something to hold with both hands while their feet are off the bottom.
Therapy pools, resistance drills and rental stock are where the extra cost pays back. A tube that is leaned on by forty different adults a week needs the material.
People expect foam to be weightless, so solid stock surprises them on the first lift. It is still foam — closed-cell polyethylene with air trapped in the cells rather than a hole down the centre — and the cells do not fill with water. A solid noodle on the last day of the holiday floats exactly as high as it did on the first.
A bread knife handles hollow stock in one slow stroke. Solid core wants a longer serrated blade, because a short kitchen knife wanders once it is past 2.75 inch of foam on a long tube. Mark a pencil line all the way round first. Contact adhesive and low-temperature hot melt hold on both; anything that smells of acetone will eat the surface.
If children are the main users and the budget matters, buy hollow and buy the bigger pack. If adults will sit on it, if it lives in a therapy pool, or if it will be handed out to strangers all summer, buy solid and buy fewer. Quality in foam is density, and solid core is the densest shape the range sells.
Both choices are in stock most of the year. Check the current price on the listing before you decide, because the gap between the two narrows whenever a large pack is discounted.
The quality gap shows up late. Both tubes look premium in week one; by week ten the hollow pool noodles in heavy use carry creases and the solid ones do not. That is the whole experience in one sentence, and it is why rental pools stopped buying on price alone.
White solid stock is the usual choice for therapy work because marks show and get cleaned. A favorite tube in a physio pool is a tube that has been wiped down a hundred times and still measures its full approx. diameter.
Both cores are described on the Oodles of Noodles listing in plain words, and the standard figure to check is the diameter in inch: 2.5 for hollow, 2.75 for solid. For the money involved that is an incredible amount of information to have before ordering. Foam sells fast in spring, so if you have questions about a pack size, the card for it is quicker than an email — and the craft lane sells the same material by the foot if you would rather cut your own.
Each one with the figure its listing is showing right now.
Only if the end of the tube is in shot. The listing title usually says solid core, and the price gap is the other clue.
It sits higher in the water because there is more foam per inch of length. Both float all season; neither takes on water while the skin is intact.
Solid core, by a wide margin. The failure mode of a hollow tube is a permanent crease, and busy pools crease them fast.
How to choose a pool noodleDiameter, length, core and pack size: the four numbers that decide whether an Oodles of Noodles pool noodle works for you.Pool noodle sizes in inchesA plain table of the lengths and diameters sold under the Oodles of Noodles name, in inch and in feet.
Pool noodle craft projectsCutting, gluing and painting Oodles of Noodles pool noodle foam for costumes, props, classrooms and wreaths.
Backer rod sizing for Oodles of Noodles foamPicking the right Oodles of Noodles rod diameter for a joint, and why the sealant fails when you do not.Looking after Oodles of Noodles pool noodlesChlorine, sunlight, storage and the small habits that double the life of a pack of pool noodles.Open a listing and check the current price, pack size and colour before you order.
