The Scrub Daddy Sponge Has a Cult Following. But Is It Better Than This Wirecutter Favorite?

Even the most careful home cooks end up with burned, crusty messes on their pans every once in a while—and according to the Scrub Daddy’s legions of fans and the company’s marketing claims, this is exactly the kind of task the Scrub Daddy excels at handling.

So to test both the Scrub Daddy and Scotch-Brite sponges’ abilities to lift charred remains from stainless steel, I had a total meltdown. I tossed Kraft American Cheese singles and a handful of breadcrumbs into two All-Clad D3 Stainless Fry Pans and cranked the heat up to high—and then watched as the cheese bubbled and oozed, eventually burning black (and filling my kitchen with acrid plumes of smoke). Once the cheesy pans were sufficiently scorched, I turned the heat off, covered the pans, and let them sit overnight. The next day, I scraped off as much burned cheese and breadcrumbs from the pans as I could before going in with each sponge, a little dish soap, and a lot of elbow grease.

The Scrub Daddy is made from a proprietary foam that changes texture, softening when submerged in warm water and hardening when doused with cold. For this test, I used cold water to keep the sponge firm and a spritz of Dawn dish soap to scrub through the burned-cheese remains. It made quick work of the mess, though the task required a fair amount of elbow grease from my end. I was able to lift almost all of the burn marks from the pan with three minutes of scrubbing, leaving the stainless steel gleaming in places. But a few stubborn specks of char remained no matter how vigorously I scrubbed with the Scrub Daddy.

The Scotch-Brite Heavy Duty Scrub Sponge lived up to its name, effortlessly cutting through the caked-on grit with its green scouring pad. Using cold water and Dawn dish soap, I was able to scrub the stainless steel pan clean in about two and a half minutes. The Scotch-Brite sponge swiped through the char more easily than the Scrub Daddy, leaving behind no evidence of the burned mess—and buffing out the dark spots that the Scrub Daddy couldn’t lift from the other pan, as well.

Winner: Scotch-Brite
Scrub Daddy: 0
Scotch-Brite: 1

Scrub Daddy fans love that its circular shape helps it fit more easily into cylindrical jars, cups, glasses, and mugs. To test how both sponges work in these tight spaces, I made smoothies in identical Mason jars using the same ingredients (including sticky peanut butter and seeded berries), drank them, and then left the jars out overnight to dry out and crust over.

The Scrub Daddy was literally made for this type of challenge, so unsurprisingly it proved to be an excellent tool for cleaning the inside of the sticky jar. After softening the smiling sponge with warm water, I squeezed it into the mouth of the jar, where I found it much easier to maneuver than the Scotch-Brite sponge. By jamming my fingers into the Scrub Daddy’s eyes, I was able to navigate the sponge up and down inside the jar, twisting it in circles to clean the smoothie goop off the curved walls and the base. The top half of the Scrub Daddy is crinkled with ridges—yes, this sponge has “hair”—that made it especially good at prying dried blackberry seeds and dried peanut butter from the glass. With just warm water and dish soap, the Scrub Daddy lifted most of the caked-on smoothie in its first pass. With a quick second pass, I got the jar sparkling clean in under two and a half minutes.

The rectangular Scotch-Brite sponge required more maneuvering and didn’t cover nearly as much surface area as the Scrub Daddy, so ultimately it took more time and effort to scrub the jar clean. The flat edge of the sponge had difficulty reaching some parts of the jar, specifically the sloped area where the base of the jar met the curve of the wall. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t quite clear all the dried peanut butter out using the Scotch-Brite sponge—so I ended up using the Scrub Daddy to finish the job.

Winner: Scrub Daddy
Scrub Daddy: 1
Scotch-Brite: 1

Scrub Daddy says the sponge is effective at lifting dirt and grime from surfaces with water alone. To test that claim—and to see if the Scotch-Brite sponge could also handle such a challenge—I used both sponges and a bucket of cold water to clean the door that leads from my garage into my home, which is covered in scuffs and dirt from all the times I’ve kicked it open when my hands are full. Using painter’s tape, I split the bottom half of the door into two sections and went to work.

As marketed, the Scrub Daddy is pretty good at cutting through dirt and other filth without any chemical cleaning aids. The rough edges of the sponge loosened the grime nicely, making surface-level dirt easy to wipe away. But despite my vigorous scrubbing, the sponge left behind dozens of faint scuff marks.

The dual-sided Scotch-Brite sponge worked just as well at wiping away dirt and grime, but it handled scuff marks so much better than the Scrub Daddy. The Scotch-Brite sponge’s scouring pad virtually erased the scuffs from the door with only water and a bit of light scrubbing. And so round three went to Scotch-Brite.

Winner: Scotch-Brite
Scrub Daddy: 1
Scotch-Brite: 2

Cleaning gunk from every crevice of a textured surface requires patience, attention to detail, and in many cases a small detail brush to better reach the cracks. Curious to see how the Scrub Daddy and Scotch-Brite sponges would handle this headache-inducing task, I used both of them to clean the dirt-caked boot tray by my front door.

As I suspected, neither sponge was small enough to effectively clean the tray. The Scotch-Brite sponge and the Sponge Daddy both skated over the ridges, cleaning away an equal amount of dirt on their respective sides but leaving behind patches of grime embedded within the grooves. For a detailed cleaning of textured surfaces, a cheap toothbrush will yield far better results.

Winner: draw
Scrub Daddy: 1
Scotch-Brite: 2

There’s no doubt that the Scrub Daddy is an all-around excellent scrubber, especially in cleaning jars, jugs, cups, and mugs. And as Wirecutter senior editor Harry Sawyers pointed out, when it comes to longevity, Scrub Daddy sponges last up to three times longer than Scotch-Brite sponges. But in our short-term cleaning tests, the Scotch-Brite sponge edged out the Sponge Daddy, proving to be more adept at cleaning a wider range of dirty surfaces. That, paired with the lower cost per sponge ($1 to the Scrub Daddy’s $3.50 to $10), makes the Scotch-Brite sponge hard to beat, even if the Scrub Daddy is cuter to look at.

This article was edited by Hannah Rimm and Maxine Builder.