The amount of ashes that each urn holds is measured in cubic inches. The industry standard used to figure approximate size is 1 pound of healthy weight to 1 cubic inch of cremains.

Many funeral homes will transfer the remains into your cremation urn for you If you provide them the urn. If the funeral home does not transfer the remains for you the remains will be placed in a sealed plastic bag and returned to you in temporary cardboard or plastic urn. Remove the sealed plastic bag and place it into the permanent urn.

My sizing recommendation in the chart above is based on customer feedback after years of making these custom urns but the ash volume does seem to vary by crematorium and location. Please double check your urn size selection using both my recommended pre-cremation weight and also measure the volume in cubic inches (length x width x height of ashes not including the container thickness) of the ashes you have already received or ask the crematorium what size you will need. Sometimes there is a large cremation box used in the cremation process that will change the ash volume. If you are close to the maximum volume of the urn I would recommend ordering a larger size urn. Ash volume can vary and might not calculate to the approximate 1 cubic inch