Brilliant results (on clothes that aren't that dirty) (Eco Balls)

Member Name: Rosie78

Product:	Eco Balls
Date:	23/06/09 (176 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Environmentally friendly, will save money if you persevere with them!

Disadvantages: They don't wash things that well

We try to be a fairly 'green' household, so I've been aware of Ecoballs for a long time, but they retail at aroudn £30, and I didn't want to shell out that much without being sure they would work.

So when my friend offered me some for free, I couldn't wait to try them. She'd tried them and thought they were not for her, so I said I'd give them a go. I got three of the balls - plastic balls filled with little pellets, and cushioned with a foam ring. They are simple to use, you just pop them in the machine on top of the clothes, and you're ready to go! You don't need any detergent, and you can use fabric softener, but they recommend taking the balls out first I think. I also got with them a little pot of stain remover, and some fairly detailed instructions.

The first load I did was a mixed load of mostly clothes, both adults and children's, plus a few towels and dishcloths. I also put in a white cloth which had a really greasy food stain on, just to see how the ecoballs would cope!

Because you're not using detergent, you can cut out the rinse cycle. My machine won't cut it out completely, but I did reduce the rinse, which saves water and electricity.

When the load came out, most of it looked clean and smelt fine. It didn't smell of anything, but that was ok. The greasy cloth looked as though it hadn't had a wash at all! I could have put some stain remover on it, but I wanted to see how the balls did on their own. I was disappointed with how my clothes came out. I am a busy mum of two, and my day is spent running to and from school and playgroup, tearing round the park, cooking etc etc so you can imagine that at the end of the day my clothes can smell a bit sweaty! And that is exactly how they still smelt after being washed with ecoballs!

The second load was white bedding and towels on a 60C wash, and I threw the dirty cloth in again. Again it came out still dirty. The bedding was fine. A bathmat that had got rather smelly sitting wet at the bottom of the washing basket was still a little bit smelly, but passable.

By the third load I put in a tablespoon of soda crystals with the wash, and so far everything has come out fine. Even a little bit of grease on my greasy cloth has shifted!

I worked out that my normal detergent costs just over 24p per wash, so if I'd paid £30 for these, I'd have to do about 125 washes before I'd start to see any return. They are more environmentally friendly, but be aware that you can't fill the machine too full with them. I definitely err on the side of overfilling when I use detergent, so if I was using ecoballs full time I'd probably end up having to do one extra wash a week, just because you can't fill the machine too full.

I think I'll carry on with these for the children's clothes (ie things that don't get too sweaty!) and also for bedding and towels. But I'm afraid that they just don't work well enough on many things. If I'd paid for these, I think I'd be pretty disappointed!

If you want to save money, a good tip is to halve your normal detergent and add some soda crystals to your wash instead. Soda crystals cost around 80p for a 1kg bag, and do a great job.

Summary: Not for people who sweat!