...this is pretty amazing. Googling for something random threw up this equally random item, which has sucked me right in: eco-balls and dryer-balls. I got mine through the post yesterday...
(the whole set is ~£50 from here).
The idea is to use the eco-balls (right) to replace traditional laundry powder. They're good because: they are reuseable for up to 1000 washes which equates to ~3.5p per wash; there are no harsh chemicals and so no pollution; the rinse cycle can be shortened saving water and electricity; and they will not fade bright colours or damage clothing fibres.
The science is really badly explained on most the websites that I've looked at - sigh. But some better websites, and some grappling around for remnants of Physics GCSE, rustles up this: it seems that dirt is positively charged and the carbonate-filled eco-balls create a negative charge in the water, lifting the dirt away from the fibre. I seem to remember that traditional detergent and soaps are also negatively charged as well, which would seem to fit. Anyway, the science is just for fun: do the blighters actually work?!
Last night's experiment seems to suggest that they are well worth the cash. Allotment clothes (wet Glastonbury style) went in and happy, clean clothes came out! All traces of dirt were gone - except some traces of particularly muddy stains where I'd been trying to tie up my Sweet Peas in the monsoons that we've been having. Nothing was ever going to get them out anyway..!
Dryer-balls were harder to test (they reportedly reduce drying time by 25%): I know that my dryer's not that efficient (as it's a combi) and usually takes aggggggggges but last night it seemed to dry the whole load in 50 minutes...
My pack came with a Magno-ball, which claims to soften water and prevent limescale build-up...no idea how to tell if this works but I whacked it in anyway...
A possible drawback is that the eco-balls can't be dried, and the dryer-balls can't be washed, so you have to do a swap between cycles (but I never leave it on when I'm not in anyway after a dryer fault caused a fire a few years back...).
The only odd thing about these things is that the clothes don't smell of detergent but, given that it makes me sneeze, that's got to be a good thing. Line-dried clothes smell of nothing too...
Oh, and, at the beginning of the wash cycle, there is the faint sound of a tombola taking place while all the balls jiggle about...
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