From:
JonStarbuck.co.uk
[broken link removed]
[broken link removed]
I have been running a little, admittedly unscientific, experiment; I don’t use any laundry liquid, or other detergent, when washing my clothes and I have not noticed if they come out of the wash any dirtier than if i did use detergent. They don’t come out of the machine smelling of detergent and fabric softener, but they don’t come out smelling dirty either, they just smell of nothing much and appear clean.
There are exceptions, heavily soiled clothes do not come up clean, but how much of ones washing is heavily soiled and I can always use some detergent if I need to, the point it that about 95% of the time I don’t.
[broken link removed]There is a product on the market called
Eco Balls, it has been about for years, it claims to use “ionized oxygen” to get your clothes clean, no need for any nasty washing machine detergents. All you have to do is pop them into the machine along with your clothes and, as-if-by-magic, they come out clean. There are exceptions, apparently, heavily soiled clothes need some detergent, as well as the Eco Balls, to get them clean.
According to the literature they “produce ionized oxygen that activates the water molecules naturally and allows them to penetrate deep into clothing fibers to lift dirt away” but they fail to provide any evidence to support this claim, let alone explain what this pseudo-scientific mumbo-jumbo means. I have emailed then several times to ask, but they choose not to answer.
Somehow Eco Balls simultaneously reduce your need for detergent by 85% and cost you only £0.03 per wash. Eco Balls, it seems, don’t last forever, they have to be refilled every once and a while, not that there ire any chemicals getting into the wash, of course, so I guess they must just vanish. They cost £35 and last 1000 washes, that is £0.035 per wash not £0.03, a 20% inaccuracy in their maths. Additionally, they “reduce the cost of detergent by 85%”, so you are still using 15% as much detergent as you were? I cant make any sense of it, can you?
[broken link removed]Apparently they also kill all sorts of nasty dangerous organisms which I did not know where in my clothes; frankly after reading the list of nasties in my wash-basket it is amazing that I am alive at all, for not using either detergent or Eco Balls, just forty-degree water.
One can also now buy Dryer Balls which apparently do way with the need for softening dryer sheets and fabric softeners. Again, no evidence or mechanism to explain how they work or how they differ in performance from, for example, tennis balls, or indeed, not using them at all. If you are looking for a green way to dry your clothes I recommend a washing line.
According to
ecoballsdirect.co.uk Eco Balls are made by
ecozone.co.uk - neither company has responded to my requests for explanation of how their product (or indeed, any of their other miracle products such as their [broken link removed] or [broken link removed]) work, or any scientific data on them, or any peer reviewed studies carried out on them.
Extraordinary claims demand extraordinary proof these are blatant modern day
snake oil, an eco-scam designed to part well meaning consumers from their cash, if they are not then feel free to sue me. I dont understand how this can be legal.