Firstly, apologies for the corny title. Also I have no wish to turn this into a "Good Housekeeping" forum, but I was toying with idea of trying these...

Eco Laundry Balls

Has anyone ever tried them? Do they work?!

Steeve

hi steeve,
funny you should mention this as my missus came back from shopping at the weekend. dont think she has used them yet but when she does ill ask her if they are any good. im allergic to the wash machine you understand.

Steev,

Obviously for people with allergies there might be good reasons for using them. But we picked up a supply from the Ideal Home E a couple of years back.

They were not very effective, like most things that have the key ingredients removed or scaled back for eco or Euro compliance. I guess people put the original stuff in for a reason.

Steve

Lol, the link would be to the Guardian wouldn't it! My aunt has used something along these lines for years due to allergies, so I don't think they're especially new. I think she may have given us some to try once, but I don't think it caught on. I can't imagine that they would cope that well on our clothes, we're rather messy people. We don't use a tumble drier so that's our bit for the environment where laundry is concerned. I've had several people on the forum whinging at me about driving being a luxury (in a city I agree, I didn't own a car in Aberdeen, here it's just a little different), I wonder how many of them use tumble dryers? Now using a tumble dryer when you can just hang things up and let them dry themselves, that is a needless waste of energy!

Agreed about tumble driers; I don't own one. Although as I live mostly on my own I have to appreciate that things would be very different for a family with six kids! Also they don't seem to do much good to most clothes.

I use Ecover powder at the moment which I find every bit as good as "leading brands" to be honest - so I'm not convinced that everything that is in washing powders HAS to be there. Mind you, I think Ecover has improved over the last decade.

Just thought it might be worth a punt to save a few quid and feel self-righteous at the same time! And I don't have lots of muddy rugby kits or the like to contend with.

Would be interested in your or your wife's "review" in due course, Scotty!

Steeve

We don't really miss it with seven plus people in the house, but then we do have a reasonably large garden and about 100 yards of washing line!