Detergent Free Ecofriendly Washing
Why spend money or pollute if you don’t have to? There is now an alternative to using laundry detergent and softener when washing a load of laundry. If you use these Eco-Balls you will use no detergents and they do a pretty good job of cleaning your dirty laundry. By using better mechanical agitation due to the contact of the balls with the garments, dirt is lifted from the clothing. The product’s blurb says the balls “produce ionized oxygen that activate the water molecules naturally and allows them to penetrate deep into clothing fibers to lift dirt away.” The balls contain pellets that are eco-friendly surfactants which aid in the “lifting ” of stains. The only downside is that whites don’t come out as clean as those washed in detergent and bleach. So the balls are sold with an eco-friendly stain remover.
You can buy them at Ecotopia and they ship worldwide.
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Just a few years back, only big factories had machines like pressure washers. We had water filters for domestic use and that too was a novelty. Today all houses are equipped with dishwashers. Indeed it has become the need of the nation.
February 15th, 2008 at 10:49 pm
Haven’t these things been debunked a few times already? See Consumer Reports, for the one I remember from a few years ago.
February 15th, 2008 at 11:11 pm
I checked Consumer Reports and the ecoballs didn’t fare well in their tests. But they had regular detergent in their test balls so maybe these ecoballs are better? Thanks for pointing me to the CU report.
February 15th, 2008 at 11:29 pm
The Straight Dope also largely debunked them, and referred to the CR tests. What was surprising was that detergent didn’t do much better than plain water.
http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a4_007b.html
Gene’s last blog post..D’oh!
February 16th, 2008 at 3:44 am
Actually we’ve been using these for a couple of years now and although they’re starting to show their age, they’re still the originals we started with. In terms of cleaning they seem to work fine as long as there is room in the machine for them to roam around the washing but too big a load when using a regular detergent isn’t that great either. On the whole we’ve saved a bundle on detergent and they’re better for the environment. Debunked or not, we’re happy with the results.
February 16th, 2008 at 11:24 am
What about the WonderBall from Mystic Wonders. If I remember correctly, it works by changing the surface tension of water so that it is able then to clean fabrics.
February 16th, 2008 at 11:26 am
I think that’s pretty much what the ecofriendly detergent in the ecoballs does.
February 18th, 2008 at 2:21 pm
This is going to sound weird but I stopped using detergent a long time ago. Even in cold water, my clothes get just as clean with or without soap. And I’m not talking light dirt, I’m talking my construction worker husband coming home covered head to toe in mud kind of dirt. There might be some issues with scrubbing out allergens or harmful dirtiness, but I would think that the dryer takes care of that?