True Green Laundry Dryer Balls ($7.99) are 30% larger than other dryer balls and are scientifically designed to allow more air penetration when drying clothes. Made from medical-grade plastic as opposed to PVC, they contain no phthalates and were not made with toxic hydrochloric acid. Among the many cost-saving benefits of reduced drying time, they reportedly:
1. Reduce ironing, static and creases
2. Reduce drying time by up to 25%
3. Naturally soften fabric
4. Non Toxic - No chemicals
5. Will last approximately 6 months
And now....for our review, we have used these balls for 4 months (approx. 2-3 loads daily) and I have noticed that our dryer loads are done about 10 minutes earlier than without the balls (approx. 17% less). They do make a more noise in the dryer than without them, but it's not as loud as a pair of shoes and if you can close a laundry room door, it's not a big deal. The tips darken over time if you wash a lot of denim, but I don't think this affects their performance - though it does make me wonder why the color transfer is happening (if dye is transferring on, are plastic particles transferring onto my clothing as well). I have found that they soften our clothing a la massage/kneading/pounding method and prevent clothes from twisting up and causing major wrinkles, though small ones are still there. Perhaps my favorite result from use of these balls, however, is one the company doesn't even mention....they remove all loose threads, strings, and long hairs from your laundry! I definitely think this is an amazing benefit, it may work well with pet hair as well {we didn't have any to test}....wouldn't that be wonderful! And to be honest, for $16/year...these balls pay for themselves through their energy savings, fabric softener savings, and time savings!
We also tested the True Green laundry balls ($21.42 /240 loads), which are advertised as the soapless mineral alternative to laundry detergents. We tried to test these but were unable to due to the liability of damage possibility to our front load washer. Every time the load turns over, the hard plastic ball would crash to the other side and during spin cycle, well, let's just say it wasn't pleasant. The ball did seem to work, neutralizing odors in those loads of wash, however, we couldn't do as in-depth of testing as we would've liked. We would recommend the laundry balls to be tried only by those with top load washing machines.
