Ecoballs

We were skeptical at first. I first heard about the Ecoballs in a gadget magazine I buy now and then. They were meant to be the environmentally friendly way to wash clothes.

I told Kelly about them and she told me she'd heard about them before also, but never really bothered to find out about them.

We then started searching around and found that the Ecoballs had been around for a while now. Looking like little planets, the balls use some "scientific breakthrough technology" to wash your clothes. The funny thing is, there's no foam and no perfume as such. Washing with the Ecoballs looks like you're washing with just water.

And indeed that's what it is for the majority. It uses ions and stuff that get rid of dirt. Or so they say.

So we went out and bought some. I don't think we've anticipated watching clothes as much as this! We followed the instructions exactly (3/4 load, put both balls in) and watched it wash at 30 degrees.

When the cycle finished we took the clothes out and naturally gave them a smell. And they smelt of wet clothes. Not "clean", not fragrant, just clothes that had water on them. Imagine a pair of jeans on a rainy day. That smell.

So we let them dry. And that's when we realised that in fact the clothes were clean. And smelt like clean clothes. After ironing, they smelt like very fresh clean clothes, just without a fragrance. It's difficult to explain, but because we're so used to having perfumed washing powder/liquid/etc, the actual smell of clean clothes is something that is actually very nice. And refreshing.

More importantly, the more the clothes are washed, the softer they get. The opposite of usual washing, the biggest change we noticed is in our bed linen and towels. Everything feels softer. Colours don't fade either.

So there you have it. These things are very useful. Not only light weight, refillable and reusable, cost about 6 pence per wash (nothing!) and actually work. Don't ask me how though, they just make everything clean and fresh.

Worryingly, I'm blogging about washing clothes. It must be the Adam effect. Stay tuned.