wash it laundry Ball

...your wash, you add the Wash It Ball directly to the machine, on top of your laundry. You switch on and select the cycle as normal, and the Wash It Ball then proceeds to clean your clothes in the way any other laundry aid would. However unlike these it is reusable and should last for about 80 1-hour washes. My standard wash is 30 minutes, so I should get 160 hours or just over 3 YEARS of use from it. This is a phenomenal saving on laundry products ...
...to Ariel Tablets (20p per wash based on Tesco prices) or even Tesco's own (16p) and you can see the saving to be made on detergents alone, ignoring the fact you also now no longer need fabric softeners. Using a Wash It Ball also saves you lugging heavy detergent home from the supermarket since you need just one ball which weighs only a few grames. You also know you'll not run out any time soon given the lifespan of the product. In addition it's easy ... more

For the last 5 years I've lived in student halls and owned and rented apartments spread across Europe and America, all of which have one thing in common: communal laundry facilities, usually in a basement. As such my laundry habits have stabilised into a pattern that goes something like this: I do laundry once a week, usually early on a Sunday morning. I put all my stuff in together, never sorting whites from colours, or delicates from denim because I don't have enough to make multiple loads worth the effort. I don't tumble dry, but instead leave stuff out of an airer, either on a balcony or next to an open-window. Because of this process, I have had problems finding suitable laundry products as many are not up to the task of cleaning nicely, not letting colours run, keeping whites white and colours bright and producing clothes and towels than end up soft, even with air drying. I discovered the Wash-It Laundry Ball at Lakeland Limited over Christmas and have been using it ever since. It is exactly what I need and both economical and good for the environment. I'm hooked.

*** What Is It? ***

The ball is made of thick white plastic and is slightly smaller and slightly less round than a tennis ball. It fits perfectly into the palm of my hand and bigger people could probably wrap their fingers all the way around to grasp it tightly. The two main sides have a 'net' design, with vertical and horizontal bars that let you peek through into the insides. This is important because of the way the ball works. Inside are a large number of small, turquoise pellets, about the size and shape of peas. These are packed in but not so tightly that they cannot move, and if you shake the ball you can hear a slight rattle as they roll around. These green balls provide the washing power to get your laundry clean.

*** How Do You Use It? ***

Rather than adding detergent or tablets of liquid capsules to your wash, you add the Wash It Ball directly to the machine, on top of your laundry. You switch on and select the cycle as normal, and the Wash It Ball then proceeds to clean your clothes in the way any other laundry aid would. However unlike these it is reusable and should last for about 80 1-hour washes. My standard wash is 30 minutes, so I should get 160 hours or just over 3 YEARS of use from it. This is a phenomenal saving on laundry products since one ball costs a mere £7.99, or around 5p per wash. Compare this to Ariel Tablets (20p per wash based on Tesco prices) or even Tesco's own (16p) and you can see the saving to be made on detergents alone, ignoring the fact you also now no longer need fabric softeners. Using a Wash It Ball also saves you lugging heavy detergent home from the supermarket since you need just one ball which weighs only a few grames. You also know you'll not run out any time soon given the lifespan of the product. In addition it's easy to work out when you need to replace it - it's when the pellets get 'small and shapeless' according to the packet.

*** Results ***

Of course the cheapest, most easy to use product in the world still wouldn't be worth buying if the results were not up to scratch. However, as the star rating I've give in indicates, this is not the case. The ball produces superbly washed laundry and since there is no powder involved, never leaves white residue on your clothes which was important to me since communal washers are not always as good at rinsing as they should be. In fact, if you have the kind of machine that will let you, you can skip the rinse cycle when using the ball because there's no soap or detergent than needs to be flushed away. The ball is also good with colours since it contains no harsh chemicals that can bleach or damage bright items. A typical wash for me will include sports kit, velour leotards, my work suit, a pair of jeans, underwear and towels or sheets depending on which week it is, which is a diverse mix of items, but they always come out spotless, intact and the same colour the went in, minus the odd chocolate stain. Though I've never needed to use it, the package comes with a stain remover stick for pre-treating clothes before you put them in the washer.

Laundry done with a Wash It Ball also comes out smelling clean and fresh but with no over powering scent. The same goes for the ball itself - when dry it has very little aroma, but when fresh from the washer it has a nice pine, foresty smell which, though probably more usually found in toilet cleaner than washing powder, is actually quite nice and 'nature-full'.

*** Conclusions ***

I am very impressed with the Wash It Ball for the following reasons:

- It is hard wearing - the ball shows no signs of wear and tear, or any evidence that it has been hurtling around a washing machine every week for the last 4 months. The plastic has not a scratch on it, and is still firmly moulded together. The balls are as large and plentiful as they were on day one.
- It is portable and handy - I travel a lot and I can take this with me since it takes up next to no room in a back. It is a lot easier than taking tablets with you or having to find a shop selling them within days of arriving in a new place
- It offers excellent value for money and I like the fact that it is reusable. Since it doesn't contain harsh chemicals it is a lot better for the environment, and so is the fact that since you buy one once for several years of washing, you cut down on packaging waste that comes with the boxes of tablets and powders that only provide a few months' washing.
- It is equally good with nicely separated loads (I did one once just to see what it was like) as it is with the mishmash I throw into the washer on a weekly basis.
- It is small so takes up no room in my house unlike the way boxes of tablets used to. You also don't need to keep spares in because it's easy to know when you'll need a replacement, and this is years away.
- It is hypo-allergenic which while not a necessary quality for me, is useful in case I ever have to wash a sensitive person's things for them.
- You don't have to think about how dirty a load is other than to apply stain remover to items if necessary, so you do not have to think about whether to increase the dosage for this load compared to the last one.
- It leaves no residue on clothes so they're ready to wear without the need for sponging / re-washing.
- The ball needs no attention during its lifetime - you don't need to clean it or un-clog it or re-fill it. It's ready to roll each wash with no effort on your part, so is as simple as, if not more simple than, conventional products.

Are there any downsides?

- The ball, being plastic, rattles around in the drum a bit. This doesn't bother me since the washer is 4 floors below me, and it is only a slight sound above the normal rumble of the washer, but it could irritate you if you were trying to do something quiet in the same room, especially since it's not a constant noise and can only be heard when the ball escapes the laundry for a moment and makes contact with the washer itself.
- They also cannot be used in dryers or washer-dryers on the dryer cycle - not something that bothers me but could be a pain if you use the latter and thus have to attend to your laundry mid-cycle when previously you could just leave it until it had finished.
- Also, since I've only been using them for 4 months, I cannot guarantee they will last quite as long as they claim, although customer testimonials I have seen would indicate that they do.

*** Final Thoughts ***

Overall though I am thrilled with the product, and not just because of the money saving - they truly save a lot of effort with selecting, purchasing and dragging home laundry aids regularly, save on storage space and are an unbelievably simple product to use - no measuring or dosing to be done here, just pop in the drum and off you go.

Other products are available. Eco-balls average 3p per wash but have a greater initial outlay - around £35 compare to the £8 for these. I have never tried them but you can read an excellent review of them here:

http://www.ciao.co.uk/Eco_Balls__Review_5479613

Also, other Wash It balls exist, something I only discovered when searching for them online. Mine came from Lakeland Limited and is their own brand - exactly the kind of innovative, fun, common sense product I'd expect from them. You can buy them online at lakelandlimited.com or at any of their stores.

Two clean, fresh smelling, environmentally friendly, cheap thumbs up.
 

...less