[redmower3]

Saw eco balls a year ago, did the maths, read some reviews and decided to invest. The first couple of washes were brilliant...clean clothes, soft fluffy towels but after that I began to think they had no effect whatsoever and I'm back to powder and the balls are consigned to under the sink.

Have read the whole thread, does it seem strange that they seem to work for some people and not others?

hard water v. soft water perhaps?

[spud]

Yea ... ours are never used either. First couple of washes seemed OK, I think it was either a build up of powder in the machine or the feel good factor about it 

Cheers

 

[sunshineband]

I am seriously considering purchasing some eco balls.....

I am not really that impressed. Both my brother and I have tried them and although loose dirt comes out OK (it probably would just with water anyway) stains etc seem not to be shifted.

[Stripey_cat]

We have the ecoballs, and I agree that I'm not sure they do much more than just water would.  On the other hand, they are fine for normally dirty things (towels, shirts, undies, even muddy gardening clothes).  One day I should do a control of a load with balls against a load with just water!  You need to use a short, low temp., economy cycle with them.  I've had a lot less eczema-type problems since I stopped using normal washing-liquid (I've never been able to tolerate softeners; since I was a baby they'd bring me up in a rash).  Occasionally I'll do a load of cleaning rags with normal detergent on the hot cycle, which seems to help keep the machine clean, though.  We are in a hard water area, and using a new-ish side-loading machine, for comparison purposes.

[timmycat]

i use them, but only for my washing that is not too dirty or for wool or other delicates.
for heavy stain or whites at 60 or 90 degrees is use washingpowder and vanish.

[Ann]

I was disapointed with the eco balls but wouldn't be without my e cloths have one for the house and one for the car.

[esther]

Hi, this is my first post. We have used the ecoballs and ecover and of course more standard brands.

I have a man who it is probably fair to say has a strong natural scent and two small boys in the family among others. We find the balls are ok for general colour washes but we have never used them for extended periods of time without alternating with powder so perhaps that is why they work.. we use ecover for whites and dirtier things and have had to go back to a bio powder for himself after work complained he smelt but I think the person complaining is so used to washing powder smell to her fragrance rather than lack of smell is a clean smell, I hate how his clothes smell now with the bio powder.

However  we use ecover for the babies nappies and it is fine, the last batch out were almost sparkling... BUT I do have one reason why it works really well for us (for everything but strong man smell)  we recently invested in a new washing machine, quite an expensive one with has among other things a steam setting.. adding the steam to the baby wash makes a huge difference to the nappies and it's still more economical on power than most machines.

[Poolfield2]

Hi there Esther and welcome to the forum, hope to meet you in lots of different sections on here