Energy Matters Forums

[karlajensen]

just got this from my sister, a fairly happy customer I'd suggest
Now that we've got the evergy savings, time to work on water, chemicals and of course helping more people into solar.

Anthea suffers from Chronic fatigue and as a result has changed her lifestyle significantly to include lots of healthy and sustainable living practises ........

Hi

Karl pointed out the laundry balls available online. http://www.laundryball.com.au/

No chemicals, no need for a rinse cycle, inexpensive, if they work.

I have been using these for about 6 months and report results as follows:

Saving loads of water on skipping rinse cycle for every load
No more (chemical) smelling clothes
Saving time & energy & stress - no need to take buckets/pipes out to the garden for the grey water use
Can now use better dishwashing cycle knowing I am saving on water fromwashing machine making this OK
Clothes are coming out clean
Saving lots of money on detergent
No environmental pollutants

So I asked this question:

If you don't believe the blue balls work, then the conclusion is this:

water alone is sufficient towash your clothes

Either way I am very happy and recommend these to others.

Love
Ant

[Gordon-Loomberah]

You can read all about them here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laundry_ball


We use soap nuts, which contain saponin, and find they work very well.

[karlajensen]

Good one
I read that article too and was somewhat concerned.

Currently we use trinature stuff at 20mls per load in the LG front loader
(which is still going strong ~7 years on despite its $700 price tag) may even be cheaper now!

If I dont have any water collected from the shower and MUST do a load, I'll use HOT water
in summer (being careful to not have anything with elastics) simply because I have too much hot water.

[danielb]

I use an enviro washball http://www.enviroballs.com

I remember seeing these years ago at about $200 each, and 2 years ago searched everywhere for them (any brand). All I could find was one box of 3 things, but they required hot water and were $120. I finally found this one at a shop in Bendigo of all places, for $40, and have been really happy with it.

Now my mother, and sisters use them as well. We find them great on dirty clothes, but not so good on grease. May work better in hot water on grease, but I still have some detergent left, so just use that if I have any greasy stained clothes.

My mother loves the fact she isn't using detergent, as all the water can go straight onto the grass.

[cw nsw]

oh dear, I nearly commented yesterday, but continued on my way - however the enviroball site was just too tempting to resist looking at, especially with their reference to expert testing

below is link to results of expert test on the washball: and yes it is the very reputable Dr Robert Patterson. (wish I'd read his stuff before I bought my last washing machine, but that is another story)

anyway, perhaps enviroballs hope or presume that most readers won't read the article right to the very end, his last note is a good un ...

"No performance testing for its washing action was done"

http://www.enviroballs.com.au/_lib/docs ... _Apr08.pdf

[australsolarier]

haha, came across a tv consumer program where they tested them and they cleaned as good as plain water, but not more. so at least they are not harmful.

[Joey]

This sounds a bit like the old Fuel Nebulizer scam that was supposed to save you a fortune in fuel , testing concluded it used the same amount fuel installed and it did without lol

This website for this Laundry ball simply states it raises the PH level in the water which is supposed to open the fabric , would love to stick one of these in a bucket of water after a couple of washes and see what difference it made to the PH levels so some sodium carbonate will do the same job for a few cent per wash .

[Johnny]

We have used soap nuts for all our laundry needs. My wife loved them because they were natural. They were not as powerful as normal detergent (had to wash twice every now and then). They did not have a strong smell, and did not set off any allergies, which my wife loved.

We have stopped using them, because our land lady said that they were leaving black stuff in the machine. Not sure if this is true or not, but we have gone back to liquid soap.

[Gordon-Loomberah]

hmm, I've been using soap nuts for a couple of years now, and there is definitely no black stuff in the washing machine! I have them in a small stainless steel mesh ball, which I put into the soap holder, allowing the fill water to flow through them. I find that much easier than messing around with the small cloth bags.

[Tracker]

hmm, I've been using soap nuts for a couple of years now, .

Ummmm, how does soapy nuts wash your clothes...
..
.