Our washing machine packed in recently, and off we trotted to our local electrical reseller and bought a all singing all dancing eco washing machine, whoop great! While there I asked what they gonna give me for free, the young lady looked a bit perplexed and offered me a box of 'ecoballs' they are round plastic ball with a sponge ring around them, (imagine Jupiter but a lot smaller) filled with washing powder pellets... I'm always the sceptic so thought I'd give them to my mother in law as a Christmas present (she always buys me a pan for some reason, lol)

Any way I read the bumf and basically they’re meant to give you up to 150 washes with these 2 tiny ball things. 100% hypoallergenic, residue-free, anti-bacterial bla bla blah and cost about £12...

Well we been using them for about a month now and I'm really impressed, ok some clothes we have had to put back in the wash, and others have had to use a spot stain remover but other then that I'm converted. These seem like a very environmentally friendly product that basically claim most of the washing power you put in the wash is bulkers to make it look like you getting more for your money.

Now its possible that these do absolutely nothing to help clean my clothes, perhaps I'm actually just washing them in water? Has anyone else used these? Got an opinion on them? They seem like the ideal product for grey water recycling / reed beds but I don't know enough about the product / detergents.

Cookie
p.s. I don't work for ecoballs in any way shape or form, just a product I'm so for impressed with that actually does seam to help the planet, and there isn't many.

Been using them for years - bloody marvelous.

We also use a magnoball with them which is supposed to reduce the surface tension of water.

We occasionally add in some ecover bleach (brilliant stuff) to help the whites and do once in a blue moon washes with washing powder as the balls will not always get oil spot stains out of trousers etc.

A couple of tips:

1. Remove them from the machine before spinning (this preserves the neoprene bands).
2. Lightly load the machine as they will not work well if, like many, you or your partner treat the washing machine drum like a stuff sac. If washing really dirty stuff do an 'extra water level' wash.
3. Keep the neoprene bands from your first set to add onto your second set as this will make them last forever (although you will need the to refill them.

S.

Oddly it seems to be synthetics which get a bit niffy (only a bit), usully cured by hanging on the line.

It is also important to run your machine at 90c once in a while to kill off all the bacteria that can live in the drum and pipes.

To keep on top of the 'stubborn stains' and the slight niff - 1 box ecover (there are other environmentally friendly household cleaning products) lasts about a year.

S.

Going for a trip out with the pigs? :op

Oh you got to love the smell of pigs and peat!!! But I am jealous, I just want my own small holding and to be left alone to watch the world go by :o)

I'll work for food and shelter :op

Cookie

as long as its just wrestling... I hear pigs hair gives terrible stubble rash :o)

We used ecoballs for about three months. Clothes were very clean at first, then acquired a strange, almost oily smell that fascinated the cat. Stopped using them, but are considering trying those "soap nuts". Anybody have an opinion about them?

We have started using the indian soap nuts and so far they seem to work and make good sense economically. If you have very dirty smelly clothes to wash they advise adding bicarb powder and vinager.

Clothes come out clean and dont smell of anything except clean clothes, its a bit strange not to have the perfum of washing powder but it must be better ecologicaly no?

You fill a net bag with 5 or 6 pieces of half shell and put in with the clothes, it can be used 3 times. A 1 kilo cost 10 euros and we think there is enough for 6 months maybe.

THEY WORK AS WELL AS MOST WASHING POWDERS.

Sorry shout but they do. Most washing powders have a perfume in them to mask the natural smell of the clothes as well as the optical brighteners, bulking agents and all the rest of it. Do the experiment :-

1. Wash clothes in water only = wet dirty clothes.
2. Wash in eco balls = wet clean clothes.

Eco balls are one of the very few 'on a plate' better environmental solutions that also saves you money. They do struggle a b it with fat & grease, as I posted above, but all you need to do is a conventional wash once in a while. They also do not do well over 60c as the plastic balls don't like it up there so you will need traditional powder for a hot wash (getting the grease out of overalls).

The reason your "Council" will only take two types of plastic is that the industry can only recycle 2 types of plastic in the UK at the moment. All the smug little eco warriors that recycle all of their plastic regardless ( in some misguided get one over on the council mission) are putting the whole thing at risk of collapse and rendering whole loads of plastic useless and getting it sent to landfill.

Not saying your one of them Cookie. At the end of the day you make your choices and go for it and as a small holder you may well be doing more for 'it' than most of us can dream off - just dont throw the eco balls out with the jars.

S>

Waste regs

You have to love them. I was involved in a big wetland restoration project. We wanted to fill up a big wet hole created by a minerals company with soil/mud from the clearance works to ancient ditch networks. Neat, we thought, minerals company pays for large scale restoration as part of extraction mitigation AND we get marsh where there would have been a left over gravel pit lake (all those native plants & seeds transported in).

No, said the waste regs, as soon as it leaves the digger bucket into the lorry (to be moved one mile from one side of a wetland to another) it is waste. We must know what this waste is, it must be analised and categorised after all it may present a risk to the water table and pollute watercourses, is this mud suitable for this ancient fragile habitat!!!!

It all drives you mad if you think about it too long.

S.

Well I'm not sure, but using them has done two things...

We haven't bought any washing powder / released this into the environment
I've been more selective on the length and type of wash / saving energy I'm sure
Spent countless hours looking and listening to the clunk clunk clunk of the eco balls saving myself energy I would of wasted doing housework :op

Anyone want to try washing their clothes in water only as a bench mark?

Grrr... the waste system :o) suppose its better then not having a system and no way to prosicute offenders.

Cookie

Mark S

I'm all for skepticism, live and breath by it. Have you used them?

I do and ......

THEY WORK! (see above post)

Most people seem not to like them because the washing does not smell 'clean' like it does with Ariel or Persil or whatever; in other words it is not perfumed and there are no optical brighteners. Also I think there is a persistent skepticism/strange 'hygiene' concerns about washing at low temperatures which will, it appears, take generations to debunk.

I remember exactly the same skepticism when I started using ecover products (back when Maggie the Hat was selling all our stuff off to those nice gentlemen in the city):

1. The washing up liquid was claimed to be not as good as fairy as there were not as many bubbles - just nonsense.
2. The washing powder did not get all the stains out - neither do any of the others - lots of optical brightners though.
3. The toilet cleaner was not as good as domestos - cant repeat what I think about this even with asterisks.
4. The citrus cleaner was a scam - er..... now used as a degreaser the world over (the only stuff for cleaning bike chains).

And when we used Tea Tree oil as a pre wash soak additive for real nappies, and when I got my underarm deodorant borax crystal (or whatever it is) 8 years ago.

I could go on.

I don't get the magnoball either to be honest (the other claim is that it reduces limescale/hardness) but we use it 'cos we do!

I'm coming over all Mac vs PC with this one.

S.

Posted By: skywalkerI don't get the magnoball either to be honest (the other claim is that it reduces limescale/hardness) but we use it 'cos we do!

Anything with any variation on the word magnet or magnetic in it is a scam and does nothing. The hardness in water is due to calcium and magnesium ions and no amount of application of anything magnetic will make any difference whatsoever. Perhaps the magnobollocks is simple ion exchange resin which would, of course, work.\

Paul in Montreal.

I have used ecoballs for years. They really work brilliantly, even on oven gloves, but the clothes have no detergent smell. I get round this by using about a teaspoonful of detergent in with the ecoballs. The clothes then smell great and a bottle of detergent lasts me about 3 months. They are also great for our sewage treatment plant and were recommended by the firm we bought it from-
http://www.wte-ltd.co.uk
I lent them to my neighbour who did 3 washes with them and then ordered some. I would not be without them.

PS I tried them in the dishwasher, but it was not a success!

Ecoballs

is that when you build a passive house with your own hard earnt ?

or get in there and clear out your composting toilet after 6 months usage