Hestia and the blue balls

Ecozone website link

You may recall the story of the foamy gutters? Well that was around the time I started using Ecozone washballs.

Of course, the ecoballs weren't the cause of the foamy gutters at all, but I thought I'd tell you how I was getting on with these balls in case anyone was considering buying them.

I do try to be ecofriendly when I can, but sometimes it's just too much like bloody hard work and I have never been happy compromising with a replacement for my Fairy Non-Bio for my family's washing.  Tartarus may have skin like an old leather handbag and not be affected by anything other than sexually transmitted diseases, but Sonshine and I are hugely sensitive to lots of chemicals in washing powders and can often be found rubbing our bodies to shreds blissfully against fence posts like cattle if I use a new powder.




This Ecoball pack cost £12.50 and contains two of these blue balls, filled with little pebbles of god knows what, a small tube of stain remover and a couple of sachets of refills.  I've not ventured into the stain remover yet.  But I might.

What you do is - load up your machine (yes, even a front loader with spin dryer option like mine) with washing and fling in one of the blue balls.  Slam shut the door, select your washing programme like normal and off you go - no detergent, no conditioner!

Here's the blurby stuff:

They are 100% hypoallergenic, residue free (huzzah - no powdery black clothes!) and antibacterial - and ideal for sensitive skins (I can vouch for that - no scratching from Sonshine nor I with these!)  And best of all - no animal testing.

Despite not using fabric softener either, my clothes feel fine and are not rock hard. No-one has complained about how they feel in the Olympian household.  Perhaps towels feel a little rougher, but not uncomfortably so.  Certainly not enough to warrant going back to harsh detergents.  Yes, let's draw a veil over what actually DID cause the gutters to foam, shall we?.......

White school shirts are still clearly recognisable as white.  But if you like your white's sparkling, perhaps wash the shirts in standard washing powder every third wash or so.  I don't get het up about white getting slightly grey - Sonshine's 10 and not working in The City.  He can get a bit grimy.

So, I have to say....I'm very happy with the blue balls.  Haven't used soap powder nor conditioner since we got them!

I wash at low temperatures where possible and all seems to be going well - there's no powdery residue that you sometimes get if you use too low a temperature.  Stains that need a high temperature (fatty stains) are still a bit visible - but I put that down to not using high enough water temperatures rather than any problem with the balls.

I'm still on my first ball and have not needed to bring out the second one at all yet.  Refills are supplied and are also available on the intertubes.

All I would say is that you really can't overfill the washing machine when using them because if the ball can't circulate, then your washing is not going to feel the benefit of the wee pebbles.   So if you like to see your frogs with skin on them and your rivers flowing without bubbles, I can honestly recommend changing to the Ecozone ecoballs.