First a few words about what wash balls actually are. I am sure some of you have heard of the new eco washing thing that can clean your clothes and do your laundry without the use of detergent. Wash balls are special balls that u put inside your washing machine together with your clothes and the virtually eliminate the need for washing detergent. Or at least cut it by 80%. How do the work, or better do they work at all?

I have been using wash balls for a few months now. I think that they do work since I haven’t noticed any big difference in how clean my clothes are now in comparison to before I was using them. But I must confess that I always add some washing detergent because I like the smell that it leaves on freshly washed clothes.

So what is the basic principle behind wash balls?

Wash balls are full of small ceramic pellets and these pellets must first be put in the sun so the UV rays charge them. You have to do this before you use the wash ball for the first time and then every now and then, like once a month.

These pellets inside the ball emit infra red rays that break water molecule’s hydrogen combination into smaller water cluster and activate the small water cluster. This increases the molecular motion of the water, water easily penetrates the fibers and the washing power of the water itself is increased.

Besides that wash balls also soften your clothes. They do that by producing negative ions. These ions make the fibers softer and dirt can come out from softer fibers faster than from the hard ones. All this without the use of detergent.

Did you know that chlorine that is added to the drinking water makes your clothes pale and hard? Wash balls eliminate chlorine from the water. This makes water softer and saves your clothes. Softer water is water that has lower surface tension and that kind of water is much better for washing than hard water.

Washing detergent also produce a certain level of pH in the water to better dissolve oils and dirt from your clothes. Wash balls can do the same (though producers do not tell us how).

That is basically all that wash ball manufacturers tell us. I am not that good at physics to tell if this is true and possible. I did find other articles that are pretty skeptical about wash balls working for real. But as I said, they work for me.