Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I bought a package of these wool dryer balls. They are well made. The company seems customer friendly. I feel a bit bad for saying it, but there's no sense in people spending their money when they don't have to. I ordered these balls because I wash a lot of sheets and was mainly looking for a way to soften them without using expensive, toxic laundry softener. I also heard that they would speed up drying time, which is a great bonus, especially if you wash your clothes at a laundromat. When they arrived, I took them out of the package, looked them over, held them in my hands, and had a sudden thought: "These are a lot like tennis balls. Hmm…" So I googled it, and discovered that you can in fact use tennis balls to soften clothes. The only question remaining was: "How well do they work?" I was pretty motivated to find out, because I use a laundromat, and often have three to four loads running at a time, so I was going to have to order three more sets of wool dryer balls to cover each load, which would have added up to eighty dollars! Needless to say, I was crossing my fingers. So, I bought the cheapest tennis balls I could find. I could have used them the way they were, but I stumbled across a blog post (www.imalazymom.com/lazy-mom-tips/diy-dryer-balls-a-lazy-mom-tip/) that recommended covering the balls up with foil in order to reduce static electricity. This is a problem I have, so I took the time to follow the instructions. Basically, you just cut four foot-long pieces of foil, wrap up a tennis ball in all four of them, one layer at a time, then tape the seam down with scotch tape, and repeat for each ball that you have. Easy-peasy. (I do recommend using a stronger tape, like duct tape.) You don't have to spend a lot of time shaping the foil: the balls get very smooth and pretty from being tumbled around in the dryer (picture below). When they're ready, you just throw them in the dryer with your laundry. I did this, and when the laundry was done, I opened up the machine, and was very happy to discover the softest pile of sheets ever to spill forth from the mouth of that cheap old laundromat dryer. Not only that, but for the first time, they were actually completely dry from running only one cycle, which had never happened before. I sent the wool balls back tout de suite and wrapped up eighteen more tennis balls in foil, six for each load, which I've been using happily ever since. Some people might say that it's a lot of trouble to go to, but for someone like me who does a lot of laundry at once it was a big deal. I ended up spending twenty as opposed to eighty dollars on dryer balls, plus whatever foil I used. I think a lot of people would consider that worthwhile. Anyway, though I haven't tried it, it sounds like unwrapped tennis balls work just fine. However, if you're of a particular consumer mindset, and you think that something costing more suggests higher efficiency, go ahead and buy these. There's nothing wrong with them. Quick tip: instead of just tossing the balls in, I tuck mine here and there into the wet pile to make sure they really move through the laundry as it's drying. This makes a difference, whether you're using the wool or ghetto version.