I've been seeing ads for Wool Dryer Balls all over the place lately. They seem to be the newest laundry related item in the "green" movement. They are designed to help cut your drying time by up to 40%. I cloth diaper and always have to run my fitted diapers at least twice in the dryer for them to be good and dry. I was very interested when Terra & Cam from TerraMade Products got in touch with me about doing a review. I really like it that TerraMade uses lightly used or recycled fibers and new materials to produce one-of-a-kind wool products, arm and leg warmers, cloth diapers and other great products. Terra sent me out two sets (4 balls total) of their "Tweed Jacket" Dryer balls. According to their website; "Wool covers or "jackets" keep your dryer balls looking good and ready to roll. Recommended for use with aplix."
As luck would have it my mom (aka the Laundry Queen) was visiting for the weekend when the dryer balls arrived. We immediately opened the package and got them into the dryer. I will warn you, they are noisy! It sounded like the socks were playing tennis in the dryer but luckily my dryer is off in my basement so the noise level wasn't a problem for me. Diapers and clothing included, the dryer balls saw about 10 loads of laundry over the weekend. About 5 loads in my mom said, "Is there supposed to be 4 balls?" Umm...yeah! One ball completely disappeared during the laundry process! I strongly suspect that it joined the secret colony of socks that escape from the dryer but more likely my mom dropped it and the cats whisked it off like a tiny soccer ball.
According to the TerraMade website:
Wool dryer balls tumble with your clothes creating air pockets allowing for better air and heat movement cutting drying time as much as 40%. Wool Dryer balls will also retain heat for faster drying when used back to back in consecutive cycles. All dryer balls are sold in pairs. Multiple sets will continue to increase the dryers' efficiency with up to 40% decrease in drying time.
Even with only 3 dryer balls I did still notice a difference in my drying time. The difference isn't quite 40%, more like 25%, but still it cuts down on drying time! My lighter clothing did dry much faster but those thick, heavy diapers still take about a cycle and a half. The dryer balls also seemed to eliminate wet spots from clothing getting bunched up together in a wad and the outside drying while the center stays wet and wrinkled. I have a down filled throw blanket and comforter that call for you to put clean tennis balls in the dryer with them and now I don't have to worry about that I can just toss them in with my wool dryer balls.
TerraMade Products also have a variety of other great products including natural cleaning products, custom wool longies, and cloth diapers. Go check out all the great eco-friendly products that TerraMade has to offer at their online store. They have excellent customer service and the shipping time was unbelievable!
TerraMade Products is also offering one of my readers a gift certificate to their store for $14.95! This amount could purchase a pair of naked or jacketed dryer balls, a bag of powdered Charlie’s laundry detergent, a pair of custom wool longies, a pair of Coo-zies Arm and leg warmers or any other of the great items in their store!
Contest open to US Residents 18 and older. Ends Thursday, March 4, 2010 at Midnight CST. Winner will be chosen at random using Random.org. Please make sure you leave your email address in your comment. Please post one comment per entry. Winners will have 48 hours to respond to email or a new winner will be chosen.
Mandatory Entry: To enter you must go to the TerraMade Products website and then come back here and comment letting me know which item you'd love to have. For additional entries:
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