Are these any good?

http://www.ethicalsuperstore.com/products/ecozone/eco-balls/

http://www.biggreensmile.com/product...aspx?productid
=magnoball

--
Ian

Ian coughed up some electrons that declared:

Are these any good?

http://www.ethicalsuperstore.com/products/ecozone/eco-balls/

Quote: "Eco balls ionize the water, allowing it to get deep into your
clothes and lift the dirt away."

That is clearly as big a load of ******** as "magnets on your fuel line
improve your car's MPG".

How does ion-enriched water emulsify grease (cooking/body/car), being one of
the functions of detergent?

http://www.biggreensmile.com/product...aspx?productid
=magnoball


Ditto.

Hope that cleared things up

Cheers

Tim

On an aside, if you really want to help the environment, you might consider:

1) Super concentrated washing liquid, so no-one's paying to transport a load
of water around the planet unnecessarily - I use this, no different to the
regular liquid, except I use less (obviously).

2) A "green friendly" brand like Ecover. I must admit I've never much liked
Ecover washing up liquid (it's not as good as Fairy IMO) and I've not tried
the washing liquid/powder, but compared to the "balls" at least it *will*
perform it's stated function to a greater extent.

Cheers

Tim

On Wed, 8 Oct 2008 07:36:46 +0100, Ian wrote:

Are these any good?

Donno but for Eco balls:

# Reuse for up to 1000 washes (the same as approx. 50 boxes of washing
powder!)

The powder we use (Fairy non-bio automatic) comes in 11.4kg boxes which
state "120 standard washes" (defined as medium soil, medium water, 230ml)
or only 8.3 of boxes per 1000 washes. We use 50ml/wash so get about 560
washes/box...

# Cost less than 3p per wash (normal washing powder costs approx. 25-30p
per wash!)

11.4kg box costs £14.04 inc VAT or 2.5p/wash... These boxes of powder are
bought from CostCo, I don't think you see them in the normal supermarkets.

Magonoball. How hard is your water? Ours is pretty soft so it would be no
benefit.

--
Cheers
Dave.

"Ian" wrote in message
...
Are these any good?

http://www.ethicalsuperstore.com/products/ecozone/eco-balls/

http://www.biggreensmile.com/product...aspx?productid
=magnoball

--
Ian

I've used Eco balls for about two years (the same ones), could be longer. I
wash two or three loads a week. Spouse's filthy overalls are washed when
I've dragged them off his back and accumulated three.

I'm very happy with the result.

Mary

On 8 Oct, 07:36, Ian wrote:
Are these any good?

http://www.ethicalsuperstore.com/products/ecozone/eco-balls/

http://www.biggreensmile.com/product...aspx?productid
=magnoball

--
Ian

Bought some, used once, put in cupboard.

Does that answer your question

Chris

On 8 Oct, 09:28, "Mary Fisher" wrote:

I've used Eco balls for about two years (the same ones), could be longer. I
wash two or three loads a week. Spouse's filthy overalls are washed when
I've dragged them off his back and accumulated three.

Why are spouse's overalls filthy though? If spouse were a market
gardener (citing the one trade I've got some results for) then the
"dirt" comes off fine by mechanically washing the overalls with plain
water, without even needing balls. One of our neighbours does exactly
this - old washing machine out in a shed, no drainage other than a
soakaway, so no soap goes into it.

A garage mechanic covered in real oil is going to be a different story.

"Andy Dingley" wrote in message
...
On 8 Oct, 09:28, "Mary Fisher" wrote:

I've used Eco balls for about two years (the same ones), could be longer.
I
wash two or three loads a week. Spouse's filthy overalls are washed when
I've dragged them off his back and accumulated three.

Why are spouse's overalls filthy though? If spouse were a market
gardener (citing the one trade I've got some results for) then the
"dirt" comes off fine by mechanically washing the overalls with plain
water, without even needing balls. One of our neighbours does exactly
this - old washing machine out in a shed, no drainage other than a
soakaway, so no soap goes into it.

A garage mechanic covered in real oil is going to be a different story.

You name it, it's on his overalls :-)

From aero fuel to Zen poo (Zen being one of our hens)/

Mary

On Wed, 8 Oct 2008 07:36:46 +0100, Ian wrote:

Are these any good?

http://www.ethicalsuperstore.com/products/ecozone/eco-balls/

"Eco balls ionize the water, allowing it to get deep into your clothes
and lift the dirt away." is typical eco-bollox.

http://www.biggreensmile.com/product...aspx?productid
=magnoball

"Proven to soften your water by up to 70%" is simply a false
statement.

However, beating your clothes between rocks in a river is a well known
way of washing and gives you a clue as to how these things work. A
few tennis ball sized stones will be a bit noisy in the washing
machine though so find a few lumps of plastic of about tennis ball
size and chuck them in with a small amount of detergent to achieve the
same effect. Just like the real thing they will also shorten the life
of your clothes somewhat.

On Wed, 8 Oct 2008 07:22:33 UTC, Tim S wrote:

Ian coughed up some electrons that declared:

Are these any good?

http://www.ethicalsuperstore.com/products/ecozone/eco-balls/

Quote: "Eco balls ionize the water, allowing it to get deep into your
clothes and lift the dirt away."

SWMBO says: "Rubbish. They beat the **** out of the clothes, like
banging on a rock".

--
The information contained in this post is copyright the
poster, and specifically may not be published in, or used by
http://www.diybanter.com

On Wed, 8 Oct 2008 08:28:54 UTC, "Mary Fisher"
wrote:

"Ian" wrote in message
...
Are these any good?

http://www.ethicalsuperstore.com/products/ecozone/eco-balls/

http://www.biggreensmile.com/product...aspx?productid
=magnoball

I've used Eco balls for about two years (the same ones), could be longer. I
wash two or three loads a week. Spouse's filthy overalls are washed when
I've dragged them off his back and accumulated three.

I'm very happy with the result.

I'm sure you say you are.

--
The information contained in this post is copyright the
poster, and specifically may not be published in, or used by
http://www.diybanter.com

On Wed, 8 Oct 2008 09:28:54 +0100, Mary Fisher wrote:

"Ian" wrote in message
...
Are these any good?

http://www.ethicalsuperstore.com/products/ecozone/eco-balls/

http://www.biggreensmile.com/product...aspx?productid
=magnoball

--
Ian

I've used Eco balls for about two years (the same ones), could be longer. I
wash two or three loads a week. Spouse's filthy overalls are washed when
I've dragged them off his back and accumulated three.

I'm very happy with the result.

Mary

There was me imagining you on the bank of the Lower Wharfedale ;-)

Don.

"Cerberus ." wrote in message
. ..
On Wed, 8 Oct 2008 09:28:54 +0100, Mary Fisher wrote:

"Ian" wrote in message
...
Are these any good?

http://www.ethicalsuperstore.com/products/ecozone/eco-balls/

http://www.biggreensmile.com/product...aspx?productid
=magnoball

--
Ian

I've used Eco balls for about two years (the same ones), could be longer.
I
wash two or three loads a week. Spouse's filthy overalls are washed when
I've dragged them off his back and accumulated three.

I'm very happy with the result.

Mary

There was me imagining you on the bank of the Lower Wharfedale ;-)

The Aire isn't up to laundering and there are no stones I can manage.

Mary

Don.

On Oct 8, 8:22*am, Tim S wrote:
Ian coughed up some electrons that declared:

Are these any good?

http://www.ethicalsuperstore.com/products/ecozone/eco-balls/

Quote: "Eco balls ionize the water, allowing it to get deep into your
clothes and lift the dirt away."

That is clearly as big a load of ******** as "magnets on your fuel line
improve your car's MPG".

How does ion-enriched water emulsify grease (cooking/body/car), being one of
the functions of detergent?

If you ionise water, you get hydrogen and oxygen, which offgas and
have absolutely no cleaning effect.

If you run the machine with just plain water, no balls or detergent,
you'll get the same result. It works passably well for a fair while,
but in the end you get muck buildup in the machine and permanent
pongs.


NT

In article , Ian wrote:
Are these any good?

http://www.ethicalsuperstore.com/products/ecozone/eco-balls/

http://www.biggreensmile.com/product...aspx?productid
=magnoball

SWIMBO uses them. Personally I'm not convinced - and I think she's now
thinking (after using them for a few months) that they're not all they're
cracked up to be - she reckons needing to use the old powder/tablets
once every few weeks to give everything a bit of a kick again...

Gordon

On 8 Oct 2008 12:30:47 GMT, "Bob Eager" wrote:

On Wed, 8 Oct 2008 07:22:33 UTC, Tim S wrote:

Ian coughed up some electrons that declared:

Are these any good?

http://www.ethicalsuperstore.com/products/ecozone/eco-balls/

Quote: "Eco balls ionize the water, allowing it to get deep into your
clothes and lift the dirt away."

SWMBO says: "Rubbish. They beat the **** out of the clothes, like
banging on a rock".

Tell Swimbo that she is an intelligent lady that has hit the nail on
the head.

Gordon Henderson wrote:

SWIMBO uses them. Personally I'm not convinced - and I think she's now
thinking (after using them for a few months) that they're not all they're
cracked up to be - she reckons needing to use the old powder/tablets
once every few weeks to give everything a bit of a kick again...


That's not such a bad thing, though, is it? If you wash whites with
powder, tablets or liquid it is still a good idea to run them with
some bleach, Oxyclean or suchlike every now and again. That doesn't
imply that the powder, tablets or liquid aren't any good, so why
should it be the case with the balls?

On Wed, 08 Oct 2008 15:55:33 GMT, EricP
wrote:


Tell Swimbo that she is an intelligent lady that has hit the nail on
the head.

The rock on the shreddies surely if you want to be contextually
aligned.

From: Ian
Date: Wed, 8 Oct 2008 Time: 07:36:46


Are these any good?

http://www.ethicalsuperstore.com/products/ecozone/eco-balls/

http://www.biggreensmile.com/product...aspx?productid
=magnoball



Thanks to everyone for the helpful (and some strange) feedback. I think
we'll stick to soap powder.

--
Ian

On Oct 8, 8:27*am, Tim S wrote:
On an aside, if you really want to help the environment, you might consider:

1) Super concentrated washing liquid, so no-one's paying to transport a load
of water around the planet unnecessarily - I use this, no different to the
regular liquid, except I use less (obviously).

But can you trust most people to not just squeeze out as much as they
did with the old stuff?

Its a bit like the story of boosting toothpaste sales by making the
nozzle a bit wider.

MBQ

Man at B&Q coughed up some electrons that declared:

On Oct 8, 8:27*am, Tim S wrote:
On an aside, if you really want to help the environment, you might
consider:

1) Super concentrated washing liquid, so no-one's paying to transport a
load of water around the planet unnecessarily - I use this, no different
to the regular liquid, except I use less (obviously).

But can you trust most people to not just squeeze out as much as they
did with the old stuff?

Easy - I just measure into the (half sized) cap like you're supposed to

There's no helping some people, but they're not wasting my money!

Its a bit like the story of boosting toothpaste sales by making the
nozzle a bit wider.

Ooh - that's crafty...

Cheers

Tim