A laundry ball or washing ball is a product made of solid, insoluble material promoted as a substitute for laundry detergent. Producers of laundry balls often make pseudoscientific claims about their mechanisms of action and exaggerate the extent of their benefits. Washing with laundry balls is as effective or less effective than washing without detergent. Their observed cleaning effects can largely be attributed to the mechanical interactions with the laundry or to using hot water instead of cold. For mechanical agitation, no evidence exists that using a specialized laundry ball is superior to using a different, cheaper solid object, such as a golf ball. The Federal Trade Commission has taken action against manufacturers for making misleading claims, while customer protection organizations have recommended against buying this type of product.
Types Laundry balls come in several shapes: disks, spheres and toruses (doughnut shapes). Some contain ceramic pieces, magnetic material, or coloured liquid claimed to be "activated water", none of which have been demonstrated to improve effectiveness. Some balls can be refilled with pellets of detergent or other ingredients. In the United States, laundry balls have been sold on home shopping channels or by participants in multilevel marketing. They can also be found in retail stores with an ecological or environmental focus. During the initial marketing boom, balls were manufactured for other market niches, like washing cars. For the purpose of washing a car, a normal cloth or sponge will have the same effect of mechanical removal of dirt and grime.
Claimed mechanisms of action Manufacturers rarely agree on why their laundry balls work, which suggests that each manufacturer makes these claims up. Some claims are not backed by science, while others are an exaggeration of benefits. Balls that contain detergents may offer more cleaning power than water alone because their ingredients are comparable to normal washing powder, but in smaller quantities. The effect of the laundry balls may be explained by simple mechanical action and by the usage of hotter water. Some manufacturers claim that their products reduce energy consumption, but their pamphlets recommend using hot water. Hot water will clean some types of spots better than cold water, and mechanical agitation by any solid object can assist in cleaning, leading some people to conclude that the balls worked. Although laundry balls are marketed as economical, environmentally friendly alternatives that can reduce water and energy consumption, they have not been demonstrated to be more effective than washing without detergent. Their observed cleaning effects can largely be attributed to the mechanical interactions with the laundry or to using hot water instead of cold. The mechanical action of the laundry balls can help clean some types of spots, but a golf ball will achieve the same effect for much less money. Apart from issues with effectiveness, there is also a risk of the balls breaking open during washing, which could damage the machinery of the washing machine.
Infrared Some manufacturers claim that the components inside their balls emit far infrared rays, which are claimed to reduce the surface tension of water and facilitate washing. All materials emit thermal radiation, and at room temperature or washing machine temperature, this is in the far infrared range. It is also true that heating reduces the surface tension of water, but this energy comes from the water heater; otherwise, it would violate the law of conservation of energy.
Magnetic properties
Magnetic water softeners claim that their magnetic fields can help remove scale from the washing machine and pipes and prevent new limescale from adhering. Some companies claim to remove hardness ions from hard water or to precipitate the molecules in the water so they will not "stick" to the pipes or to reduce the surface tension of water. The claims are dubious, the scientific basis is unclear, the working mechanism is vaguely defined and understudied, and high-quality studies report negative results. The reputation of these products is further damaged by the pseudoscientific explanations that promoters keep putting forward. A laundry ball containing magnets could be used in niche applications for the removal of magnetic material, such as iron filings on a steel worker's clothing, in which case the benefit would be clearly visible in the form of collected iron filings. For the typical consumer, however, there would be no benefit, and such a device may get stuck on a washing machine with a steel drum, disrupting its engineered balance and increasing vibration, decreasing the machine's lifespan.
Changes to water structure Some magnetic products claim that they "change the molecular structure of water", a pseudoscientific claim with zero scientific basis. There is no such thing as "magnetized water". Water is not paramagnetic, so its water molecules do not align in the presence of a magnetic field. Water is weakly diamagnetic (so it is repelled by magnets), but only to an extent so small that it is undetectable to most instruments.
Special detergent Some balls are refillable with small pellets of detergent which are sold only by the manufacturer of the ball. Critics question whether the amount and type of detergent released by these balls is sufficient to generate significant cleaning effects.
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