

If you prefer a subtle scent added to your clean laundry, we found that adding three drops of essential oil to each of the dryer balls did indeed impart a very subtle, but fresh scent (in our case, lavender, but lemon and eucalyptus are also pleasant) to clothing. Your clothes won't be quite as cuddly soft when you first slip into them, but as one of our staffers noted, it's nothing you don't get used to after about a minute. But if you're sensitive to chemicals, dislike strong scents, or simply prefer eco-friendly laundry methods, the wool dryer balls are the way to go. If snuggly soft, sweet-smelling laundry is what you crave, then Bounce (or your preferred chemical fabric softener) is your best choice. In steel, if you press an oversized pin into a hole, they’ll stay together indefinitely. Although Ecoigy claims its dryer balls will reduce drying time by up to 40%, we found that not to be the case in our test both loads of clothing took about the same time. Press fits rely on constant stress and friction. Not uncomfortably so - the pants weren't going to stand up by themselves - but the towels, jeans, and T-shirts all needed a little extra smoothing to fold neatly and lacked that "finished" feel. By comparison, the clothes dried with the wool dryer balls were stiffer. The bath towel fibers felt plush again the jeans practically folded themselves. It is not difficult to press sheet steel because it is. There's no question that a chemical fabric softener like Bounce makes clothing feel softer, especially heavy fabrics. And only after that they laid down the permanent tracks on the permanent way, as it was called.
