I referenced “dryer balls” in 1001 Energy Tips, and how adding them to your clothes dryer can decrease drying time. I’m glad I didn’t say how much energy they save because, according to this report, it’s precious little. It’s certainly not the 25% to 50% that the manufacturers claim at their product listings. Fortunately, dryer balls also reduce static and wrinkles and, since they can be used many times, that at least saves money from using a softener or static-cling sheets with each dryer load.
I reckon the dryer balls work by improving air circulation in the laundry load. And, since they also reduce static, that means clothes cling together less and thus dry faster. How they work in practice is an important subject of a Ph.D. dissertation and a high-dollar government grant at some prestigious institution of higher education.
It makes you wonder if people aren’t getting more gullible. Our genetically predisposed inclination to mistrust all spurious “soapbox” claims by advertisers has been bred out of the human genome ~ and in only a few short generations! Lately, I see an ad regularly on my Spanish-language TeleNovelas channel (soaps) for a dirt-cheap cream that cures every skin issue under the sun ~ collagen, age spots, wrinkles, bags under the eyes, varicose veins, rosacea, even physical scars. That stupid ad runs at least twice an hour all day long. People buy it! They love it, I assume.
Instead of gray matter in our skulls, people have dryer balls anymore. Fluffy ones, at that!
Be that as it may, this example illustrates the need to do your research on all claims of energy conservation. The more it costs and the more extreme the claim, the more skeptical you should be. And don’t believe it if all the manufacturers claim the same extreme success, as is the case with these wool dryer balls. I state this general principle many times and in many different ways in the book.
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Excerpted from Going Green, available as an eBook at this list of eBook retailers online.