Dryer ball effectivness test
 

I'll jump straight into my results so far. (for dryer ball results go to "DRYER START")

Clothes color: DARK

weight of clothes dry minus container weight: 16 lbs.

(cold water/ medium load) wash start: 9:30pm

NEXT MEASUREMENTS TAKEN AT: 4:40 pm next day

weight of wet clothes minus container:18.5 lbs.

DRYER START-addition of two dryer balls

Time: 4:50 pm

Temperature at start of drying: 69 F/ 21 C

Setting: "Optimum" dry no "extra wrinkle care"
Low heat (delicates)

End of drying: 6:15:30 pm

EDIT:TIME TO DRY- 01:25:30

RESULT: dry clothes, not damp at all

I plan to do more tests such as of course a control, with no dryer balls, in the future.

White- NO DRYER BALLS
 

WET WEIGHT= 8.40 lbs. (I do subtract the container weight)

HEAT: Low

DRYNESS SETTING: Optimum

WRINKLE CARE: Off

START DRYER

START TIME- 8:42 pm

TEMPERATURE:70 F, 21.4 C

END TIME- 9:32:50 pm

TIME NECESSARY TO DRY-00:50:50

RESULT- dry

It would seem the balls took longer to dry, however, there was less clothes/water (8.4 lbs vs. 16 lbs) in that load.

SUGGESTION -- weigh the clothes both dry and wet, so that you can know how much water is intrained in the clothes. That way you know the amount of water the dryer has to evaporate away.

Thanks, I'll weigh the clothes wet and dry in the future

NO DRYER BALLS

COLOR- dark

WEIGHT WET-14 lbs.

TEMPERATURE- 70 F, 21.6 C

START TIME- 11:10 am

DRYNESS SETTING- optimum

HEAT- low

END TIME- 12:16:05 pm

TIME NECESSARY TO DRY: 1:06:05

RESULT- dry

Not looking good...
 

The load with the two dryer balls 16 lbs. took longer than the 14 lb. load with no dryer balls by a significant amount of time (00:19:25)

Test # 4
 

4 DRYER BALLS

COLOR- red , yellow, green

WET WEIGHT-12 lbs.

START

SAME DRYER SETTINGS
START TIME- 2:18 pm

START TEMP.- 69 F / 20.7 C
2:33 pm, 69 F / 20.9 C
3:26 pm, 73 F / 23.1 C
3:32 pm, 73 F / 23.2 C
END TIME- 3:34:40 pm

TIME NECESSARY TO DRY- (01:16:40)

Test #5
 

4 DRYER BALLS

COLOR- dark

DRY WEIGHT- 10 lbs.

WET WEIGHT- 15 lbs.

START

START TIME- 3:44 pm

START TEMPERATURE- 74 F / 23.4 C

END TIME- 4:50 pm

TIME NECESSARY TO DRY- 01:06:00

These results say that dryer balls are plainly useless. I still need to do more tests.

...my wife uses them (!!) but the only benefit that I can detect is SOUND -- the dryer is MUCH MUCH quiter when it stops with them inside (duh).

Bored are we? LOL
You could vary this to calculate actual soilage removed from your clothing.

Different Settings
 

DRY WEIGHT- 7lbs.

COLOR- dark

WET WEIGHT- 9 lbs.

START

DRYER BALLS- 2

DRYNESS SETTING- 40 minutes

START TIME- 5:57 am

TEMPERATURE AT START- 70 F, 21.5 C

END TIME- 6:37 am

END TEMPERATURE- 23 C

RESULT- very slightly wet (one thick cotton shirt was slightly wet) no problem

2 lbs of water is about 1/4th of a gallon or about 1 quart. That's a fair amount of water to be heating up to evaporation point and discharging back into the air.

My weight measurements are approximate and based on what looks like the closest increment. I dont use a digital scale, just a swinging needle. I wouldnt be surprised if my measurements were occasionally off by a pound.

OK, this is my first post or comment or whatever you would call it. I always thought dryer balls were used not to help dry clothes but to eliminate static cling in the clothes. In other words no need for a fabric softener. To reduce drying time buy a front loading washer, which my wife and I did. It uses about two thirds less water and cuts drying time about 20 minutes per load. Another note, if you use a fabric softener you have to clean the lint trap because of the chemicals in the fabric softener your lint trap will become water proof. My wife heard about it on the news and sure enough water would not pass through it until I had cleaned it. So we no longer use fabric softener.

Those who sell dryer balls claim that they allow more circulation of air and this improvement is said to reduce drying time. They probably do what you said, I wouldn't know though, since I've never used fabric softener. I simply use an indoor drying rack currently(since its winter). It gets the job done, though to get everything dry it takes about a little under a day, like 14 hours. During the summer I use a clothes line, which drys clothes faster usually.

Welcome to ecommodder

I have never heard of them being used to help dry clothes but with that said when you brought up the fact you try clothes on the line brought back a lot of memories of stiff sheets and blue jeans hanging on the clothes line. My wife and I used to hang clothes on the line but for whatever reason got out of doing it. We may have to go back to doing it.

If you want to do a 1 to 1 test place a pair of jeans and a towl in a 5gal bucket that you filled with water then dry (after removing from bucket). Do it again with the dryer balls.

Phantom, that sounds like a very good idea.

When my brother was twelve, he decided to experiment with the effects of adding the family feline to the dryer cycle, with the direct result of a very distraught mother, although I believe that the cat lived to be seventeen or eighteen.

I should mention that my brother is autistic.

Good stuff, I like the dryer ball cause it is noisy and it reminds me to check the clothes so I don't run the dryer when the clothes are already dry.

One other thing I try is to throw a dry towel in the dryer with the wet clothes. I feel that helps wick of moisture and get it out of the dryer. Can you test that?

Another thing is to hang up jeans an towels and air try them, once they get close to being dry
I throw them in the dryer