Thanks! They're worth a try. I think that the old dryer balls help keep things from tangling and clumping, and get things dry faster, but I never thought they helped static. Glad to hear these do.

Arlene

That's interesting. Supposedly they last for 2 years, from what I've read. I'm curious what the chemicals are for the anti-static. Keep us posted how they work for you.

There aren't supposed to be any chemicals in them, other than the fact that they're made of some sort of rubbery/plastic material. The idea is that the balls make the clothes "bounce" thereby making them fluffier. The new anti-static ones have some sort of patch of I'm-not-sure-what on them. It's not rubber, it's almost spongy. I do love my dryer balls and the new anti-static ones seem to help a little. The long and short of it is that if you are drying a lot of synthetics, like polyester, you're going to get static if you don't use dryer sheets or a massive amount of fabric softener. My detergent has a soy softener in it, plus I use vinegar in the rinse, and I use the dryer balls and I still have static. The only way to get rid of it is to switch to natural fabrics or air dry everything.

ebear1271 - You may need more than 2 of the new anti-static dryer balls if you are still getting static in your dryer. That was mentioned on the package in the often-missed fine print.

Static is a sign you are over-drying your synthetic clothing. Remove the light-weight synthetics sooner than the other clothing in the load, or better yet, air dry them to prevent static in the rest of the load. You can spritz your dried load with a fine mist of water, give it a couple tumbles, and that should discharge the static.

I'll point out again, my load was 100% polyester fabrics ONLY and there was NO static. That's about as static-producing as it can get.

-Grainlady

Hi Grainlady. It's been a few weeks now and I'm wondering if there's anything new to report on the dryer balls. I read some reviews of them and one TV station who did a test and they weren't very positive, but I didn't really respect the comments they made. I more inclined to trust your opinion on them than someone who gives them a "thumbs down" because they "were noisy" in the dryer! LOL Doncha love it.

I don't use the dryer enough to give you a good report. I've never used the new dryer balls on a load of laundry, other than the two 100% polyester robes. However, we removed the heavy winter-weight blankets from the bed this weekend and exchanged them for light-weight blankets. One was a microfiber blanket and the other was a blend of fabrics. I thought that was a good test for the new anti-static dryer balls. Once again, they did a VERY good job.

To be entirely fair, I was careful to use a lower heat setting, and that may have aided in reducing the static as well. I also didn't over-dry them.

I'd say if someone didn't have good results using the new anti-static balls, they need to add more balls and avoid over-drying the clothing.

-Grainlady

grainlady, I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong. It could be that it's usually fairly dry in the house this time of year. I use four of the anti static balls and 2 regular so it's not that. My laundry soap is all natural and contains a soy softener plus I use vinegar in the rinse. I also dry everything on low. Lately I have been putting synthetics in for about 10 minutes to get the dog hair off and then hanging them to dry. This is a major pain as we have 5 people in the house and only a small area for drying in the winter.
Since you said you do a lot of line drying perhaps you can help with a problem I have. It seems that if I line dry something in the house (in the summertime) it dries very nicely. But, if I hang it on the line outside it gets stiff and doesn't have a very pleasant smell. We live in the suburbs, so not a lot of pollution from factories. This has really stumped me so any opinion you have would be appreciated!

ebear1271 -

We use humidifiers to maintain at least 40% or higher humidity in our home. I couldn't tell you if that affected clothes out of the dryer compared to lower humidity levels - using the anti-static dryer balls. The only time I've dried using the new anti-static dryer balls was the recent static test with the two robes and the blankets this weekend. But neither load was fully charged with static (as I expected it to be) and there wasn't any static in the robes when I hung them on hangers, or the microfiber blanket when we folded it. I did use vinegar in the rinse.

Try taking out the regular dryer balls and see if there's any difference with anti-static dryer balls ONLY.

If your clothes are stiff from hanging outdoors, then I suspect they have soap/detergent residue still in them. Usually a little breeze will help take care of that, just as tumbling in the dryer does.

I switched to Charlie's Soap about 18-months ago - because of discussions on this board. Once my former brand of laundry detergent washed out of the fabrics after several washings, all my line-dried clothing (dried on both indoor and outdoor lines) were amazingly soft! Evedently, Charlie's Soap doesn't need some kind of soy-fat to coat fibers to "soften" fabrics. Which is essentially the same thing fabric softeners do to fibers. Charlie's doesn't build-up in fabrics to begin with, so they are naturally soft - even line-dried. I could even tell they were softer wet from the washer.

The scent of "the great outdoors" on line-dried clothes is a common love it, or hate it, personal preference issue. Most people are so accustomed to highly perfumed laundry products they may not like the absence of it. While many people remember the smell of sheets dried outdoors as a pleasant smell.

-Grainlady