I have two of those balls and love them. Evidently, so does my dog who seems to be hiding one of them!

The New Zealand wool balls work much better!!

I have these same ones. They work. They are noisy. They would be good for things like outwear which has tough material. Good towels? Not so much. Amazon has a big selection of the felt dryer balls at a good price. The Moms use them for cloth diapers. Next time I have a order there I pan to get a set to use with the towels.

My dog takes them out of the dryer while I'm putting the wet clothes in. Then the hunt begins for they dryer balls. The good news is they quiet down when the plastic gets hot.

I love them have completely done away with sheets and/or softener in wash. In fact, I use 4 balls per load but that's just me. I don't find them noisy at all. I can't see how they damage anything, incl drum

I had some non-wool plastic dryer balls. I used them for a little bit, and stopped after someone mentioned in another forum they can cause sheets and fabrics to rip and tear.

I bet the wool or tennis balls work much, much better. :)

I can't use tennis balls. They have a terrible odor, in my opinion.

I used tennis balls once. They stink. Get the felt balls or the ones linked above.

I've used either tennis balls or the plastic ones for several years and never had an issue except that the plastic ones eventually start coming apart. Now I watch and throw them away when I see the first crack. I think the plastic ones will last 2-3 years. The idea behind them is two-fold; less dryer time and less need for dryer sheets/fabric softener. I think they do a great job on towels!

IMO dryer balls are a marketing scam. The clothes are falling/bouncing against the drum baffles throughout the cycle. Doesn't reasonably seem that a couple bouncing balls will have a significant impact (LOL) on performance. I've never used them.

@dadoes, I think... they could be very useful for fluffling up certain things. Not everything, but some things.

Like... a down comforter, after being washed would do well on air fluff with a few tennis balls. Or Pillows. :-)

I've washed and dried pillows several times ... no balls and they puff up enormously enough that it's a bit of struggle to get the pillow covers and cases back on.

Also washed/dried a friend's down queen-size comforter twice. She wanted to add three tennis balls to the drying, which had no appreciable effect far as I could determine. There wasn't enough room in the drum for the balls to bounce around to a significant degree at the point it got fluffy and on toward dryness.

The wool dryer balls absorb moisture and do help with static. I haven't noticed anything being fluffier but drying time is slightly shorter. I made my own because I wanted smaller balls. Tennis balls are stinky and toxic according to my vet. Then again, don't think I'd live well drinking detergent or softner. Lol

LMAO@ dancing balls..haha...I have used tennis balls with my comforters, but I can't see where it helps, like Dadoes said there's not enough room to make the balls bounce...I have better luck taking it out of the dryer off and on and fluffing it.

Paw, I'm glad you've checked in, I was beginning to wonder if your ok...good to see you.

They are meant to replace dryer sheets. Their real purpose is to cut down on static. They wont help dry faster as dadoes mentioned.

No but some people have good luck with them beating and distributing the down in down filled comforters.

Keeping busy here. Washed my bed pillows & used the dryer balls for the pillows. They were loud, but helped poof up the pillows.

Hey, did the car wash take care of your car? and did they want the nozzle back lol

Woolen balls absorbing moisture still has that moisture inside the environment of the drum, where it must be dissipated same as the moisture being originally in the clothes, so that is unlikely to have an effect on drying speed.

They work in reducing how creased things get but some people unrealistically expect that items will not need ironing, they only do so much.

The (sudden lack of) noise is also helpful for letting you know that the one big item that is hard to dry has once again worked itself into a ball (capturing the dryer balls so they can't make noise/aren't fluffing the fabrics).....

@Mama - the carwash never called & I still have their nozzle. Dent wizard can probably pull the dent out for $100.00. I'll just go that route.

All in all, it's been very sad for my car. I bought it brand new October 2014.

At 3 months I was rear ended. Car in shop 3 weeks.

At 6 months bad gas. The gas station I used accidentally put unblended ethanol in the tanks. Car was in the shop 3 days.

Then last weekend hit by the carwash nozzle.

Heres my baby

Nice ride!

Paw...I have a Nissan Maxima (2004), my first not used, Brand New car.

I still have it. I love Nissan's, I've always owned one since I was 16.

My headlights were stolen a few months in of owning it. The Xenon headlights were a hot item on the black market (someone took a crowbar to pop them out doing damage to the hood and fenders). So I feel your pain.

I love your vanity plates!

I hope she's good as new after Dent Wizard fixes it.

Best of luck with your Altima.

Sorry for the bad luck Pawprint! Car problems are awful. As the owner of a 2014 VW TDI I sympathize.

Scott, very pretty and classy car..and the plate is awesome. I wish you good luck in the future.

Dryer balls to VW, only on the Laundry forum!!! :)

I use tennis balls when washing down items. They go though the washer and dryer, maybe that's why mine don't stink? Or maybe it has to do with which brand you buy?

@georgect - I love the Maxima, but cannot afford one yet - maybe next time. I do have my eye on the 2016 Maxima.

@mama - I've had my personalized license plate since 1997 & love it. Back then I had a cat named Paw, because he was mitten pawed (5 toes) and he always slept on my car, leaving a trail of pawprints up the hood to the roof. I wish Ohio allowed 8 letters & I could spell it right!

@ Sandy - is the deisel bad? Nothing beats German engineering, in my opinion, but I've never owned or driven a deisel.

@errant - I never thought about washing them first. Good idea!! I'll try that next weekend.

Oh Paw...the 2016 Maxima is sooooo SEXY! I'm just not a fan of the CVT (continuously variable transmission).

Next car I want to purchase soon is a pre-owned Infiniti G37x (made by Nissan).

@ pawprint - I've had diesels for a few years. I love the mpg, don't have to fill up very often :). VW rigged emissions on the diesels and there's much debate about how to solve the problem. There's also a turbo issue. Mine has been replaced completely 2x without any idea of why it blew in the 1st place. When turbo goes engine cuts power. It was a real treat on the highway trying to get to the side with no power. This is to protect the engine from damage. Lol. Efforts to get a replacement car got me 10% off of msrp from Corporate. The car has 20k miles on it.

I used exactly the dryer balls OP posted at the top. They were noisy, and after awhile (probably more than a year), the nubs started coming off. I bought some wool ones - 3 in a package and larger then those above. I love them. No noise, they reduce static. DH still won't forego the fabric softener, but I do sometimes. When I got my new washer and dryer a couple months back, they took away my broken dryer. The next day while sitting at work I panicked as I realized I left my wool dryer balls in the dryer that they took away. DH flew in from somewhere that afternoon and went to the appliance store for me and whew, they still had the dryer and gave my balls back! I was a happy camper!

Debbi...ROFLMFAO...omg I needed a good laugh...Hubs flys in and saves Debbi's BALLS from the crusher...HAHAHA!!!