Eco Egg disaster!

Ruby71

Hi,

I tried the Eco egg after seeing it on QVC and seeing some posts on here, it was a disaster! The egg opened in my machine and damaged my drum and then didnt even clean my clothes!!!

However I do really like the idea of the product are there any other ones out there as I don't trust the egg, like an egg it cracked! As I do like using eco friendly products, all suggestions welcome!

pawsies

I've got the ecoball (http://www.eco-ball.com/) but I'm not sure it makes a huge amount of difference I must say.

Ruby71

Oh they look good, hopefully they wont break! Has anyone else tried these? or are there other versions?

paulasmith123

Hi,

Ive just read your post about the trouble you had with your Ecoegg. I understand your annoyance. I purchased an ecoegg about 6 months ago, used it twice and on the third use it opened in the machine and the balls went everywhere! I wasnt too pleased.

I gave ecoegg customer services a ring and to be fair they couldnt have been more apologetic. They gave me sent me a new one in the post the same day and explained that there was a fault with the design, a problem which they had now rectifyed. I was still not convinced, but I thought I would give the new egg a try and to my surprise the new design held up, no problems whats so ever. Cleans brilliantly, gets whites white, and it all smells really fresh. My towels are the softist that have ever been. :T

So all in all I would recommend this product now they have rectifyed the problem with the design, Im more than sure that if you gave the customer services team a call they would send you a new one like they did with me. You might as well give it another go. I would love to hear how you get on, so please post back with the outcome

sophiekingscott

Hi Ruby71,

Sorry to hear about the trouble you have had with your egg, I actually won one of these in a competetion a few weeks back, been using it ever since, and think its just brilliant.

Having read Janetjames post I think that mine must be one of the new design ones as it certainly hasnt opened in the wash. I can see how this would have been annoying with all those little balls lol. Janetjames suggests calling the company for a replacement, I also think this is a good idea. seriously give it ago, I love my new ecoegg and wont be going back to detergent.

santer_2

sophiekingscott wrote: »

I love my new ecoegg and wont be going back to detergent.

Constant use of them (in place of proper detergents) may cause a build up of grease and gunge inside the washing machine which can ultimately undo all the savings by shortening the life of the washing machine or causing extra repairs.

From post 2 here

http://www.washerhelp.co.uk/forums/topic/169-eco-wash-balls/page__p__513__hl__%2Beco+%2Bballs__fromsearch__1#entry513

Haffiana

Which report:

Using wash balls

Wash balls are plastic balls filled with ‘solid washing pellets’ that you put in your washing machine, instead of laundry detergent. Some come with a stain remover to erase tougher stains before washing. Wash ball manufacturers say they can replace regular laundry detergents and wash at temperatures between 30°C and 60°C effectively.
However, when we tried them out we found that they washed less effectively at 30°C than a variety of traditional laundry detergents. The worst were on par with water.

sophiekingscott

Having read your post about washing machines and the damage products like the ecoegg can do to them, I have to say that I couldnt disagree more. I love my Ecoegg and have been using it a few weeks now, havnt had any build up troubles. My mum has been using the ecoegg for about a year and has never had any trouble with build up. The leaflet in the box actually suggests running white vinegar through the washing machine to clear build up caused by detergents, so it sounds like detergents can cause just as much build up as you are suggesting the Ecoegg can cause.

As you can see, im quite passionate about this product and dont like to see it slated because it is just so good.

Even if your claims are correct, (which I doubt they are), I would rather have some build up in my washing machine which could be easily removed with cheap white vinegar than have harsh chemicals on my childrens skin.

Ruby71

Hi,

Thanks for all your advice! I did phone customer services and they sent a new one out but I just dont think its that good, there was a small crack after one wash and the clothes didnt seem that clean. I might just change to eco friendly laundry liquid as I dont seem to be having much luck any recommendations?

terra_ferma

paulasmith123 wrote: »

Hi,

Ive just read your post about the trouble you had with your Ecoegg. I understand your annoyance. I purchased an ecoegg about 6 months ago, used it twice and on the third use it opened in the machine and the balls went everywhere! I wasnt too pleased.

I gave ecoegg customer services a ring and to be fair they couldnt have been more apologetic. They gave me sent me a new one in the post the same day and explained that there was a fault with the design, a problem which they had now rectifyed. I was still not convinced, but I thought I would give the new egg a try and to my surprise the new design held up, no problems whats so ever. Cleans brilliantly, gets whites white, and it all smells really fresh. My towels are the softist that have ever been. :T

So all in all I would recommend this product now they have rectifyed the problem with the design, Im more than sure that if you gave the customer services team a call they would send you a new one like they did with me. You might as well give it another go. I would love to hear how you get on, so please post back with the outcome

Is it just me detecting some customer-service-speak in this post?:D
Gosh companies really think we were born yesterday here....

PS just read the sophie person posts as well, well they try in twos now? they think that will fool us?

Ben84

I'm don't believe these wash balls do any cleaning. I've seen a number of their claims about how they work and so far none make any sense. Either it's vague enough to say little or nothing, or it's strung together science-like words that mean nothing. 'Activated oxygen' and 'charged water', total technical word soup in this context. I don't want to sound like I know everything, but I'm a chemist and I think any remotely decent description of how a cleaning product works aimed at the general public should be comprehensible to me and I wouldn't expect to find totally new concepts that break established science in there either.

The only thing I can identify to do to water to make it clean better without adding detergent is to heat it. I don't believe for one moment that these wash balls put the water in to some new 'state' that makes it clean better than regular water.

Of course some people swear they work, but the few tests I know of, including Which magazine found they're no more effective than just water. Water alone and a washing machine may actually be more effective than people realise, after all we get used to the idea through advertising that it's the powder that does all the cleaning and that's not true. A fair bit is done by the water and the mechanical action of the machine.