Message-Id: <v01540b0cb00eb35fea20@[192.174.2.173]>
Date: Wed, 6 Aug 1997 15:15:44 -0800
To: pinhole@exploratorium.edu
From: pauld@exploratorium.edu (Paul Doherty)
Subject: laundry globes
re the question about the laundry globes (see the end)
Curt Gabrielson's great Aunt asked him about these over a year ago.
Curt got several to experiment with.
They seem to be filled with rocks.
Placing them in water we measured known properties of water that would
cause clothes to get clean:
They did not change the surface tension of water as soap does.
They do not change the pH of water.
They do not change the dissolved oxygen concentration as one of the
manufacturers claimed they do.
Scientific double blind experiments need to be conducted.
Use a laundry ball for 100 washes until it is well along in its life.
Wash dirty clothes in plain water,
wash dirty clothes with the laundry ball.
Wash dirty clothes in soap.
ask a panel of judges to rate the cleanliness of the clothes (they must not
know which load was washed in which product.
repeat a scientifically valid number of times.(In physics this means until
the results are good to 5 standard deviations.)
i.e. thousands of times.
Since the likelihood that the laundry balls actually work any better than
plain water is low. No one is willing to conduct a scientifically valid
series of experiments.
The manufacturers know this.
Does any one know of a consumer reports study or one by a similar organization?
Paul D
>Pinheads,
>
>I just spoke with someone who is thinking about buying a laundry ball
>(or "Super Globe"). They asked me if they should buy one.
>
>Laundry Balls are disk shaped plastic containers filled with white
>pellets. You drop it in your wash machine and it’s supposed to clean
>your clothes without detergent. According to the advertisement the
>device acts as a "dirt magnet" and will last for several thousand
>loads, but they cost around 50 bucks.
>
>Here's a quote from http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/2392/ls.html
>
>"The Super Globe" activates your laundry water naturally through a
>confidential process which changes the molecular structure of your
>water. It forces the dirt to leave the fabric because dirt is positively
>charged and "The Super Globe" is negatively charged, thus creating an
>electronic release of dirt."
>
>I told her I had no idea how they work.
>Anybody out there know of these things?
>Are they just a rip-off?
>
>-Eric