this post was submitted on 20 Mar 2025
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https://www.scienceabc.com/eyeopeners/how-do-fabric-softeners-work.html
It was created so that when you dried clothes outside (especially cotton) they didn't get crunchy. The fibers tend to freeze an interlock microscopically when they dry. It coats the fibers and makes them not stick together.
When mechanical dryers became the norm, they needed a new reason, so the called out static. And in some climates, dryer static can be a bit of a pain. Dryer balls supposedly help with this, but I can't find any reasonable data to back that up, and that's just the kind of thing we're confirmation bias over.
Softener can/will build up on the fabric. It can discolor bright whites.
I think the worst of it is:
From what I've heard, dryer balls help the drying process by warming up faster than the wet clothes and drying from inside the pile. And even if that turns out to have been misinformation, I'm not too annoyed by it because it's a single low-cost expense whereas dryer sheets are consumables
But dryer sheets soften and reduce static. I have never had that with dryer balls. While they do fluff of and make softer, then never remove the static.
Yup, I saw a reasonably well-conducted study that verified they decrease dryer time.
So I live in a super dry climate. I've gotten static shocks that leave my hand numb (not from the laundry, taking off layers while wearing rubber boots) because it's just that dry here.
Dryer balls don't work for static in my experience. Put a couple pins in it? That didn't work. Dryer sheets are pretty much the only thing that actually cuts it as far as I can tell.
You are correct. Only way to remove static is dryer sheets.
not sure how true this is, but they do help dry clothes faster because they're knocking everything around more which distributes the air/heat better
Just the sort of information that I was after, thank you.