just put them in your dryer, with your clothes

I leave them in the dryer, too, until they jump out and the cats relocate them!!

But what do they do?

They act as a non-chemical fabric softener and are supposed to speed up drying by keeping clothes from clumping.

They also bump around with the laundry an help reduce wrinkles along with speeding up drying. I once had rubber comforter drying rings that were supposed to fluff the comforter as it dried. I don't know about that, but I do know they were noisy as hack banging in the dryer. The wool balls are very quiet. I like a quieter dryer. But I usually have at least 3 or 4 balls in the dryer, sometimes more if none are vacationing in the laundry basket.

They do help with the static. I use them, I have 6 of them. They aren't as effective as a dryer sheet but I'm allergic to dryer sheets so I got these instead. I'm curious, does anyone know how long these last or if you are supposed to do anything to them? Do they just last forever? I've had mine for several years and they seem OK still.

Just got mine for Christmas!! I wanted them for static help. I rinse my clothes in vinegar but in the winter I needed a bit more static control. They are to be used in threes and are guaranteed for five years but the gal who makes/sells them said she's had hers for much longer than that. Not one spark yesterday doing laungry so so far so good!! I don't have cats but I can tell already they are likely to make more than one trip a week up and down the stairs in the laundry basket.

They do help, both with static and with clumping. i especially like to use them when i am only drying or fluffing a few pieces in the dryer.

I use them too. Lessens static OR fluffs a down jacket. Helps fluff big heavy towels.

I have some that my friend gave me from an Alpaca farm near her house in MT. They don't work quite as well as a dryer sheet for jeans but are great for everything else.

Hi Lynban, we´ve had ours for years they reside in our dryer. I am wondering if anyone has added a few drops of essential oil to them?

Dryer balls are better than the tennis balls I use for down jackets and comforters?

bpath, I think the wool is better at absorbing moisture. I think the fluff is similar to tennis balls.

@bpath...no...not better than tennis balls for down jackets and comforters. Tennis balls have a lot more weight for fluffing. (My wool balls aren't absorbent, they get damp) But...rubber tennis balls when they heat up...smell like rubber. The smell is better....in my opinion....all natural not plastic....guilt free.

The wool balls aren't as heavy as tennis balls, so they aren't as noisy, but also probably not as effective in agitating really heavy loads like comforters. Wool has lanolin, which I've heard cited as contributing to the fabric softening properties of wool drier balls.

I'm really sensitive to scents so avoid dryer sheets like the plague. Dryer balls have been great for me.

Hope, I use dryer balls and add a few drops of lavender essential oil to them when I dry our sheets. There is a very light scent left behind on the sheets.

I have used essential oils with the dryer balls. One of the nice things is that you can customize the scent and the amount of scent. For us, one drop on one ball or one on each of two balls if we want to combine scents is enough, and we don't add them every load.

I too wanted to stop using dryer sheets. I bought six dryer balls from an Etsy shop 30 minutes away where they raise their own sheep (Jacob sheep) and create wool balls.

They just hang out in the dryer. I don't like scents so I don't bother with essential oils.

Since I haven't tried tennis balls I can't compare. We use six 3-inch wool balls and they do well on everything from delicates to towels and sheets.