We Tried Target's Popular Wool Dryer Balls And They Impressed Us Beyond Quick Drying

Many people swear that dryer balls have changed how they've done laundry forever. Yet it can be unclear which aspects really sold them on this item. Dryer balls claim to do a lot of things, such as reducing static, drying length, and wrinkles while also softening clothes. However, the benefits don't end with a single load of laundry. Over time, using the balls in your dryer may also save you money on dryer sheets, reduce skin reactions to harsh ingredients, and keep the environment a bit cleaner. If all of this is true, these inexpensive balls are a must-buy.

One TikTok user, @malloryhudsonxo, specifically suggests the Everspring Wool Dryer Balls that help get her clothes to dry in one dryer cycle. By tossing at least one in with your clothes, the product claims that while it tosses in the dryer, it soaks up all the extra moisture, making your clothes dry much faster. Helpful comments under the TikTok post praise the dryer balls while also suggesting other options, saying, "Sometimes just throwing in an already dry towel helps too" and "You can put essential oils on them as well to give your clothes a nice fresh scent." With all this in mind, we put the laundry balls to the test.

To begin our test, we gathered three loads of laundry that were roughly the same size, our Everspring wool dryer balls, and a dry towel. If you are looking to try this out for yourself, remember that all dryer balls are not made the same. We used balls made from tightly packed premium New Zealand wool, but other options use plastic, rubber, cotton, or other synthetic fibers instead. Wool is the best material for this as it has a natural ability to repel static and soften fabrics.

In our small laundry room, we use an older Amana clothes dryer. Per one TikTok comment that said, "Use dryer balls cause they are awesome, but please look into either your machine having mechanical issues or clogged exhaust vents that can cause fires," we cleaned our dryer vents before turning it on to make sure it wouldn't cause skewed results. The setup to try our dryer balls was simple. The first load was tested to see how long it would take to dry the laundry without the dryer balls. The second tried out the dryer balls, and the third saw if throwing in a dry towel with the wet laundry would make a difference.

The first test load ran as expected. Such is the case with every other load we've run in this dryer, it took between 50 and 55 minutes to become fully dry. For this load, we added nothing, not even a dryer sheet, and it came out wrinkly and full of static. In the second load, we tossed in all three dryer balls per the package instructions. We noticed that the dryer was a bit louder than normal, and we checked on it once every 10 minutes to see when it was dry. After 40 minutes had passed, they were ready. The clothes in this load showed a dramatic change from the first. They had less static and fewer wrinkles, and they dried fully with nearly fifteen minutes to spare!

The final test would help us decide if the package of balls, which cost approximately $10 at Target, was worth it. TikTok comments indicated that tossing in a dry towel with your laundry would make it dry faster without needing to buy laundry balls. So, once our last load came out of the wash, we moved it to the dryer and added a dry bath towel. We checked on the laundry every 10 minutes as we did with load two. At the 40-minute mark, they were mostly dry, and we finished it off with an extra five minutes.

In all, using the dryer balls resulted in a better outcome for time and wrinkle reduction than the two other alternatives we tried. It was simple and effective for its intended purposes. Following the test, we decided to try using essential oils on the balls like some of the TikTok commenters suggested, adding a subtle fragrance to the clothes. We then had clothes that dried faster, had fewer wrinkles, and a nice scent to them.

If you want to save money, the towel trick certainly works to speed up drying time. However, it will do nothing to remove wrinkles or static electricity. We recognize that using a dry towel may also be more environmentally friendly. If you love that hack, you absolutely should stick with it. Still, many dryer balls, like the ones from Everspring, are eco-conscious and sometimes last up to 1,000 loads with proper use. We would recommend these to anyone trying to move away from using dryer sheets and other similar single-use products for laundry.