One of the cult echoes of the moment continues to be the Biowashball, a sphere with natural ceramic inside, which would have the power to wash without the use of detergents and many other virtues that we will list in the article. Load the laundry, put the sphere inside the drum, select the program and go, to what?
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The Biowashball, according to the website of the Swiss company that patented it and sells it online, is a sphere with ceramic inside, whose emission of infrared rays it would break up the hydrogen molecules of the water to increase the molecular movement. In this way, the water would have greater penetration capacity, increasing the washing power. Not only that, but the sphere in question, like many imitations, would emit negative ions that would weaken the adhesion of dirt to the fabrics, facilitating their removal without detergents. It would also eliminate pathogenic germs, bacteria and bad odors.
You may have noticed that I use the conditional in a strong way, why? Why does it all seem so strange, all so perfect, the energy and economic savings (€ 35 per ball, € 1.000 savings over 3 years) would be relevant. We are sure that the Earth would find the voice to thank.
The great success is mainly due to the endorsement of Beppe Grillo, who in one of his shows praised the product, and subsequently defended it from criticism, not least those of the show “Mi manda Raitre”. We thought the matter was over there, but we feel that the popular comedian's endorsement is still strong and many still trust his words rather than the evidence.
And the first evidence is already found in the Certificates page of the website of the Ekmer SA, the Swiss company that owns the patent. The tests, carried out in South Korea, in 2004 and with slightly different washballs than the current ones, are not encouraging. In particular those on the percentage of cleansing, raise doubts. The Korean test was carried out at 30 °, with 3 kg of laundry (cotton) and 60 liters of water, for 1 hour:
- with 5 gr. , and I emphasize 5 gr. , of detergent (brand not specified)
- 2 washballs, and I emphasize TWO Washballs.
Cleansing is better with 5 g of detergent (normally we put from 60 to 140 gr., in relation to the amount of dirt and laundry).
But doubts arose: that the exam was dated (although still present on the pages of Emker SA), or that the online rumors "against" were from Grillo's detractors.
So we called an important manufacturer of washing machines, neutral with respect to the detergent issue, world leader, and we spoke with a manager of lab test, which made a test with the Washball. The test was done with 2 kg of cotton, 2 strips of "regulatory dirt" (white chocolate, wine, blood, coal and oil), for a cycle at 40 ° and 3 tests:
- with 60 gr. of liquid detergent (below 40 ° the powder detergents do not dissolve completely) without perborate (bleaching agent)
- only with water
- with the Biowashball
Results ? The reflectance, the data with which the effectiveness of a wash is measured, was of:
- detergent 207,81
- water only 177,71
– Washball 180,19
As you can see, the difference between water and washball is just over 1%, a totally irrelevant difference.
So what to do? buy him because you are not yet sure of the evidence or start using less detergent why is minimal use still enough? And for those who already have it, how to behave? Use them and convince yourself that in any case "something they do" or hold the Washballs to play tennis?
