How Many Dryer Balls Should You Use Per Load?

If you have ever wondered why doing the laundry takes so long, you’ll appreciate anything that saves you time.

Dryer balls have been identified as one of the solutions due to the clever way in which they can speed up the drying process. They also prevent your laundry from clumping together.

You can put these small balls into the dryer to facilitate the drying of clothes when doing your laundry.

However, how many of these balls should you use per load? This article will answer this question and many more. Let’s take a look.

 

The Number of Dryer Balls You Should Use Per Load

The number of dryer balls you should use per load depends on the size of the laundry load.

Generally, 2-6 balls should do the job depending on whether your laundry load is small, medium, or large.

• Small loads: 2 dryer balls
• Medium loads: 4 dryer balls
• Large loads: 6 dryer balls

There have to be enough balls bouncing around in the dryer for their benefit to be significant and the more you have, the more effective they’ll be.

That does not mean you should pack your dryer full of balls as there still needs to be enough space for everything inside.

 

How Do Dryer Balls Work?

Interestingly, the science behind the working of dryer balls is pretty simple. When you throw a pile of wet clothes into the dryer, they stay clumped together for the first few minutes.

They are too wet to separate and don’t allow air to move more freely between them for proper drying.

But if you throw a few dryer balls into the dryer with the clothes, as the balls bounce around, they agitate the clothes creating separation between them.

This allows air to move between the layers of clothing to dry them more efficiently.

Do Dryer Balls Work?

Absolutely. Using dryer balls does facilitate drying, making your clothes dry 20-25% faster.

Creating separation between damp clothes quicker and promoting air circulation between them makes drying faster, and that’s exactly what dryer balls do.

 

Why Use Dryer Balls?

The most obvious benefit of dryer balls is in their name, they speed up drying. However, they do much more. Some of the other benefits of dryer balls, and why you may want to use them are:

Reduced energy use

Because dryers use electricity, the few minutes that dryer balls save you adds up and translates to huge energy savings. Though dryers are now more energy efficient than they were many years ago, they are still very energy hungry.

Saves you money

Since you pay for energy, anything that saves you energy saves you money. With energy prices reaching eye-watering amounts, dryer balls are quickly going to pay for themselves.

Eliminate static cling

Have you ever brought out your clothes from the dryer and one or more are sticking together? It’s the phenomenon called static cling.

An electrostatic charge builds up on clothes as they rub against each other in a dryer. Thankfully, dryer balls significantly reduce static cling due to them separating clothes.

Reduces wrinkles

When damped clothes are clumped together in a dryer and have to dry enough before separating, it’s the perfect condition for wrinkles to develop. With dryer balls agitating the clothes and separating them early before they dry, wrinkles are significantly reduced.

Which Dryer Balls Should You Use?

Based on the type of material, there are two types of dryer balls, wool and plastic/rubber.

Many times, after settling on using dryer balls over dryer sheets, people still have to decide what type of dryer balls to use.

While wool and plastic dryer balls are both effective in speeding up the drying of clothes, each type offers unique benefits.

Wool dryer balls

These are made from tightly compressed wool. Being 100% natural wool, these dryer balls are more environmentally friendly.

They can also absorb moisture from the fabric to make for even quicker drying. Also, they are better at preventing static cling.

Wool dryer balls appeal to people who’ll like their clothes coming out of the dryer smelling good. You can add some essential oil to wool balls before throwing them into the dryer, and they’ll infuse your clothes with the scent.

Just allow at least an hour to pass between adding the essential oil and throwing them into the dryer. This is so that balls dry properly, and do not stain your clothes.

Wool dryer balls also make less noise in the dryer as they bounce around.

Plastic/rubber dryer balls

These are made from either plastic or rubber. They usually come with spikes or bumpy nodules which make them even more effective in agitating the clothes and opening up the clothes better for faster drying.

The main advantage of the plastic dryer balls is that owing to their spikes, they agitate the clothes better.

 

Final Thoughts

Dryer balls deserve praise because they speed up drying time, reduce energy use and save you money. In addition, they reduce wrinkles and static cling.

See our roundup of the best dryer balls on the market in the UK for some recommendations.

To get the most of them it’s best to use at least two per load, with six or more for large loads. You can’t really use too many of them, as long as your clothes still have space to move around.