Ecoegg 720 Washes Fragrance Free Laundry Egg

I was sceptical at first but thought that I would give it a try. Surprisingly, it does work. It cleans your washing and there is no build up of soap - so, it has to be good for your machine and the environment. However, I am going back to liquid tabs as I'm getting to the end of my tether at having to retrieve all the balls from the drum and the rubber seal. They also fall into the clothes (even worse if it is a duvet cover!!!), which means that when you take the clothes out of the machine, the balls fly out all over the place, no matter how carefully you try to contain them. I don't know whether I have a faulty "egg"; I check each time before loading it into the machine that the markers line up and it is clicked closed but the agitation of the machine obviously works the egg loose, separating the 2 parts and dispersing the balls. It's an absolute pain.

I'd read a lot about these, some reviewers very for and some very against.

After a 3 mth trial, I am mostly really pleased with the ecoegg but not for everything. It doesn't really deal with biological stains, so for my husbands grubby work clothes, and whites with food stains on them, I still use wash powder. The eco egg is particularly good though for towels and sheets, leaving them soft and comfortable without needing softener. It must be the washing powder that makes them stiff I think. I also use the ecoegg for my general wash.

I particularly like that after its been washed with the ecoegg, the washing just smells of washed textile, and not of nasty chemical soap powder. I do think we've been conditioned to think that the smell of soap powder means it smells clean, whereas what it really means is that it smells of soap powder! If you want it to smell of something after washing with the ecoegg, you can add a drop or 2 of an essential oil to the rinse tray of your machine, but I don't bother with that. You can also apparently buy some stuff from the eco egg people to deal with stains but I haven't tried that either. A stain remover like vanish is also an alternative which I sometimes use if I've only got one thing with a stain and don't want to wait for a "soap powder" wash.

I'm no scientist but I suspect if you used the egg without the little mineral balls inside you might get very similar results, I haven't tried that yet but I might when the balls run out. The eco egg bangs about inside the washing machine bashing your clothes as it goes, and bashing your clothes in hot water is another way to get them clean anyway.

The other thing you should be aware of is that without washing powder the inside of your machine and the pipes between the machine and the sewer get very smelly if you don't use washing powder all the time. The ecoegg people say this is because the washing powder smell masks the smell of the pipes; but the opposite view seems to be that the washing powder helps to keep the pipes clean. Whichever version you believe, without washing powder you do need to clean the machine & pipes on a regular basis, perhaps once a month, by running a hot wash with white vinegar in it. I still do at least one wash a week with powder which seems to be enough to keep it clean and stop the smell, but I did try the vinegar routine and that works too.

So, overall I'm glad I bought it. It's a useful product, saving a large quantity of washing powder (and fabric softener), and consequently helping the environment, but, like lots of cleaning "miracles", is not quite all its cracked up to be.

Very impressed with the ecoegg. I was a bit sceptical about this, but it was recommended by a friend. I have to say it really does work.
It even effectively cleans my daughters reusable nappies!