SAS Group, Inc. Dryer Maid Ball

UpdatedL 12-10-13Sadly, this product is no longer usable for us. It will no longer hold air when placed in the dryer (though we have filled it on multiple occasions) and it's surface no longer collects the fur (surface wore down overtime). When considering the continuous deflation of the product and the reduction in surface adhering properties, this product it no longer useful to us. I still recommend it if you are a pet owner since it really did help when it still worked. However, being that it has a short life span, my expectations for saving money on lint rollers is gone via the need to purchase another. This is why I am lowering my star rating from a 4 to a 3. However, please remember this product did a wonderful job when it worked ( about 9 months in our case with daily multiple laundry loads) and is why I will be ordering another shortly. I hope this review helps.Original Comments, Followed by Past Update:About Our Needs For the Product:When looking at the reviews vs. the claims of the Dryer Maid Ball, I of course didn't expect much out of this product. My wife and I have a beautiful white Samoyed, and though we love to spend every minute we can with him, his hair spends even more time clinging to our clothing whenever we leave the house. Since we are both in the healthcare field, we can't allow that to happen so we have made it a practice to always lint brush our clothing before and after each laundry load. As you can imagine, this process is very time consuming. Typically, we would go through 3-6 roller sheets with each load via hair and lint. We also always carry extra sticky brushes in each car and room of the house for the just in case hairs that wish to hitch a ride. In terms of people that always say, "as long as you clean the carpets regularly you will not have a hair problem on your clothing" (like many have blindly suggested), I only have this to say...wrong, wrong, double wrong. To prove my point, I am a severe asthmatic, and the slightest allergen can set me off into an attach. As such, it is my practice to keep the house clean everyday from top to bottom, that even includes brushing and appropriately cleaning our Samoyed too. However, our Samoyed's little white fluffy hairs always seem to find there way back to us. They stand out very well with dark dress pants, and that is not a good or professional fashion statement. With that considered, we have tried many products and noticed this while looking to outer more lint brushes. We thought it was worth the price to try and thus we did.What We Did:Understanding the ball needs to make contact with the surface area of all the clothing to work, just like tennis balls when fluffing up sweaters and vests, we reduced the laundry load sizes slightly. We also reduced the dryer time since the ball will allow the articles of clothing to dry faster, which they clearly state on the instructions. This is where I think many people started getting the strange rubber smell, at least the pungent smells. I can almost bet their clothing dried faster then expected and they were over-heating the Maid Ball too much. I have done that with tennis balls before, and it is a nasty rubbery smell. Finally, too really test it, we decided not to run the lint brush over each article of clothing prior to the laundry as we normally did. If it would work, that would save us 15 minutes right there on each load.Our Results:We are impressed. For the first time, we actually have dog hair in the lint catcher. This is saying a lot since our dryer is not the best quality. I would say the clothing shows at least a 80-90% improvement. Even more impressive, we only have had to utilize 1 sheet of the lint brushes post every couple laundry loads. That is already saving us money and cutting even more time off the laundry schedule. Does it solve all the issues, not really, you will still always find a stray hair here and there; but does it do a good job if you don't over stuff and over heat your laundry loads...it does for us at least. This product definitely saves us time and money (minus need to buy lint brush replacements so frequently). It is worth a try for anyone with a pet. Just remember, it will not get rid of 100% of the hair, but we realistically didn't expect it to. However, the pros definitely outweighed the cons in this case and we hope it continues to do its job for the years to come.Update:My wife and I have owned this Dryer Ball for awhile now and I felt it was time to update this post. Recently we have noticed the ball is not working as well as it started in the beginning. We have truly tested frequently and maybe that has something to do with it. In either case, there is definitely a difference in what this product works well on and what it doesn't, as listed as follows:Works Well (about 80% improvement than without Ball):-Men's and Women's Dress Shirt(s) and Dress Pant(s)-Typical T-Shirts, undershirts, and solid fabric undergarments-Smooth material sheets and pillow cases (being aware some hair or even the ball may become trapped in fitted sheets and pillow cases as times resulting in reduced results)Does Not Work As Well On (about 5-30% improvement than without ball)-Sweaters-Thick material covers and/or comforters-Lace patterns or multi-layered fabric materials (shirts, cover-ups, etc.)-Some types of socks (thicker is worse, thin dress socks are not as bad)-Heavier night clothing (nighties, pajamas, night pants, etc)Basically, if the fabric is thick or consists of multiple layers that allow the hairs to get wedge deep in, the Dryer Ball is helpless to pull them out and do it's job correctly. We still stand by the vast improvement for our dress clothing, which comprises the majority of our daily wear. However, for the thicker and more comfortable "days-off" wear, it performs less than perfect. I just wanted to be honest since our usages my differ than yours, and an update was necessary (which I have never done before). In either case, it still does the trick for us and we are happy with it.

I bought this as it was exactly like a product I loved, The Magic Fur Ball. I have a beagle/lab mix that sheds...a lot. You just walk by the little guy & your covered. I tried the magic fur ball & it really was magic. Toss an item in the dryer & viola! No pet hair. Not an exaggeration. He’s got white fur that showed on absolutely everything. Throw in dryer for a touch up & your done. I had been using for over 10yrs but then I couldn’t get them anymore. My search brought me to these. I’ve tried many others, but none had come close. These balls start out round & they slowly deflate. They still work, but not as well. Each ball has lasted me over a year. The most recent has lasted 2 yrs. It depends on usage, size of loads, etc. Nothing is perfect, but I found this to be close & I won’t use anything else. My pup is “short haired” so some hairs do become imbedded in the blankets, but that’s a small price to pay when the majority of the items are hair free. I’ve wasted a lot of money searching for a pet hair cure. This is a winner.

Throw this into the dryer to catch lint and pet hair, for which it does a fair job. Nothing is the perfect solution, but this is easier and better than most I've tried, short of hand picking hair off the clothes, or going through a whole roll of duct tape. My only real complaint is that the seams are not finished very well. I've had to hand sew it once or twice. For the price of these things, I expected much better quality. However, because of the stupidly-high price, I have mended mine instead of getting a new one. I've been using this for a while now, and always throw it in with the dark clothes in the dryer. I also use softener, which helps release pet hair and lint, and I notice that together, they do a fair job. I have not tried it alone, but I imagine it would be adequate. Just remember to use a soft bristled brush on it once in a while to take off all that lint and hair it collected from your clothes.

I've been chasing these down, for a couple of years! They were called magic furballs before. I have a long haired American Tuxedo cat. Until I found these, I had to stop buying anything black! Everything gets covered with cat hair. Until I found these little miracle balls, I thought I would just have to live with it! I've read bad reviews, & came to the conclusion that people were not using them properly! You CANNOT USE THESE WITH ANY TYPE FABRIC SOFTENER!!!!! These are your fabric softener, lint control, & money savers! All my laundry dries in 15 minutes! Even jeans! My lint filter really works with these! If you have a heavy load, you need to clean your lint filter, one time during the 15 min. cycle. After only 5 minutes, you will be amazed at the amount of lint in the filter!! If you have a pet hair problem, It is over! I used my original 2 balls for 3 years. They started losing air & I began looking for more. You would not believe all the searching I did. I swear, this is one product I can't live without! (I bought 10, to last, in case they did'nt get proper advertising this time!) Just remember, NO LIquid sofeners or dryer sheets!! They defeat the process! These work by static electricity! Oh yeah, the 2 originals still work!

I did not expect this to work. I have an Australian Shepherd who sheds a lot. Her fur is everywhere, no matter how often we vacuum. We were finding it in clumps in the dryer, stuck to our clothes. I bought this with low expectations. After the first use, I believed I had wasted my money. BUT JUST WAIT UNTIL THE SECOND USE. I used it a second time and it came out covered in fur. Every time since then, I’ve had to peel the dog’s fur off of it after every load of laundry. It doesn’t get every piece of fur, but it makes a big enough difference where I’ll continue using these as long as I have a long-haired dog who sheds a lot.

Doesn't work as advertised

After two uses the Ball deflated. I tried to inflate it but discovered the air leaked out of one of the seams.

Junk, they do not work.

Totally rubbish, sticky tape works better