The
Downy Ball is a
handy little
device that
dispenses
fabric softener into the
washer during the
rinse cycle. For those of us that have machines with no softener
dispenser built-in, and who wish our air-dry
clothes to be
softened as well (so we don't use
dryer sheets), can use the Downy
Ball and never fear
missing the rinse
cycle again.
Downy says you should only use Downy
brand fabric
softener in your Downy Ball but I've used
Snuggle softener in there and it
works just as well.
Apparently Downy has a new ball out on the
market that has a dark
blue lid (instead of the old light blue). It's called the Downy
Enhancer Ball (
http://www.downy.com/ball.html). This ball's an
upgrade to the old ball that works with the new Downy Enhancer
fabric softener. As a
bonus, Downy's new ball is
backwards compatible with their older softener
products, so this is the
better ball to
buy!
Directions:
1.
Fill the ball with Downy fabric softener up to the fill
line.
2.
Pull the ring up to
close the
lid.
3.
Drop the ball in the
washing machine at the
start of the wash.
How it works:
The ball normally
floats around on
top of the wash, but when the washer
spins the
load the Downy ball is
thrown against the side of the
drum. When it
hits, the
weight inside the ball keeps moving (see
Newton's First Law of Motion) which pulls on the lid and
pops the
plug. The ball then releases the softener as it's
jostled around in the
wash.
Here's an
ASCII picture I made of the old Downy ball:
_
//_/_ ;_ __
____ /_/_/__/__/ /_/_/_,
.. | _ _
|| | // \ || | | || | || |
||__| \\_/ ||_|_| || | ||_|
D I S P E N S E R _/
.-.
// \\
_||___||_
/ \
|___________|
/ ====== \
/ _||_ \
| | | |
| | | |
| | | |
|__|_FILL LINE_|__|
\ '----' /
\___________/ m1a