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I've followed the various laundry related posts but am still largely undecided between soapnuts (I tried a sample, plus the supplier is local to Sussex) and other products.

I feel a bit of a fraud voting, as I've never used either, but I've been researching this myself for when my nasty chemical washing liquid sachets are all used up (funny how, when I bought them, I thought I was doing my bit for the environment because I was using gel sachets where the outside disintegrates in the wash, rather than tablets that come individually wrapped!!) and I've heard that eco-balls are not very effective and very expensive. Lots of people are very, very enthusiastic about soap nuts however. Though I suppose they do have to come from India. This place will give you free samples if you send an SAE: http://www.inasoapnutshell.com/.

hamster wrote:I've heard that eco-balls are not very effective and very expensive.

I do use eco-balls and find them neither expensive (they'll last me about 10 years) nor ineffective. OK, they aren't so great on my really mucky work clothes; for them I use ecover or something like that.

I've tried soapnuts, too - they were OK, but like the eco-balls, not quite effective enough for the mucky bits.

ina wrote:

hamster wrote:I've heard that eco-balls are not very effective and very expensive.

I do use eco-balls and find them neither expensive (they'll last me about 10 years) nor ineffective. OK, they aren't so great on my really mucky work clothes; for them I use ecover or something like that.

I've tried soapnuts, too - they were OK, but like the eco-balls, not quite effective enough for the mucky bits.

Okay, I stand corrected!

Soap nuts are great .... I have used my free sample and everything has come out clean and soft ... and the really good bit ... the ironing is easier. I dont Iron unless I have to but the stuff is so soft the Iron just flows over it ...
So I will place my order ...

Ecoballs and a couple of drops of essential oil. Works well on everything except severely encrusted or greasy clothes. I use old-fashioned pure soap flakes for the really dirty stuff.

Ecoballs are made in China and are plastic, but given that ours have lasted three years so far I decided that was an acceptable trade-off compared with buying imported soapnuts regularly. (And most - not all - soapnut shells are a byproduct of the pharmaceuticals business so you have to decide whether it's good that you're reducing waste or bad that you're supporting big business. Some companies claim their soapnuts are picked on a fair trade-type basis.)

I'm currently looking at growing soapwort - which you steep in hot water to make a soap - and discovered one possible disadvantage that's shared with soapnuts. The saponin in them is poisonous to fish, so if your laundry water is going to get into a a stream or river (for example from older septic tank outlets) then it might be wise to use something else.