Years ago dryer balls were being hocked on television as the greatest thing to improve dryer performance since God made wind. These hard plastic balls had nubs all over them and the claim was that they would help dry your clothes and make them soft while helping control static cling, all without the use of chemicals. It was supposed to save you money as well. I and millions of others ordered these gems, threw them in the dryer, and got as annoyed as hell as we listened to them thump around like three pairs of tennis shoes were in there as well as the load to dry. I couldn't stand it. I put the dryer balls on a shelf and never use them. They are just too loud and I worried about damage to my dryer and clothing.
Recently I have been hearing about an all natural dryer ball option made of wool. Wool would certainly be quieter than hard plastic and, I assume, gentler on clothing. They supposedly will help control static as well. Now I have always found wool to be a static-ridden material, so I am not thinking it will really control the static thing, but I don't really worry too much about static. I just use a tightly wadded ball of aluminum foil in the dryer to take care of that issue. So, the real issue is two-fold: 1) do the dryer balls actually help shorten the drying time of the load and 2) do they really help reduce wrinkling too.
