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Nanosmart Laundry Balls

The Shonky Award for... Pure Fabrication.

shonkys 2015 laundry ball
CHOICE staff
CHOICE staff
Fact-checked

Fact-checked

Checked for accuracy by our qualified fact-checkers, verifiers and subject experts. Find out more about fact-checking at CHOICE.

We hate to be nitpickers, but there is one small problem with Nanosmart laundry balls – they don't work. 

According to the marketing, they will "revolutionise the way you do washing forever" and free you from having to rely on hopelessly outdated technologies like laundry detergent and fabric softener. 

But according to our testers, Nanosmart laundry balls do diddly squat. 

We put them up against plain old water in a test to remove a variety of stains in our washing machine lab, and Nanosmart lost! 

That's right, using nothing is better than using Nanosmart laundry balls, and last time we checked 'nothing' was free – unlike laundry balls, which cost about $50 a pop. 

Nanosmart laundry balls

Who knew the cutting edge of modern technology could be so disappointing? It seems these balls of wonder rely on "bio-ceramics" to get the job done. 

Apparently they also emit "infrared rays" and "negative ions" that reduce the size of water molecules so they can better penetrate the fabric. No more messy detergent! 

Such promises can make your head spin faster than the spin-dry mode on your washing machine. 

If only they were true! Since they're not, we had no choice but to bestow a Shonky on this most outlandish of products, which should probably be renamed Nano-not-so-smart.