Eco eggs / soapnuts

[HobnobPlease]

We're getting a new washing machine and I wondered about using the opportunity to ditch traditional laundry products and try an eco egg or similar when there's no product residue or anything like that in my machine. Looking for folk to weigh in on:

• do they work? I have a vague memory of reading about a study that suggested not, but people rave about them so maybe yes?

• I'm in London. Does hard water affect them?

• I'm out of reusable nappy / vomity muslin season, but do have two young and very grubby kids. It's not a 'lightly soiled' situation here.

• what about softening and stain removal? Can you use additives with them or does it clog them up / impact their effectiveness? Are there particular products that go with them?

• Eco Egg vs soapnuts?

Bumping. I know there are some laundry nerds out there.

Not used SoapNuts but I have an EcoEgg

My TopTip is put it in a small zipped laundry bag, one of mine opened and I had a millionty pellets rattling around the machine .

I use on black clothes , they don't leave a residue like some detergents .
I didn't find they cleaned that well on heavy soiled clothes , but maybe a pre-treat stain remover? I know QVC sells kits that have the EcoEgg , refills , stainstick .

Hard water here too . I do a monthly cleaning cycle with Ecover Tablets .

Thank you @70isaLimitNotaTarget. Do you find your clothes are soft enough?

I use soapnuts and have for years. I absolutely love them! They're eco friendly and hypoallergenic. 1 bag last us (2 adults, 3 children) a whole year so very cost effective. They wash clothes well too. The only thing that was strange at first was that they are scent free so laundry doesn't have a 'clean' smell. We still use fabric softener for this reason but when I don't put it in I don't notice a difference in terms of softness.

Oh and the kids range in age from 2-8 so a good variety of stains 🤣 I do use a brightener sometimes for whites. Can't comment on hard water as I'm in Yorkshire and it's soft here.

I have tried both.

Soap nuts clean far better in my experience. As I wash at a low temp , I made a liquid from them and added a few drops of essential oil to the mix in order to make a washing liquid. I can't remember the recipe , but it involved leaving the soap nuts sitting in boiling water overnight before straining and storing in the fridge until use.

I wasn't too impressed with the eco egg. I found that my clothing wasn't quite clean after using it. I tried it for 6 months before rejecting it.

We now just use standard washing powder for everything as we were alternating between soap nuts and washing powder as we use reuseable nappies.

I'm in London by the way.

I use eco egg, no softener. Second the bagging advice- I keep my pellets in a sock tied with a knot, because the dog chewed my egg. We are lightly soiled, though hard water. It's good enough.

If I had grubbier kids, I'd use laundry soap on marks. I do a sensible length wash as well, not a short 30mins cycle.

I've got an eco egg. Have 4 kids so lots of dirty washing.. I find it washes the clothes fine, but it doesn't make them smell of anything so I use unstoppables with it.. but yeah it works.

Yes they don't smell of detergent or softener, so sometimes people feel they don't smell clean. They smell of rain and clothes, basically.