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Do Wool Dryer Balls Remove Pet Hair? (Explained)

Pets are a precious part of many of our lives, they’re our close companions as well a part of our everyday lives. It is essential that we take proper care of them and take notice of how they affect our livelihood too. You can know about how pets affect your daily lives down below.

Do wool dryer balls remove pet hair?

Wool dryer balls remove pet hair that clings onto your clothes. Hair shedding from your pet into your clothing cannot be removed by normal means, but dryer balls can remove fur, hair, and other dirt as well. They also work on blankets, sheets, bedding, and other sorts of clothing.

Dogs and cats constantly keep shedding their hair naturally and those hairs end up being stuck to carpets or any clothing they come in contact with. Dealing with their hair is tricky because it cannot be cleaned with brushes or vacuum cleaners.

However, you can toss in a couple of wool dryer balls along with the clothes in the washer which will remove dog or cat hair from your clothing.

Dryer balls are an effective solution because they get rid of pet hair not only from your clothes, but it works on jackets, T-shirts, sheets, beddings as well.

Wool dryer balls are excellent for this purpose as well as removing debris from clothes because they do not affect your clothing in any way. They do not contain any chemicals or elements that might react with your fabric enough to alter them.

Their usage also extends beyond dog or cat hair and works on human hair or any other animal’s hair as well.

How to remove pet hair in the laundry?

Handling pet hair in clothes is a challenging task and it gets very tedious when it is a recurring event. However, there are several ways to reduce unnecessary chores by following either of the following solutions below:

Brush your pet daily:

The best way to solve a problem is to stop it at its source. Nobody has control over your pet’s hair shedding nature but you can at least prevent it from reaching any fabric.

Brush your pet daily for at least a minute to keep surplus hair from building up and getting into your clothes. 

Wash with cleaning vinegar:

If your clothes have gotten a bit dirty and have pet hairs that have gotten embedded into the fabric then this solution will be ideal for you. Washing with cleaning vinegar relaxes the fabric to allow the hair to come off with ease.

Put the clothes in the washer and start on normal load and wait till the rinse cycle. Once the washer reaches the rinse cycle, pour 1/4th cup of cleaning vinegar into the washer and continue the washing.

Brush with Lint Rollers:

A quick and easy way to get stray cat or dog hair off of your clothes can be done by brushing with a lint roller. Just one minute of brushing over your clothes will collect the hair into the hair collection chamber. After the chamber is full, discard the hair clot and reuse it again.

Scrape off with tape:

If you have very little pet hair sticking out then it is quite an exaggeration to wash or brush your clothes. We can stick a strip of scotch tape over an area with a few stray hairs sticking out and pull them off to remove them.

Do not use industrial tape because it would leave your clothes sticky.

Using dish sponge:

Dish sponges work similarly to brushes and serve the same purpose as well. The rough surface of the dish sponges is good at making pet hair cling to them. Rubbing a dish sponge over an area several times will remove some stray hair but is a tedious process.

How to make DIY pet hair washing machine balls?

Repetitive purchases of washing balls can be expensive. Thus, if you want to save on your expenses, follow the steps below.

Preparing the wool:

First off, you will need 4.5 to 6 oz of core wool to make 3 dryer balls. Afterward, pull off the piece of wool to tear it into 3 separate pieces of dimensions 3” wide x 2’ long. Once that’s done, take one wool strip and place it on a table, and put the other two aside.

Shaping the wool:

Pinch one end of the woolen strip and begin rolling the wool tightly and tuck the sides inwards and you proceed. As the ball begins to take a spherical shape, angle the strip flow in such a way that the ball remains spherical.

Wrapping your woolen ball:

Penetrate the woolen ball with a 36 or 38 gage felting needle on all sides and repeat from Step 1 with the other wool strips on top of the first woolen ball.

How many dryer balls to use per load?

Dryer balls are dependent on load size and how fast you want your laundry to dry up. There is no maximum limit to how many dryer balls you should use but generally, three balls are used for medium loads, six balls for larger loads, and as high as twelve balls for even bigger loads.

Using more balls reduces drying time and decreases static in the clothes and makes them much softer. So if you have a lot of pet hair stuck to your clothes, you might consider using more dryer balls.

Are wool dryer balls reusable?

Dryer balls are much more popular than dryer sheets due to their reusability and affordable cost. Each dryer ball can be reused for 1000 loads of laundry without loosening up. Some dryer balls come in cotton bags as well, which can also be reused for longer loads.

On regular usage, the dryer balls have durability of usage for between two to five years. Within this period of time, you might notice your dryer balls looking worn out or scraggly, in which case you will have to get a new set.

Other than appearance, if your dryer ball has fluffed up and gotten softer, then it’s time to replace them.

Do wool dryer balls damage clothes?

Wool dryer balls do not damage clothes or cause other issues such as piling. Instead, wool dryer balls make your clothes softer, smoother, and fluffier. But there are other variants of the dryer ball that are not wool-based which does cause damage to the fabric.

Dryer balls made of silicone or plastic would cause damage to delicate clothes and might even cause piling. Wool dryer balls are natural and sustainable as well as safe for sensitive fabric.

What dissolves pet hair in the washing machine?

There are several pet hair dissolver powders available in the retail market that dissolve pet hair in the washing machine. However, upon using the dissolver you will have to clean your washing machine to prevent it from being clogged by the removed pet hair.

Put the dissolver powder into the detergent drawer of your washing machine and throw your clothes in and set the wash temperature to the maximum along with a long wash time.

But sometimes persistent pet hair still clings onto your clothes, although less tightly, which can be dealt with by a lint roller.

Do dryer sheets help with pet hair?

Dryer sheets can also be used to remove pet hair alongside laundering your clothes. These sheets help break the static bond the pet hair has with the fabric of your clothes, thus setting them loose. You can either rub dryer sheets with the clothes or use them on dryers as well.

In the dryer, throw a damp sheet along with the clothes into the dryer for 10 minutes. Dampen and toss a sheet into the dryer with your clothes, blankets, or slipcovers for 10 minutes. This will loosen up the pet hairs on the clothes which can be brushed off using a Lint Roller.

Can dog hair ruin your dryer or washing machine?

Throwing your clothes with dog hair in them into the washing machine or the dryer can ruin it. When the clothes get wet in the washer, strands of dog hair come off the clothes and clump together to form hairballs.

These balls often grow large enough in size to put your washer at risk.

The drum in your washing machine has tiny water drainage holes which remove water and these dog hairs get trapped into them when the water gets drained. This blockage prevents the washing machine from working properly and puts a lot of stress on the drainage pipe.

Final Thoughts

Wool dryer balls are effective at removing pet hair stuck in your clothes. Pets shed hair which can get into clothes and are difficult to remove but dryer balls can remove fur, hair as well as other dirt. They are effective across blankets, sheets, bedding, and other sorts of clothing.