Seriously.
This is the Bounce fabric bar. I love(d) this bar. The Bounce (tide) Dryer Bar sticks in a little container and suctions to the inside of your dryer. It acts the same as a dryer sheet and you can buy one that lasts from 2 to 4 months. I am very lazy about dryer sheets so this was a great solution for me. I was actually giddy about this product when I started using it and have probably recommended it to at least 20 family and friends the past few months.
Till now.
Recently we washed shoes and while they were drying, the shoes hit the bar, broke it into a thousand pieces, and left marks and pieces of the dryer bar all over the entire thing. My poor innocent Affinity dryer is only 8 weeks old.
Sniff.
Surely Tide/Bounce does not expect people to only use soft clothing within their dryers. I bet shoes, backpacks, stuffed animals and slew of other household items get washed and dried on a daily basis. I am assuming eventually they will fade away? I don’t want to use a chemical inside my dryer and regular water is not doing much good on the waxy coating.
I think the concept is great and I used it for a few months before an incident. Unfortunately we wash more than just clothing in our dryer. All it took was one shoe to smack this baby into a million pieces.
Back to the drawing board, Tide!
~trisha
OUCH! that mess doesn’t look like it will be easy to clean either. Good luck with that icky job. We never wash shoes here so I think the dryer bar might still be a good product for those who don’t throw objects like shoes in there.
Wish they had it for Clear and Free Bar I”ll have to check
had the same thing happened to me with the shoes. my dryer is a mess. looks just like the picture. any ideas on how to clean it?
That would really make me upset too! I stopped using fabric softener a while ago and I also use vinegar on all my things. I look for a review when I am ready to try a new product, that’s for letting us know.
Thanks for this info! I was considering one of these, but I kind of like my sheets, so I guess I’ll just stick with those!
That’s a bummer! Thanks for the heads up
So sorry it happened to your new dryer!
Thanks for the heads up! I’ll stick with my Downy Simple Pleasures Vanilla & Lavender fabric sheets, which I luv the smell of!
That stinks Trisha!! I’d die if my new baby (dryer) got marks liek that. So so so sad!
You know, with heavier things like shoes I’d remove the bar for that drying session. The bar can come out without taking the housing unit thingy off. Of course then you don’t get the nice smell of the bounce bar – that’s half of why I love it. The smell.
Damn. BIG bummer!
I stopped using fabric softner all together. I add vinegar to all my loads…clothes are clean, soft and fresh, no vinegar smell and it is cheaper!
I have been using mine for a few weeks now and I’m loving mine. We put it to the test over the weekend doing a lot of laundry. We never put shoes in the dryer though. I do hope they wear off with time.
Thank you for sharing your experience. Sorry for your dryer…I would be so angry! I hope the vinegar works well for you. You could mix it with a little baking soda to make a paste if you needed to, I suppose. Still, it sucks that you have to scrub all those little spots. What a pain in the ass! ;{
Hey Trish,
That is a major bummer. I’ve been using mine since I got it at BlogHer and I love it. I gave up drying sneakers when my DH washed and dried his expensive sneakers and they came out looking like clown shoes! The soles had half-way come off and elongated and the shoes had shrunk!!!
I’m looking forward to seeing how Bounce responds to this.
Kathleen@http://glammagrandma.com & http://coachingthefamilyblog.com
Euuuuwwwwwwwwwwwww!
Thank you Trisha for the update!
I have stopped using liquid fabric softener as it is bad for my septic system… and have not been using too many of the dryers sheets unless I washed something I really wanted to have a fragrance on it (like sheets) and if I do use them I remember to scrub my lint screen every couple of months to get the dryer sheet residue off of the lint screen, as it slows down the drying time. I was planning on using a “good” coupon to try this dryer bar, also thinking I could remove it when I wanted to. I guess I will stick to my ‘dryer balls’ for now… at least they fluff up my towels nice.
I would try Kris’ tip on cleaning off the residue before it leaves more product on your clothes! If vinegar doesn’t work for some reason, try something oily like skin so soft or mineral oil & then wipe with vinegar to get the remanding oil off.
Good luck!
Hope you hear something from Tide concerning this, keep us informed
Egads! I decided not to try this because I use the used dryer sheet to scrape the lint off the lint filter and having it in there reminds me to do it! Now, I’m really glad. Thanks for sharing that with us…good luck with the vinegar!
How funny that I came across your blog today about Tide bounce bar because I just saw a commercial of it this morning for the first time today and thought “wow, sounds like a neat thing”. Like you, I wash my kids shoes and backpacks too so I’m glad you shared your experience with us.
OMG I am so glad I held off buying one! I saw it at the store, I thought it was genius. Then I wanted to read up on it some because I’m afraid of new products generally. I wash/dry shoes, backpacks, duty belts, holsters, blankets and anything else with cloth. I can see my husband reporting for duty with specks of bounce bar all over his duty belt. EEK!
I’m sorry you had to go through this.
Eeek, this would have gotten my blood boiling!
I am with Cat, I am loving the Purex 3 in 1 sheets I got
Wow! That bites.
Hey Trisha, any idea why all your post are showing up in my google reader twice?
Well i won’t be using the Bounce bar any time soon. THAT would really piss me off!
Has Tide/Bounce contacted you yet?
I don’t machine wash shoes, so I’ve loved my Bounce bar. I would imagine that the spots would wear off with regular use.
Can’t you pop the “bar” off of the backing when you’re drying things that are hard? I haven’t tried this, but I thought you could remove it if you had stuff (like towels) that you didn’t want to use softener on (it makes them less absorbent – not that I care, I use it anyway because it also makes them not smell like feet).
Amy @ http://prettybabies.blogspot.com
Hi-
I had the same thing happen to me. I used vinegar to get it off and it worked! Turn the dryer on with nothing in it so it gets the waxy stuff warm and then dip a cloth in vinegar and it should just wipe off. Wala!
Hope it works for you
I put one in my dryer and within two uses of the dryer it fell off. Luckily all it did was fall off but didn’t leave residue in the dryer like yours.
Back to dryer sheets for us.
I can see why you would be upset. Even the Bounce Dryer Bar website has no mention of precautions when using hard objects. I had planned on trying this out until seeing this and will gladly now stick with my Purex 3 in 1 sheets.
I haven’t tried mine yet, but after hearing that so many people have had issues I’m a little wary about trying it out!