Bounce (Tide) Dryer Bar Discontinued– Where Can I get one?

Have you ever heard of, or used, a Bounce (Tide) Dryer bar?

A few years ago, the Bounce (Tide) Dryer bar was everywhere!  No longer would you have to remember to use or purchase fabric softener dryer sheets, liquid fabric softener, or laundry detergents with added softeners, the Bounce fabric softener dryer bar was a place-and-forget solution for up to 4 months! Unfortunately its been discontinued by the manufacturer (I’m sure it will come as no surprise once you read on), so if you have stumbled across this very old article, you now have to go to Amazon to purchase one!

If you want to read my article, which was about the Bounce Dryer Bar before it was discontinued, you can continue reading. I had an issue with it breaking up in the dryer, which may be one of the reasons they stopped making it, but it was a pretty great product.  For a while.

What went wrong?

It was a sad, sad day when the Dryer Bar fell from grace in our home!

This is the Bounce fabric bar. I love(d) this bar. The Bounce (tide) Dryer Bar sticks in a bar holder (an inert carrier, if you will), and suctions to the inside of your dryer drum. It acts the same as a dryer sheet, in that it acts as a softener and static control agent for your laundry, and you can buy one that lasts from 2 to 4 months.  Recently, I read reviews that state that, unused, they last a while as well.  One woman stated that she was currently using one that she’d purchased over one year prior. Being very lazy about dryer sheets and liquid fabric softener, 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.

Here is the reason for the sudden downfall of our love of the dryer bar: we washed shoes.  Granted, they’re not as light as a silk blouse, but they’re not landscaping bricks either! While they were drying, the shoes hit the bar, broke it into a thousand pieces, leaving marks and pieces of  the dryer bar all over the entire thing. Our poor innocent Affinity dryer is only 8 weeks old.  My heart nearly stopped at the sight of the mess in my new dryer– the shock!

Sniff.  Shudder.  Deep Breath.

Surely, Tide/Bounce, or p&g for that matter, does not expect people to only dry soft clothes in their dryers. Probably, shoes, bathroom rugs, pillows and comforters with tennis balls, backpacks, stuffed animals, and a whole slew of other household items get washed and dried on a daily basis. Prediction: they will eventually 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 left behind.  It defies logic to have to clean a source of laundry cleaning (what is a dryer without a washer, after all) simply because of a failed cleaning invention.

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.

What else is out there?

If you are looking for an alternative to the dryer bar, might I suggest: Febreeze fabric refresher, Febreeze unstoppables (Fresh scent!), Gain fabric softener, Purex crystals, or Downey ultra infusion.