Review on Effortless Fabric Softening: Downy Ball Automatic Liquid Fabric Softener Dispenser (Pack of 8) by Liberty Nayak

I have a top loading machine without a fabric softener dispenser and I'm fed up with dryer sheets so I wanted to try these to use liquid fabric softener. I followed the directions on the t-shirt and even used Downy brand fabric softener to make sure I gave them a try. After using it a dozen or more times, I'm left with a few clothes with fabric softener stains. With large loads, the ball seems to open too late in the rinse cycle and the fabric softener usually ends up in the top of the machine. This leaves the strong fabric softener directly on top of the garment, leaving a difficult-to-remove grease stain. I've tried different options with load size, dilution, and different fabric softeners, all with the same results. The only time it worked well was when I had a medium or small load of clothes but set the machine to a large or extra high load size so there was extra water to distribute. Another issue I noticed was that sometimes the ball would either not open at all or there was a significant amount of fabric softener left inside. All in all, it's too difficult to mess around with, and patches really aren't worth it. I'll stick to my tea towels.