When is it effective (and when is it not) to use a ball of aluminum foil?

Aluminum foil is an essential item in homes, thanks to its usefulness for preserving food.

Oliver Thansan
Oliver Thansan
31 August 2023 Thursday 10:58
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When is it effective (and when is it not) to use a ball of aluminum foil?

Aluminum foil is an essential item in homes, thanks to its usefulness for preserving food. It is perfect for covering and preserving food, isolating it from the air, thus preventing it from deteriorating, dust or an intruding insect from reaching your kitchen. By the way, it prevents odors from your fridge from transferring to food, or the aroma of food from wafting throughout your house or your lunch bag.

Another use is to wrap aluminum foil around the hob and countertop to prevent oil from splashing while cooking and can even be used to sharpen scissors. Not to mention its usefulness for dyeing hair.

But what you may not know or, on the contrary, have seen ad nauseam on social networks, are some domestic uses of aluminum foil balls. Tricks are circulating everywhere on social networks that promise incredible results in your laundry or to polish your cutlery. While some are true, others are just hoaxes and, in some cases, even dangerous.

Aluminum foil is made up of bauxite, a non-magnetizing metal, making it an ally in absorbing static electricity that occurs inside your washer and dryer. These electrical charges damage the fibers of the garments, impairing their quality and deteriorating them with each wash to the point of breaking.

Therefore, a trick that does work for your laundry is to put three balls of aluminum foil the size of a tennis ball in your washer or dryer and thus extend the useful life of your clothes. Of course, avoid doing it in the case of delicate laundry, such as knitted garments, as it could get caught and deteriorate that fabric.

Another very widespread trick on social networks is to put a ball of aluminum foil in the dishwasher, under the promise that it will polish the cutlery. But the truth is that it is a hoax.

The origin of this myth was in the use of aluminum foil in a container with water and bicarbonate to polish silver cutlery. But in the dishwasher and with stainless steel cutlery it has no effect, so don't waste time or money putting it into practice.

Finally, a viral hoax on social networks is one in which a ball of aluminum foil comes out completely smooth and shiny from the microwave. It is a joke in bad taste, because the truth is that if you dare to try it, you risk the aluminum burning and your microwave exploding.