Watch CBS News

Buy It & Try It: Mister Steamy

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) -- The Capital Athletic club has been helping people stay fit for a quarter century. Marketing Director Amanda Warren says they offer up fresh clean towels, and they'll even wash your workout clothes when you're done.

"We wash them, dry them and put them back in your locker for you."

That is a lot of clothes to keep soft and wrinkle free and towels to stay fluffy. The Mister Steamy claims it's the revolutionary new dryer ball with the power of steam. It claims to turn your dryer into a wrinkle free machine.

We head to the laundry room.  Amanda fills up the green ball with four ounces of water.  It absorbs into what appears to be a sponge tucked inside the Mister Steamy Dryer Ball. She then throws it in the dryer with some towels. For a comparison we throw the same number of towels into another dryer without a Mister Steamy.

The commercial and box show steam shooting out of the holes of the green ball. We watch for it, but don't see any. For the wrinkle-free test we throw wrinkled t-shirts into each dryer. The directions say the wrinkles should release in only fifteen minutes. After fifteen minutes, Amanda compares the t-shirts from each dryer and says, "similar wrinkleness".   She doesn't see the benefit of the Mister Steamy for wrinkles.

When the towels are finally dry, Amanda folds our two samples of tiles, stacking them side by side.  The box shows the Mister Steamy towels stack up taller because they are fluffier.

"I don't see a difference," Amanda says. "Should we get a second opinion," she asked.

Worker Katie doesn't see the difference in the stack either. Amanda had high hopes, but wasn't impressed with Mister Steamy.

"Don't waste your money," she said. "Is that rude?"

The directions say you need to replace the Mister Steamy every three to six months. We paid $14.88 for two Mister Steamy balls at Walmart.

View CBS News In
CBS News App Open
Chrome Safari Continue
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.