Bobble Buster—A Review

If you're like me, you didn't know the Bobble Buster was a thing. It sounds like it should be from one of those cutesy video games like Candy Crush, but trust me, it has been a revolution in my house.

I grew up thinking that once a piece of clothing has bobbles (or pills, for those of you in the USA), it has had its natural life and has got to go. With this reasoning, I have gotten rid of many a jumper/bathing suit/yoga pant. Seriously. Such a waste.

But thanks to The Financial Diet, I discovered that there's a really easy-to-use tool to get your bobbly clothes back to life.

I got mine in Lakeland for a modest £8.99 (which I think is about $10, but don't quote me on that). It doesn't come with batteries.

Now, as the Aries (and the Ravenclaw) that I am, I didn't read the instructions. Like, there's only one on/off button, the whole thing fits in one hand, and I'd watched a Youtube video.

If I had read the instructions, I would have known to take off the guard sooner.

Never mind.

Using it is really very easy:

1. You make sure your item of clothing is laying flat.
2. You take the guard off of the Bobble Buster.
3. You click the "On" button.
4. You gently move the Bobble Buster in a circular motion over your piece of clothing and it picks off all the pills.

Super easy.

It worked wonderfully on the inside of my winter coat. I guess it had started to pill where it rubbed against my jeans? It was a completely aesthetic issue, but it got rid of all the bobbles in a few seconds—maybe a minute.

As seen here on a sofa.

I had a few issues when I tried it on knitwear.

Now, the Bobble Buster comes with some serious warnings about using it on:

fine fabrics such as cashmere, angora, mohair, antique or embroidered fabrics.

But I thought I would try it on some run-of-the-mill knitwear of the boyfriend's, because I'm not risking my own clothing here. Also, it was seriously bobbly, and it was either the Bobble Buster or the bin.

I don't know if it was the elasticated fabric, the number of pills, or the fact that it's really hard to get a jumper to lay flat, but it took considerably more time to do the jumper. The results are more than satisfactory, considering it was a jumper aimed for the recycle pile and now has new life to it, but it did take me close to half an hour, repeated emptying of the Bobble Buster, and many a dismantling of said Bobble Buster because pills kept getting stuck in the blades, which then would make it stop and be utterly useless. I got very good at being able to tell when this had happened from the sounds it was making, and very efficient at dismantling it and re-building it to get it back up to scratch.

But the boyfriend now has a jumper he can wear without shame.

The Bobble Buster has been a great investment and I can definitely see myself using it for the foreseeable future. The only shame is that I can’t use it on my cashmere jumpers (though I might brave it anyway, because really, what’s the worst that can happen?), but I will definitely be digging around my wardrobe for all those items of clothing that I don’t wear outside of lounging around the house because of their bobbly appearance. Yoga pants, I’m looking at you.

Ease of use: 10/10

Effectiveness: 7/10

Would recommend for smaller items or minor pilling.