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Does It Really Work? Shout Color Catcher Sheets

MIAMI (CBS4) - Saving time and money is important to everyone and there are so many products out there that promise to do just that.

Take for example the Shout Color Catcher which its manufacturer claims absorbs colors that run so you no longer have to separate 'whites' from colors when you do the laundry.

But does it really work?

Busy wife and mother of five Chris Fulciniti knows her way around a washing machine. The new Shout Color Catcher sheets sounded like a pretty cool concept to her.

"We don't have time! If you're busy, you don't have time to separate and also there's the economical factor of putting them all in. It's less loads, less water," Fulciniti said.

For the first wash, she did a baseline test using a new red wash cloth bleed and a new pair of white underwear. During the wash the red from the wash cloth 'bled' and turned the water and underwear a deep shade of pink.

For the second wash Fulcinitti used another new wash cloth and underwear plus Shout Color Catcher sheets. According to the packaging three Color Catcher sheets are to be used when washing dark colored garments that could run, and for items that haven't been washed before.

Fulciniti has a front-loading washer. The directions say if you're using one of those, for best results, put the Color Catcher sheets into a mesh bag.

Again, the water showed the color ran, but how did the Color Catcher sheets do?
There was color on every single sheet. More importantly, there was no color on the clothes and the colors seemed to be brighter.

At about $4.29 for a box of 24 Color Catcher sheets, does Fulciniti see herself using the product?

"I probably would use them occasionally if I had dark things, or something that I knew was going to run. Dark jeans or dark towels, red. I'd probably use them the first time I washed, just to protect my other laundry," Fulciniti said.

The other thing is that fabrics aren't made the same today. They don't run as much, so it's unlikely you'll have a laundry mishap where the whole load comes out pink.

Still, to prevent accidents with new items or avoid problems by combining whites and colors in one load, the Color Catchers seem to really do their job.

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