For me soapnuts have been awesome. My daughter has very sensitive skin and since we started using soapnuts, her skin has stopped breaking out in hives. Plus, I like the "non-scent" that you get with soapnuts unless you want to add EO. It might not be something for everyone, but I love using them. The thing you have to remember is that you can't overload your washer. I did that the first time and it didn't clean that well, so I ran half of them through the next time with better results. It's just me an my daughter so we don't wash crazy amounts of laundry, so maybe for big families it wouldn't work so well. I think if you're interested in them, you should try them, but don't worry if you don't like the results.