In a rush, you reach for the last clean T-shirt in your drawer. But as you pull the shirt over your head, you get a whiff of something unmistakable. Stale body odor. Great.Luckily, many clothing smells can easily be ousted with our recommended method for doing most loads of laundry: using a high-quality laundry detergent and a cold wash cycle.But some particularly pungent odors are more stubborn and tend to linger — we’re looking at you, mildew, body odor, and pet smells. This is especially true with certain fabrics, like synthetics. When that happens, your laundry might need a boost.My go-to tested method for tackling stink is to run a cycle with hot water (which kills odor-causing microbes) and to add a scoop of Borax (which helps stabilize the enzymes in detergent that break down smells, so they can be more effective). This method has served me well, but I’ve hoped for another one using cold water, which is gentler on fabric over time and uses less energy.I thought I might have found an answer in Dropps’ new Odor Eraser pods, which don’t specify a water temperature to use. Marketed for use on “stinky athletic wear, funky pet bedding, and musty towels,” the pods can be tossed directly into the drum of the machine along with your usual laundry detergent.So I had high hopes when I tossed a pod into the machine along with my husband’s mildewy bath towels. After a cold cycle, they emerged from the dryer, and I buried my nose into them. One whiff, and it was obvious: These pods didn’t do half the job of a hot cycle and a scoop of Borax.Maybe my experience was an anomaly, however (or perhaps our towels were exceptionally stinky). To get a better picture of the pods’ effectiveness, I enlisted five Wirecutter testers with uniquely odiferous laundry — including kitchen rags, particularly ripe dog bedding, sweaty workout clothes, period underwear, and mildew-laden towels. We were still not impressed.