Washing routine-What's wrong with mine?

[mammacandoit]

I have cloth diapered all of my kids. However, either my water, soap, or my LO pee makes the most raunchy diapers ever. I mean awful. I have been using bleach in every load (about 1T) or they won't get clean otherwise. Sometimes I even have to wash twice. I have stripped and stripped too.
Lately, my routine is this:

Dry bucket
on wash day, soak all diapers overnight with bleach & soap (I let it agitate about 10 minutes first).
Drain next day.
Wash on cold with soap & bleach.
Smell
Possibly wash again.

Because I have a hot water boiler heat system, my water is heated much more slowly then with a hot water heater.....but since it's free I'm not complaining. But I wonder if maybe the diapers aren't getting clean because I'm washing on cold during the day? I just can't wash on hot because it will take all the hot water for a few hours.
I have also wondered if it's my soap, so I bought a different brand today.
We have regular brands of detergent at our store....nothing special. I have been using some "eco" brand from walmart. Is that a bad brand?
Please help me figure this crap out (pun intended )

[parterasd]

Try hot with tide original powder, if you need to stick with something from your store.. No soak. Cold prerinse, hot wash, two cold rinses.

[Jenn135]

Originally Posted by parterasd Try hot with tide original powder, if you need to stick with something from your store.. No soak. Cold prerinse, hot wash, two cold rinses.

This is what I would try. hot or at least warm water cleans better than cold. The bleach can really mess up the pul and elastic. Recommended bleach is 1/4 cup once per month. Btw, I had this stink issue for a while. I pre rinse cold in a small top load then switch my dipes to a front load-wash on hot with rockin green, finish with 2 rinses. The prerinse in the top load does wonders. Good luck!

[s@hmommy]

I wouldn't soak them overnight, I think the bleach can wreak havoc if left for too long. It could be your detergent, I would first try using more and I use around 1/4 cup bleach in nearly every load of diapers. We had stink issues for a while and more soap and adding bleach fixed it. Do they need to soak overnight? If I have a super nasty one I usually soak it in a bucket by itself overnight, but the pee ones i don't bother.

[parterasd]

Oh I misunderstood. You can't wash hot? What if you wash hot at an odd hour when you don't need hot water?

[mammacandoit]

Originally Posted by parterasd Oh I misunderstood. You can't wash hot? What if you wash hot at an odd hour when you don't need hot water?

I wondered that too....like if I washed at night. However, if I do this, then I obviously won't be able to soak.

I've also wondered if it's because my diaper bucket has a sealed, closed lid. Otherwise, hubs gets pretty irritable about the diaper smell.
Thoughts on this?

[mamatoclaire]

Originally Posted by mammacandoit I wondered that too....like if I washed at night. However, if I do this, then I obviously won't be able to soak. I've also wondered if it's because my diaper bucket has a sealed, closed lid. Otherwise, hubs gets pretty irritable about the diaper smell. Thoughts on this?

I just think washing on hot will be more effective than soaking. You need the hot water to kill the bacteria.

I use a regular trash can with no lid and have no smell issues.

Sent from my iPhone using DS Forum

[mammacandoit]

I've just noticed that if I don't soak, then they really stink. what do you think the bleach would do to the diapers? Besides....1/4 cup vs 1 tbs is a big difference. I wonder about the soap. I looked and it's ECOS FREE AND CLEAR.

[s@hmommy]

Originally Posted by mammacandoit I've just noticed that if I don't soak, then they really stink. what do you think the bleach would do to the diapers? Besides....1/4 cup vs 1 tbs is a big difference. I wonder about the soap. I looked and it's ECOS FREE AND CLEAR.

I could be wrong, so someone please correct me if I am, but I think the bleach will break down the elastic and cotton more quickly if you soak in it fo too long. I have never used that detergent, but I have hard water and have yet to find an eco friendly one that will get our diapers clean. We stick with tide or gain for the most part. I could probably bleach less often really (I missed several loads a while back and they still smelled fine with just gain) but I am afraid to ruin a good thing. I think cottonbabies recommends 1/4 cup bleach monthly as well, I know I got the idea from a manufacturer.

I don't soak anything not stained because all I can think about is the diapers marinating in filthy water overnight, so they get exposed to more stink. This is my made up rational btw that comes from way overthinking everything.

[mammacandoit]

Originally Posted by s@hmommy I could be wrong, so someone please correct me if I am, but I think the bleach will break down the elastic and cotton more quickly if you soak in it fo too long. I have never used that detergent, but I have hard water and have yet to find an eco friendly one that will get our diapers clean. We stick with tide or gain for the most part. I could probably bleach less often really (I missed several loads a while back and they still smelled fine with just gain) but I am afraid to ruin a good thing. I think cottonbabies recommends 1/4 cup bleach monthly as well, I know I got the idea from a manufacturer.

I have hard water too....and I always had soft water when cloth diapering before. I bet that might be the problem! I'll try tide.