Washing routine-What's wrong with mine?

[momtomanywife21]

I have the worst hard water, and no amount of eco friendly natural soap is gonna cut it here.
I use Purex free and clear and we have no stink, I also wash on cold every day but once a week we do a hot water wash, my diapers say wash in water no warmer than 60 degrees F.

I would also do the bleach once a month.
If you are not used to hard water you may not be using enough soap.

[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!

[BigSamsMom]

We dry pailed and rinsed poopy diapers with a diaper sprayer hooked up to our toilet. We never had issues with this wash routine: We would wash on Hot with a full scoop of Tide and fill a Downy Ball with vinegar to be released in the first cold rinse. Then we would do a second cold rinse. Every 4-6 weeks we would add 1/4-1/2 cup of bleach to the wash.
Be sure you add your detergent & bleach to the washer as it is filling before you deposit your diapers. This dissolves the detergent better and dilutes the bleach. If you add detergent on top of clothes/diapers, it does not dissolve effectively.

[ThreeLittleCubs]

tide is the only detergent that has worked for us. i've tried so many types, and have always gone back to tide. right now, i'm using the liquid because that's what i use on our clothes. tide with a splash of bleach for the diapers.

[brycesmommy]

Originally Posted by 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 )

A standard wash routine is a cold rinse (no detergent), hot wash with detergent & cold rinse (no detergent) I would avoid the bleach, especially for overnight soaking... could you boil water on the stove or something & add it to your washer? I haven't heard of many people having good results washing on cold (I think the only one I heard of was using baking soda to wash but don't quote me on that) this chart shows ratings for detergents you might be able to find at your local store: http://www.pinstripesandpolkadots.co...entchoices.htm

[Melinda29]

KISS--Keep It Simple, Silly!

Wash only when there are enough diapers to fill the machine at least 1/2 full, preferably 2/3. IME, that means when my 13-gallon trash can pail is totally full, which for me is only twice a week.

Do your diaper laundry at night to utilize hot water.

Use as much detergent as you would use for a full load of dirty clothes. Use whatever brand that works well on your clothes.

Do a cold rinse without detergent, or a cold wash with detergent if you do not rinse off poopy dipes (I just scrape/plop whatever I can into the toilet, so we have more gunk).

Do a hot wash before bed. Add 1/4 cup bleach if they have been stinky lately. 1 Tbsp is not enough.

Don't worry about doing an extra rinse unless they reek of bleach.

Dry them in the morning. Having sat all night after washing, they will probably be somewhat dryer and need less time in the dryer

[AZmommy]

I've only read to the first page.. So intial thought thought

1) are you soaking un rinsed diapers? IF so eaither skip this or run a pre rinse before the soak if not your just soaking in poop/pee filled water which will jsut help to lock in odors.. I also agree you might not want to use bleach in an overnight soak and I LOVE and use bleach in every load.

2) I am not an ecos fan, I just didn't find it strong enough. If you can do main stream try something like tide or gain ect.. For greener I like Targets biodegradable, Walgreens new Ology line (what I'm currently using and VERY impressed with) Biokleen plus detergent.

3) make sure your using enough detergent i tbetter to have to rinse extra trhan not cleaning enough in the first place.