Soap nuts and hard water...help!

[GreenGranolaMama]

I've been CDing my 3 mo Ds for 2 months with no issues. We have recently moved and have hard well water. I've started to notice my diapers smell of ammonia when he pees. I was doing a cold rinse with vinegar and then hot wash with 2 soap nuts and then line drying. I use prefolds and don't wash more than 20 at a time. I have a plain old top loader. So how many soap nuts should I be using? I stopped doing the vinegar as I read it can cause stink issues w hard water. Should I try and strip?? And if so how? I love my CDs and am frustrated! Thank you!

[MamaDona]

I also use soap nuts and have horribly hard water. I've found that using Calgon water softener (either powdered or liquid) is the only solution. I use some with every load and then use the recommended amount of soap nuts (four or five for us). No vinegar for us, unfortunately. The hard water just does not play nicely with vinegar.

I don't like having to buy and use an extra product, but it was the only way to make cloth diapers work in our hard water.

[GreenGranolaMama]

stripping

do you find that you still need to 'strip' them? If so, how and how frequently?