Making the best of a weak washing machine

[aramat]

We are living in Sao Paulo, Brazil now (am from the US), in a condo, and our washer here is brand-new but definitely weaker than any I've seen before. We even had the repair guy here yesterday to check it out, but it seems there's nothing wrong with it.

It doesn't get stains out of the toddler's clothes, and it leaves deodorant in the armpits of my shirts. We're expecting a new baby in about six months, and I am concerned about trying to wash cloth diapers in this machine. Any suggestions on what we can use--that is available here in Brazil--to power-up our washing process for cloth dipes? I already use vinegar in the rinse, and pre-treat my shirts with lime juice when they start getting ridiculous.

We do have baking soda here, but so far I've only seen it sold in small packets for cooking! Not sure yet if we have borax or washing soda...don't yet know the translations for those.

We use a detergent here that is the local "famous" brand--like "Tide" in the US--but I have tried other detergents, too, with no difference.

[SuzyLee]

Eek! That sounds bad.

Do you own diaper already, or will you be purchasing new? If you need to buy diapers, I would use flats, as they are by far the easiest to wash. You can either look up traditional flat folds and use pins/snappis, trifold them in PUL covers, or fold them up and use them as pocket inserts for convenience (I do this!).

For detergent, I am not sure how it works in other countries, but can you order from somewhere like Amazon to get a CD-friendly detergent? On the other hand, plenty of people wash their diapers in Tide, in the US, and do ok.

[aramat]

Well, get this--apparently almost no one in Sao Paulo uses cloth diapers! I asked a local midwife who has a little store in her clinic, and she said she knows of only ONE mom who makes them at home and may be willing to sell.

So looks like I'll be sewing my own! Shipping anything into Brazil is incredibly expensive--very high import tax. Probably will try pockets with inserts for washability. Worked on a mock-up tonight...not too hard. (I'm a novice!)

I used All Free & Clear back home. Here, I have to go to special 'natural goods' stores to buy unscented & dye-free detergents, and they aren't cheap!

[Mamato3wild ponnie]

I live in Mexico, and we used to have an awful washing machine...sounds exactly like yours. I would wash prefolds 2 times and they would still have bad stains...i ended up hand washing every 2 days in the bathtub and hang to dry in the sun to get out all the stains. And then boiled them once a month to strip...and i boiled them outside in a pot over open fire...i know that was a bit much....but i had to find a easy way to heat the water and faster than the propane stove. The open fire worked great...and was kind of fun. I would look into the flats...most fabric stores here in mexico sell the flats for very cheap....i think they use them for other things too. Im not sure how you would prep a flat with out a dryer though....ummm.
Good luck mama.

[aramat]

I actually do have a dryer, and hot water in the washing machine (it heats the water in the tank after filling, which I thought was so bizarre). So I'm pretty puzzled that the clothes aren't coming cleaner. I know a lot of people use oxi-cleaners, but I don't think they have that here yet. Maybe I can use hydrogen peroxide? They don't have it in huge bottles like in the US, but at least the small bottles are reasonably priced. What else? Doesn't salt do something in the wash? We've got plenty of that... :P

[poppan]

I get the toddler stains too if I don't pre-treat with stain remover (like Shout or something). Although I haven't had a problem with deodorant marks. With the stain remover I try to let it sit at least an hour so the enzymes can do their work before it is rinsed away in the wash.

With dipes I would probably wet pail or rinse out pretty well before putting in (I have to do this with my FL here anyway). Poo stains do frequently have to be sunned out anyway so don't be too discouraged if you see that -- we all get it too.

For toddler clothing stains, if the stain remover doesn't do it, I do a soak in very hot water and oxyclean and then wash again. Unless it's a tomato/carrot type stain, in which case I just sun it out (I'm sure you know that already). Between these three things -- pretreat with stain remover, oxy soak, and sunning -- it gets rid of most stains. But not all -- some are very persistent. Maybe my washer sucks too.

[Carma]

I also had a very weak old washer. It was a top loader and I would leave the lid open. That way it would just do the washing and then stop (the pumping, rinsing and spinning were disabled when the lid was open). Then I would put the dial back to the beginning and wash again with the same water. Repeat until I was satisfied. This way it didn't cost extra water, but the wash got cleaner from the longer wash time.
Is that something that would work with your washer?

Carma

[Carma]

Originally Posted by aramat

I actually do have a dryer, and hot water in the washing machine (it heats the water in the tank after filling, which I thought was so bizarre).

That is also the case in Europe. I heard the idea behind that is that stains get more burned in if hot water hits them right away. First some soaking in cold water is better to get out stains. Also washers in Europe have a so called cooking wash setting, which is 90-95oC (almost boiling), for that you also need to heat the water because it doesn't come out of the faucet that hot.

Carma