do front loaders make a HUGE difference in diaper life?

[MuslimMama]

We currently have a very old top loader with a pretty "heavy duty" agitator. It seems to do quite a number on our cloths and I am worried about the life span of my dipes being washed so often that way. Plus the front loader has a presoak cycle that the top loader doesnt have.

Do you think a front loader makes a big difference in diaper washing and diaper life?

[Katie T]

I think is is more gentle on the diapers, but It was way more of a pain to wash them in a front loader IMO. I had a front loader that we bought when we bought our house, before I knew I was going to cloth diaper. I hated it so much for diapers that I sold it 2 yrs later and bought the most basic, old fashioned but new top loader I could find and I have never had a issue since. I have had it a little over 1 1/2yrs and am so happy I made the choice I made. I will never buy another front loader as long as I am cloth diapering.

That said I know plenty of people who say they have no issues washing diapers in a front loader.....

[MuslimMama]

What was the problem with washing them in a front loader?

[Mom2M]

I have a front loader and it's great. It saved so much on our water bill I couldn't believe it! No problem with diapers at all.

[Carolyn_mtl]

The problem is not enough water. Many front loaders will decide for themselves how much water to use, based on the weight on the clothes / diapers. You need lots of water to properly wash cd. Sometimes you can "trick" the machine into adding more water by placing a heavy wet towel in the load.
I have a Maytag Bravos, top loading but high efficiency. I LOVE it.

[npl]

You can do a presoak on a top-loader by opening the lid when the washing machine has filled with water. Depending on your machine and which cycles it has, you can figure out exactly which cycle to start and interrupt. I think I used to do a rinse/spin cycle for that.
I'm finding my fl much more finicky for cloth diapers, and I'm only using natural fibres. I don't have the option of adjusting the water level, and I wish I did, even for general clothing.
What's doing OK for me right now is a "quick" cycle in cold water with detergent and no spin, then a "heavy" cycle in hot water with the extra rinse (cold rinses) and spin, and then a "rinse/spin" cycle.
I can't say that our clothes are doing any better wear-wise than they did in the top-loaders. We replaced our previous tl machine when the dryer died, because I thought the washer was being rough on our clothes, but I can't be sure that it was any worse than the tl machines we had in our old house.

[Katie T]

Yeah, it doesn't had enough water and i had huge stink problems when the kids peed in the diapers and lots of times they would still stink like poo straight out of the washer. I tried to add water myself, putting a wet towel and soaking the diapers and adding beach balls lol. Nothing helped. It also took forever to rinse the soap out of my dipes.

In my top loader I just open the lid or pull the knob out and let them soak on the hot wash. I personally wouldn't waste my money on another. With how long it took to get the diapers clean I wasn't saving any money on water. I had a Kenmore HE2

[broodymama]

We have a front loader, and about a year ago we added a Maytag top loader as a 2nd washer (I run a small WAHM dye business and needed the top loader).

Our main stash of diapers are Fuzzi Bunz and Joey Bunz inserts that have lasted through all 3 kids, in heavy rotation since December 2004. Once I got the top loader I started using it for my diapers, and within a few months my diapers (mainly the inserts) were showing more wear than in the previous 4.5 years of use! My inserts have so many holes in them now that I've had to throw a lot of them away, and I'm going to have to buy some more for the new baby. I know they were getting old, but it was a marked deterioration in their condition once I started using the top loader.