Does everyone pre-rinse?

[Sharon, RN]

Good morning ladies!

I use pre-folds and covers, and I have like 4 fitted dipes. I don't use pockets or AIO's. Right now, my laundry routine is cold rinse/hot wash/cold rinse/2nd cold rinse. Everything is fine, diapers come out clean. I know if it's not broke, don't fix it, but...

My water bill is getting a little outrageous. We're going to snoop around and see if we have a leak somewhere, but my bill def went up when I started CD, so I'm sure it's related. I understand the point of the 2nd rinse, to remove detergent, but could I cut out the cold pre-rinse? What is the point of that anyway? Prevent stains? Since DS#2 has moved to that wonderful transitional poo (a mixture of solids and BM), I've had to start dunking. Yay. So, any poo diapers are already pre-rinsed- in the toilet.

Also, one of the reasons I CD is the environment, and although I don't think it's as bad as putting disposables in the landfill (which, I've done, so that's not a judgement on anybody), using this much water seems really wasteful to me.

Any suggestions?

Thanks!

[prothyraia]

If you're dunking, I wouldn't bother with the pre-rinse in the machine.

We only pre-rinse if we have a particularly...erm...sticky situation.

[carmel23]

I usually just do a cold rinse, hot (or warm) wash with a tiny bit of soap/detergent (which ever I'm using at the time), and then we have a setting for an "extra" rinse cycle that I'll do.

and then mostly line dry (sun gets out stains wonderfully!!!!!!)

toss them in the dryer to soften up.

I think you could skip the first rinse, see what happens. Just do the wash and the rinse, if you are dunking the diapers well.

[Mom2M]

I do a pre rinse to get the poop off before the wash cycle but we have a front loader and our water bill is staying the same.
if you are rinsing in the toilet I don't see why you would need to do a pre rinse,.

[cristeen]

The initial rinse is also serving to get all that pee out of the dipes. If you skip it, your wash cycle is essentially washing your dipes in
pee.

I definitely saw a jump in our utility bills when the little one arrived, but it's q trade off for me.

[labellaluna]

Cold rinsing insure you do not bake in stains. I would not skip a pre-rinse-- get all that urine out of those diapers!

[Mulvah]

Edited by Mulvah - 10/16/11 at 11:38am

[jess_paez]

i'd skip one of the last cold rinses before i'd skip the 1st cold rinse. the first one ensures you wash the poo and pee out so it doesn't get baked into your dipes.

[november]

I always, always do a pre-rinse (cold). Have you ever happened to peek in the washing machine during that cycle by chance? *shudder* LOL. I have a diaper sprayer and I still don't like to think about all the icky things in the pre rinse water so it's definitely a must in this house. I have a hard time believing her dipes would come out as clean if I didn't do the pre-rinse. I've also heard the cold pre rinse helps get all the urine out of the insert/diaper better.

[luvmybaby333]

I'm with many of the previous posters: I would definitely skip one of the end rinses before skipping the pre-rinse. Pre-rinsing removes the bulk of the urine residue so that the wash cycle can be more effective. I always pre-rinsed on cold and added my vinegar then. The vinegar neutralizes the ammonia and helps to prevent the stinkies and such. I would just run a regular wash cycle after that (complete with the normal single rinse-- no extra.)

The first thing that comes to mind for me is that if your are dunking & swishing, you are probably flushing the toilet then, right? This would definitely account for some extra water usage. With my oldest daughter, I just used Fuzzi Bunz. I worked at a daycare, so her poopies usually sat in a wetbag all day. It sounds really nasty, but by the end of the day those peanut butter poos had solidified enough to peel off the the diaper without issue. I never had to rinse and swish. With my younger daughter, when she was EBF she was a very infrequent (twice a month) pooper, so I obviously didn't have to deal with it much... and when I did, I just tossed it all in the washer for a pre-rinse. Once she got to eating solids, we actually started taking her to the potty for poops. She had some difficulty with constipation, so we started ECing for poops in order to let gravity help the process along. Again I got to skip the swish and dunk stage.

I've never really seen much of a difference in my water bill due to CDing. Perhaps it is because I skip the toilet step? I dunno. I would personally do whatever I could to avoid skimping on that pre-rinse. It is a very important part of diaper-washing routine, IMO.

[WindyCityMom]

We always pre-rinse, otherwise we get stink And stink isn't fun. No, not fun at all!

[mija y mijo]

I never skipped a pre-rinse! And wouldn't want to try it.

[junipervt]

I've never done a prerinse. I used to do just 1 hot wash w/ cold rinse. I had no stink problems. I also only fill washer 1/2 way w/ dirties, but set to large load. I've had no stink or staining problems. Now I have the option for a 2nd cold rinse & I do that.

I do have a diaper sprayer & spray off poop before the diaper goes in the pail.

I use Allen's Naturally liquid detergent & just a tiny bit.

[SilverFish]

IMO, for prefolds and covers, no way you need more than one wash, one rinse most of the time. depending on how many poopy dipes, and how long since the last wash, i either do just one wash, no rinses (for a small, poopless load), a prewash on low, hot wash on high (for regular loads) or a prewash, hot wash, cold rinse (for big or especially rank loads). if i've added other clothes to the mix, i definitely do a prewash and rinse, but honestly, i don't notice a big difference between the washes with rinses and without. there aren't more rashes, no difference in smell.

you could always just rotate between using extra rinses and basic washes...

[Sharon, RN]

Thanks for all your thoughts ladies!

Well, to review: I do have a top-loader machine. I usually do diapers every other day, or every third day, tops. I do flush the toilet when dunking, but only once or maybe twice.

Well, I decided to experiment, and I've done 2 loads without the pre-rinse. Both loads included a poopy diaper, rinsed in the toilet. I thought the extra rinse at the end was to make sure all the detergent was rinsed out to avoid repelling/smell issues? So, in that event, I left the 2nd rinse at the end.

Both loads have come out fine. Clean, no stains, no smell issues.

Hmmm....

[CherryBombMama]

Originally Posted by Sharon, RN

Thanks for all your thoughts ladies!

Well, to review: I do have a top-loader machine. I usually do diapers every other day, or every third day, tops. I do flush the toilet when dunking, but only once or maybe twice.

Well, I decided to experiment, and I've done 2 loads without the pre-rinse. Both loads included a poopy diaper, rinsed in the toilet. I thought the extra rinse at the end was to make sure all the detergent was rinsed out to avoid repelling/smell issues? So, in that event, I left the 2nd rinse at the end.

Both loads have come out fine. Clean, no stains, no smell issues.

Hmmm....

just be careful ... the minute i started playing with my diapers, they got all messed up and im having the hardest time getting them back to normal (even with a stripping!)

and remember, you dont rinse out the pee diapers, so essentially, your dipes are being washed in pee water. this is why i prerinse. and if you skip out on the 2nd rinse, just make sure there is no detergent left in your diapers, otherwise you will get build up issues! soooo not fun. it might not be noticeable at first, but trust me, the day just might come ...

[CookAMH]

The reason I do a pre-rinse is for stains. (and I have few stains!), but I never thought about the aspect of rinsing pee - it makes sense though.

You could try skipping the pre-rinse for a while to see what works. Maybe every 3rd or 4th wash you could do it. If you find stains building up, then stick them out in the sun for a couple of hours and that will do the trick.

ETA: another option is to skip the extra rinse at the end and put vinegar in the fabric softener dispenser. That will help get a clean rinse without an extra one.

Also, maybe you can cut water in other areas of living to compensate.

Also, read your post on recent changes...you may not notice anything right away with regard to stinks or build up. That will happen over time.

Lastly, we started using flushable diaper liners so I can just peel it off with poop and put it in the toilet. I usually know when DS will poop, so I only use them when I think he'll poop, and it always contains it unless it's runny.

[Logan]

I never ever used to pre-rinse, wash hot or do any extra steps and my diapers were always 100% clean and smell free. And we have a front loader. Then I read on a forum that if you dont pre rinse then your washing in dirty water. I guess that is the point of a wash in the first place, to clean dirty washing, but it just grossed me out so I usually do a pre-rinse now. Unless its all pee diapers or something. I never do a hot wash. I usually do a warm but that is only because we use soap nut powder and the soap in it is released better in warm water. Otherwise I never did anything but cold my first time cloth diapering. I never do extra rinses at the end. At the end of a washing cycle I expect everything to be clean, thats what the final rinse is for. And the soap nuts dont need to be washed out of the clothes as they dont create build-up.

So in short, we never had any issues with a regular cold wash with no extra steps. Its me who has made it more complicated than it needs to be

[CookAMH]

How is it going? What did you end up doing?

[Juliacat]

I have found that the prerinse really does make the difference when it comes to removing stains, even when the diapers have already been prerinsed in the toilet. But if you don't care about stains, it's probably not strictly necessary. Just my opinion.