I'm jumping back in - Encourage me!

[Gremco]

I've taken a several month break from cloth. I had three babies in diapers, was at school long hours and had problems getting the diapers clean. One of my children is now potty trained. I've cut way back on my school hours. I still don't like the HE machine. It just doesn't get the diapers rinsed well enough. I did just order some flats and hopefully that will take care of the problem. If not, I'll hand wash or something. I loved CDing when I had a regular machine, but have had nothing but problems since using a HE. I am sick of wasting money on diapers. I am sick of the waste. I spent the same amount on four dozen flats that I do on three weeks worth of disposables. Can anyone offer me some words of encouragement, especially with using a HE machine and cloth?

[cristeen]

If you post the make/model of HE machine you have, I'd bet someone on here has the same one and can give you some words of advice.

Honestly, I had to go over to a friend's house and have her walk me through her routine before I really got it. I still have to add water to my HE machine, which she doesn't, but it really helped being able to sit and discuss it with her.

So what I do now is the shortest regular wash (Express wash or something like that), on cold/cold with a full scoop of detergent (Country Save) and white vinegar. I add 2-3 gallons of cold water to the drum. Wait until it stops filling (mine fills, spins, fills, spins, fills, spins like 4 or 5 times... after a while you can tell when it's done), and then I pause the cycle, open the door and just dump the water in - or you can pour it into the detergent cup. But basically with my machine, unless I was washing every day (maybe 10 dipes), there just wasn't enough water... the machine would finish filling and the diapers had absorbed all of it, so there was nothing to agitate with. I add enough water so that I can see "standing" water around the wet dipes.

Then I come back after it's done and depending on the situation (right now we're dealing with yeast), i either put it on Sanitize cycle on Extra Hot/Cold (to kill the yeast) or Heavy Duty on warm/warm (the rest of the time) with an extra rinse. I put half a scoop of detergent in the cup and white vinegar. And again, I add 2-3 gallons of water to the cycle.

When I come back down, if they still smell funky, then I do an extra rinse/spin cycle, but since I got the diaper sprayer, I haven't had an issue with that.

And then in the dryer for 90 minutes on the hottest cycle, since some of my dipes are hemp, that's how long it takes.

But, with flats, a lot of that is going to be excessive... this is my routine for fitteds and pockets, where there are lots of layers to get clean. Flats are going to be way easier to get/keep clean.

HTH

[Gremco]

For the Machine, I am using a Bosch 500plus Nexxt series. I didn't know you could dump water through the detergent cup. I'll have to try that.