Hard water and detergent

[allisonrose]

I have hard water and mostly pocket diapers. I have had stink issues on and off and have mostly chalked it up to the microfiber inserts. Reading a post in "I'm Pregnant" made me wonder if changing detergent would help the stinkiness. I currently use Country Save.

Anyone with hard water (and plenty of microfiber in their stash) want to recommend a detergent to try?

[coyotemist]

We usually do fine with Country Save and Oxyclean.  Changing detergents can help, but we've had the best luck with Country Save.  Try adding a water softener or 2 Tb of salt to the load.  I've used both and they both work.  Also, adding vinegar to the load can help too (but not with oxyclean at the same time, vinegar and oxyclean together create a chemical reaction that creates heat.  People have been known to use that in a non-reactive container outside on their microfiber, but I don't think it's safe for PUL or TPU.)

Also, have you tried a Dawn stripping?  Maybe it's just buildup.

[allisonrose]

I have tried stripping in the past and it didn't seem to help.

[MoonStarFalling]

If you have hard water you need to mineral strip with calgon once a month. We've had no problems using all free and clear with microfiber and hard water.

[karen1968]

Originally Posted by MoonStarFalling 

If you have hard water you need to mineral strip with calgon once a month. We've had no problems using all free and clear with microfiber and hard water.

Can you explain how to do this exactly?? I have a front loader, and got rid of the BmGenius I used for my son due to skunkiness. No matter what I did, they stank. We are using cotton fitteds and prefolds (with the occasional disposable) right now with my 1 month old, but I'd love to add some pockets or AIOs to the mix as she gets older.

[Galatea]

You can try the Rockin Green Hard Rock detergent - it has extra water softeners in it to counteract the hard water.  You can also add a separate water softener to the hot wash when you add the detergent.  The microfiber pocket inserts are actually easy to deal with, as you can use bleach or the sanitize cycle on them as needed to kill any smell.  You can't do this with natural fibers as it will severely weaken them, nor the PUL covers or shells.

[Carma]

To start fresh you can boil the MF inserts to kill anything that is causing a stink. I ended up using Tide powder which is keeping us without stink for several months without any stripping etc. now.

I bought Rocking Green because I started to dislike the scent of the Tide (HE powder does not come in C&F), but it doesn't wash as well for us. I have a LG HE FL.

Not sure if bleach is a good idea for MF, bleach eats away polyester. Our daycare spilled bleach on my DD's bedroll (polyester/cotton blend) one time, after washing it had holes in it. I always thought bleach was fine for cotton.

I hear good things about BACout (has enzymes, which is also why I think Tide works so well) to avoid stink, didn't try that myself yet. The enzymes in Bacout are supposed to be less irritant to skin. However we never had rash problems with Tide. Esp. the powder rinses out very well.

Carma

[allisonrose]

Carma - I did try Tide once and my guy got a rash on his bum.

Galatea - I am guilty of using a bit of bleach once and a while and it does hold down the stinkies for a while.

MoonStarFalling - Where might I find Calgon?

Ideally I'd love to just get rid of the microfiber all together but it does work quite well....

[Carma]

Originally Posted by allisonrose 

Carma - I did try Tide once and my guy got a rash on his bum.

That sucks. If you didn't already, you could try the powder. It rinses out better than the liquid Tide.

Carma

[Galatea]

We get rashes from both liquid and powder Tide.  If you read the ingredients of Tide (on their own website), it is too terrifying to use it ever again.  We have had no problem using bleach on the microfiber inserts.  It makes them like new.  BumGenius tells you to use it on the diapers.  You can find Calgon in the laundry aisle.  It is a liquid in a white bottle with a blue and rainbow label.

[Carma]

For us it was ammonia versus Tide. I chose Tide because we are lucky not to get rashes from it.

If you read the ingredients of Tide (on their own website), it is too terrifying to use it ever again.

But that is also true for bleach IMO. Using bleach very much diluted maybe won't do much harm. And boiling would be another choice.

Is Calgon also irritating?

Carma

Edited by Carma - 12/11/10 at 6:36pm

[MoonStarFalling]

Calgon water softener is sold in the detergent isle. I wash then run the wash cycle again with no detergent just calgon to get the mineral and detergent build up out. My DD has sensitive skin and calgon doesn't bother her.

[Carma]

Originally Posted by Galatea 

If you read the ingredients of Tide (on their own website), it is too terrifying to use it ever again.

I tried to figure out which ingredients you are referring to. I found Trisodium Nitrilotriacetate (carcinogen) being in Tide according to some websites, but on the Tide website (I looked at HE powder)  that one is not listed. Also found sources that said 1,4-dioxane is in Tide, also a carcinogen but also not in the list on Tide website. Maybe there are different names for some ingredients?

And I found fiberglass, is that silicone (that one is in the list on the Tide website)?

Carma

[Carma]

Originally Posted by MoonStarFalling 

Calgon water softener is sold in the detergent isle. I wash then run the wash cycle again with no detergent just calgon to get the mineral and detergent build up out. My DD has sensitive skin and calgon doesn't bother her.

I have used vinegar to soften the water, that helped when I was not cloth diapering yet to get stink out of my towels that I had with using natural detergents in a HE FL. However, it did not seem to work in the case of diapers. Maybe I should give Calgon a shot.

Carma
 

[Galatea]

Originally Posted by Carma 

Originally Posted by Galatea 

If you read the ingredients of Tide (on their own website), it is too terrifying to use it ever again.

I tried to figure out which ingredients you are referring to. I found Trisodium Nitrilotriacetate (carcinogen) being in Tide according to some websites, but on the Tide website (I looked at HE powder)  that one is not listed. Also found sources that said 1,4-dioxane is in Tide, also a carcinogen but also not in the list on Tide website. Maybe there are different names for some ingredients?

And I found fiberglass, is that silicone (that one is in the list on the Tide website)?

Carma

They don't have to list them all, so they don't.
 

[Carma]

But it was on their website before?

[ComplexOphelia]

We have very hard water and a front-loader machine (ours goes up to 11 ;)).  I've feel like I've tried everything to clean dipes at home, and have just found some solutions (thus far, anyway)! 

Ruby Moon detergent has been very effective for us - more so than Rockin Green.  We use a full 3 tbsp per load.  We also use some old towels to fill up the machine during wash to get enough of a "swish" factor to get them clean.  I also use more hot water now.  I do a full hot cycle with detergent, ANOTHER hot cycle with detergent, and then a full cold rinse.  I deep clean & bleach once a month - deep cleaning by just soaking in Ruby Moon for an hour in hot water, putting in a tablespoon of bleach during the wash cycle, then rinsing and rinsing and rinsing.

Calgon helps a lot, but I think it's really expensive and adds up fast, so I'll be trying the 2 tbsp of salt as a softener instead.  

Hope any of this helps - I understand your frustration :(.

[allisonrose]

I picked up some powdered Calgon today so the next diaper load I'll give it a try.

ComplexOphelia - I'm a bit glad we're too cheap to buy a front loading machine. I imagine that would increase our problem...

[twentysixcats]

I'm struggling with this as well right now. Almost all my stash has MF inserts and I'm trying to figure out what to do. Replace all my stash with cotton, wash my diapers a million times, get rid of our front-loader and get a normal washer, or just give up on cloth. I'm also having major rash issues. So frustrating! I use Rockin Green Hard Rock right now. I was really praying it would work wonders but... I can't say I've noticed that happening. I never had issues before (used Country Save), and used RnG about 2 months before I started having issues. The issues also coincided with my one year mark using these diapers.

I have tried stripping with Calgon and that really did the trick!! But the stink came back very quickly (almost the next time I used the diapers). I'm really trying to avoid stripping the diapers so frequently. It seems that I'm counteracting the environmental and cost benefits by having to do so many extra loads.

I'd be interested to try Ruby Moon. Has anyone else had success with it?

[ComplexOphelia]

Originally Posted by allisonrose 

I picked up some powdered Calgon today so the next diaper load I'll give it a try.

ComplexOphelia - I'm a bit glad we're too cheap to buy a front loading machine. I imagine that would increase our problem...

Seriously.  The FL stinks, and I hate it, and combined with the well water it's enough to make me tear my hair out!  I want to sell it on craigslist and buy a used top-loader, but we have literally no room in our house for side-by-side washer/dryer, they have to stack.  Ugh.