Help me get my diapers clean in a front loader!

[sunnygir1]

I am not new to cloth diapering, but I am new to my front loader washing machine.  I'm having trouble getting the diapers clean.  Please offer any suggestions.  Here's what I've tried most recently, which works pretty well, but I still have some diapers with more poop/staining on them than I am comfortable with.  I don't think they are clean.

I store my dirty diapers in a dry bucket with a lid and wash every 2-3 days.

Here's how I wash:

Rinse and spin cold/cold (only water)

Prewash, Cotton/Towels wash, Extra rinse hot/cold (borax, detergent and borax, white vinegar)

Rinse and spin cold/cold (only water)

I know the front loader uses less water, but this is a lot of time and probably a lot of electricity, and I still feel like they aren't getting clean.

Should I be soaking poopy diapers before washing?

[Galatea]

With a 1 year old baby, you definitely need to be spraying off the poop before putting them in the pail.

I would skip the borax and instead add a scoop of oxiclean free.  It is excellent on stains.

[sunnygir1]

Hmm, I'll have to look into getting some kind of sprayer -- sounds handy.  I have just been dumping/scraping into the toilet as much as I can easily get off...that's what I did with dd, too.  But, I've never had a front loading washer before, so maybe more poop removal is needed because of the lower water use.  Thanks for the idea!

[MyLittleWonders]

We only have EBF poop here, but this is what I do with our front loader:

Sanitary cycle with prewash and extra rinse; one cup vinegar in prewash (I pour it into the "Prewash" section of the detergent drawer after it is filled with water), 1/8th scoop of Country Save with 1 ounce OxyClean Free in the wash, and 1 cap of Ecover fabric softener in the rinse. Everything comes out clean (no staining) and does not smell after she pees (no ammonia smell). 

[mojobin]

We use our 2 hour soak cycle and then a temp. boost hot wash with extra rinse.  I swear by adding a gallon and a half to each cycle (soak and wash I mean).  Even with adding the extra water, I am still using way less than I would be if we used a top loader. 

[stelly]

My front loader doesn't have a soak cycle so eventually (after much trial and error) I started using a pail of water to soak the worst diapers in.  It worked for me, the only alternative was me putting the diapers on for like 5 cycles which seemed ridiculous, and each time I checked on them and found them still dirty I'd be more and more annoyed...!

[atlantafemme]

I had this same problem. Here's what worked for me:

1. Gentle/hand wash cycle (the cycle on my machine that uses the most water) on warm, no spin (so they stay heavy with water and trick machine into using more water for next cycle.) No soap or anything else for this cycle.

2. I alternate heavy duty or normal wash here, depending on how dirty the dipes seem, with 1/2 cap full of charlies soap or a l/8 scoop of country save, on hot. 

3. Pour 2-3 pitchers of water over the dipes to thoroughly soak them to trick machine again. Sanitary wash. 

And they're clean. I usually take out my wetbag and sometimes my pockets after step two so they don't have to go through the super hot wash. It was mainly my inserts that I wasn't getting all the soap out of which led to my stink issues.

Good luck!

[azzeps]

Do you have the ability for "no spin" on your washer?  Like atlantafemme said, don't spin the water out of the diapers after your rinse, so you will have more water in there for the wash cycle.  I have been known to throw a bucket of hot water in with the diapers, too.

[cristeen]

What style of dipes do you use? My pockets need very different treatment than my pfs. What machine do you have? How many dipes a day?

One of the big things for me is making sure theres enough water in the machine. If i wash every other day, the load is fine. If i go 3 or 4 days, i have to add water. The dipes absorb all the water, theres nothing left to agitate with. I have a 3 gallon bucket in the laundry sink i fill up. Wait until the machine is done filling, pause, open the door and dump. You can also add it through the detergent cup, but i got wet every time.

If you have any hemp, you'll want to stop using borax. For some reason the 2 dont mix.

As for routine, i do a cold casual cycle then a warm "heavy duty" cycle w an extra rinse. If we're having stink issues, i'll go up to a sanitary cycle with "stain treat" (extra hot water).

[sunnygir1]

Thanks, everyone, for the suggestions.  Seems like extra water might solve my problem.

I did the sanitize cycle with no spin followed by a separate rinse cycle.  They got clean, and the smell seems better.  Things turned kind of blue, I guess from some navy pocket diapers I have in the extra hot water.

Cristeen:

Washer is an LG.  IT has a sanitize cycle, and a stain cycle option, but no soak cycle as far as I can tell...the manual is kind of lacking in info about the different cycles.

Diapers:  pockets (Bum Genius and various others), microfiber inserts, prefolds, Mother Ease w/ hemp doublers for bedtime, a few covers (Prorap, Swaddlebees, etc.)

Why no borax with hemp?

[cristeen]

I dont remember the details from when i looked it up, but i used borax in every wash early on and all my hemp went from soft and silky to rough and scratchy. Its a slow change, but when i bought a new dipe and compared it side by side w an old one i was shocked by how quickly it had happened.

[Galatea]

Originally Posted by sunnygir1 

Thanks, everyone, for the suggestions.  Seems like extra water might solve my problem.

I did the sanitize cycle with no spin followed by a separate rinse cycle.  They got clean, and the smell seems better.  Things turned kind of blue, I guess from some navy pocket diapers I have in the extra hot water.

Cristeen:

Washer is an LG.  IT has a sanitize cycle, and a stain cycle option, but no soak cycle as far as I can tell...the manual is kind of lacking in info about the different cycles.

Diapers:  pockets (Bum Genius and various others), microfiber inserts, prefolds, Mother Ease w/ hemp doublers for bedtime, a few covers (Prorap, Swaddlebees, etc.)

Why no borax with hemp?

To soak in FL, just start a cycle and then pause it.  Do you have a bulky cycle?

[sunnygir1]

Well, you're right about the borax...my hemp liners are not soft anymore.  Boo.

No bulky cycle, but I've started doing a rinse with no spin first, then I can let it sit for a while (until I remember) before starting the regular wash cycle.  It's still not 100%, but definitely better.

Thank you for all your help!