Freaking out about washing my dipes on vacation - need FRONT LOADER help!

That's funny. I just did the opposite. I have a frontloader and I had to use my inlaws toploader.

Very little detergent. I'm not kidding. Very little. Like a teaspoon or two. And if it is hard water, I would try to find some Calgon. Especially since the frontloaders use such little water. I add water to my wash cycle and my rinses, but your inlaws might not be too thrilled with that one. But it does let you know exactly how much detergent is NOT washing out due to the lack of water.

You might find that you like the frontloader. I always thought that I had it so bad because of the low water issue. That was until last week. My inlaws have Culligan so hard water isn't the issue. So I did a hot wash and a cold wash with extra rinses. First off, you can't fit many fitteds at all in order to have enough room to agitate. And even during my cold rinses, there were no suds. Yet my boys had detergent burn a couple of times.

So as soon as I got home I through all of my freshly washed diapers in my machine. There were more suds than when I add detergent. So I ended up doing one hot wash and six, yes six rinses to get the detergent out.

So now I know why there are so many threads about buildup. I was there for one week and I had more suds that I knew what to do with.

So very little detergent, Calgon for hard water, and add water if in doubt.

And have a nice visit.

well I will tell you what I do since I have a front loader(whirlpool duet) and have medium-hard water.

Cold rinse
HOT wash with about 1/4 cup of Baking Soda and TTO(right on top of the baking soda)
2 cold rinses and then dry.

I have been doing this routine for 2.5 weeks and everything is SO much cleaner!!

Before I started my "no-detergent" phase I did this:

Cold Rinse
HOT wash with about a teaspoon of Tide(it was really a squirt and done by eye so i am not sure how much)
2 cold rinses

Thats it, I never have had any stains or any smells or anything(except in my nighttime diapers, which is why i switch to "no-detergent"

Hope that helps! Do you know what kind of washer they have?

Kim is the front loader goddess I learned the whole adding water through the detergent slot, and it saved my life.

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ohh so THAT is how you do it?

I wondered how to add water, LOL, but I usually only wash a few diapers at a time, since I have a small stash right now, so i guess that isnt an issue.

I'm confused about the front-loader issue. I'm not washing diapers yet, but our front loader works soooo much better at getting our clothes clean than our top loader did at our last house. (And we're heavy duty gardeners and home-improvers, ie covered in dirt most of the time. ) And we use much less water and much less detergent. Why the bad rap for front loaders? Is it because there's not enough water for a pre-soak cycle?

Lisa- You make me smile just knowing that I have helped you.

Nancy- The problem with frontloaders and diapers is that diapers are built to absorb, so that is what they do. They suck up every drop of water and detergent with room to spare. So it is very difficult to get the water back out. And with regular clothing, it isn't as imperative to get every speck of detergent out. But, you can get skunky diapers and detergent burn if you don't get it out of diapers. Hence, the need for more water. Frontloaders are great for stains, though.

Seepae- I think that the no detergent policy will eventually catch up with you. Right now you probably still have some detergent in your diapers. You are probably slowly stripping it out. At one point you will have gotten it all out. And there won't be anything to help break down the oils from urine and such. I could be wrong, though. It happens a lot. Ask my kids.

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Could be true or could be false. If I still had detergent would I see at least 1 bubble though? I havent seen any bubbles since I started this routine. I also stripped my diapers the day I started the routine until I didnt see any bubbles(about 6 full washes and I even tub washed them once because I was impatient, LOL) I wash them 2 or 3 times a day, so that is about 40 washes. I wonder *if* this routine is a "fake" then when will it start showing its true colors?

I wonder what people hundreds of years ago used to clean there clothes?( ) LOL

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Well, they have traced soap back to Babylon 2800BC, so it has been around for quite awhile. And then there was the beating laundry on rocks in rivers and then the ever popular washboards, so there is a lot to the process itself. The tumble action of the frontloader does a whole lot of work.

Have you tried adding water? I used to use 1 tsp of Tide and rinse over and over. I would never see any suds but I could smell my Wonderoos so I knew that it was still in there. But the key is the extra water. That will tell you.

And I remember the days of not having enough diapers to make it through a day. That is difficult and it gets old very fast. Now I have plenty and I am trying to come up with the best system for rotating them so that I don't grab the same ones over and over just because they are clean.

Thank you thank you - thank you all for such wondeful suggestions (and a pretty interesting read! )
I'm printing this thread out to take with me on the trip!