Barnyard smell, lots of detergent, soft water

[gne5]

I've been doing so much laundry...

A few days ago, I noticed that my flats didn't smell clean when drying. We usually line dry (although yesterday and today I've been using the dryer trying to solve the issue) and the diapers were stinking up the whole living room.

We had just done a bleach soak the week before because we thought LO might have a yeast infection (turns out he did), so I did a bleach wash on all the clean diapers, still smelly. K, so did another bleach soak, rinse, washed on hot, still smelly.

I've been using biokleen, the kid started solids about a month ago (he's 6 months), we rinse the stuff off, dry pail, wash every 2 days. Short cycle on cold with 1 scoop of biokleen free and clear, then long wash on hot with 2 scoops of biokleen.

I tried adding washing soda even at one point, but it didn't seem to do anything. I just washed the diapers again with 3 scoops of detergent, since the internet seems to agree that smelling out of the dryer means not enough detergent. No change, still smelly.

The water authority says the water is soft (we don't get scaling or build up here so I find out believable) and say the pH is between 7.5 to 8.5.

What am I doing wrong? We have him in disposables until I can figure out the cleaning issue, and may stay in disposables until the yeast rash resolves as well.

Thanks!!

 

[hollowbodyblues]

@gne5 I soak everything in a bucket of water with bleach overnight. If I’m using a large Rubbermaid bin, I’ll throw in a 1/4 cup and fill the bin up halfway. There’s probably a more scientific way to do it.

I wash on extra warm/hot with a small amount of Tide and Oxyclean powder. The bleach seems to take barnyard stink out of everything better than anything else I’ve used.

 

[johnelias3773]

@gne5 I still haven’t started the whole cloth diaper thing. But for my husband business he uses a ton of rags that end up with milk/water/coffee and when he gets them to me they stink horribly. After a wash the smell wouldn’t go away so I tried washing again with detergent, and like 3 cups of vinegar. The vinegar did get rid of the smell and I use it every time I have to wash those disgusting rags.

 

[gne5]

@johnelias3773 We do use vinegar in the rinse usually, but even that wasn't getting the funk out. It looks like there was just too much detergent. Hopefully that solves it!

 

[jeff144]

@gne5 We used to use biokleen and it just wasn’t getting our diapers clean. We switched to tide and haven’t had any issues. Maybe it’s a coincidence, but we started having stink issues with biokleen once we started solids too. I tried everything under the sun to get BK to work and it just didn’t. It was hella expensive to boot.

BK isn’t strong enough to get funk out. My bet is that your diapers aren’t 100% clean. Try a strip, followed by a bleach soak, and try your routine with tide.

 

[gne5]

@jeff144 I'm actually switching to tide free and clear after the biokleen is done. Did you use regular?

 

[jeff144]

@gne5 We used regular Tide. According to Fluff Love University, you have to use twice as much detergent with free and clear, which wasn’t cost effective for us. And honestly, who has time to do so much trial and error? As long as your babe doesn’t have any skin sensitivities I’d give regular tide a go!

 

[seekingthetruth247]

@gne5 Free and clear worked about as well as home made detergent for us- which was not very well. Regular tide though, sparkling clean diapers every time!!

 

[gne5]

@seekingthetruth247 Good to know, thanks!

 

[vaseman]

@gne5 Which biokleen are you using? I believe only the power plus powder is recommended because it has enzymes. A few things that I would tweak.

First, I'd probably still test your water. Water authority isn't always accurate for individual households. Ours says it should be soft but it's actually moderately hard.

Second, detergent build up can also cause stink like that. That is a lot of detergent you're using. You can do something called a swish test to check for detergent build up. Swish the flat in some hot water for a minute. If the water becomes sudsy or cloudy, you're using too much.

If it's build up, I would do a bunch of hot washes, no detergent, until there is no more signs of build up and then adjust the amount you're using in your wash. Generally it's recommended ton do 1/3 of a scoop in the first wash and either 2/3 or 1 scoop for the second.

I would also not use washing soda. If you feel you need a booster, I would try regular oxyclean or biz in the main wash.

 

[gne5]

@vaseman It worked thank you! I ran the diapers through the hot wash and they smell clean! I guess even the little bit left was enough to leave a smell.

 

[vaseman]

@gne5 Yay! I'm glad it helped!

 

[gne5]

@vaseman Thank you for the response! It is SO MUCH detergent which is why I thought adding more didn't really make sense.

I tried the swish test, but the water stayed mostly clear. There was maybe a bit of cloudiness, so I'm going to try a couple hot washes and see if that helps.

 

[sarahdosher]

@gne5 I don't really have good advice, but if you have soft water, I'd skip the washing soda. I use it for my hard water, as it is a water softener.