Help pls

[aymgoa]

I’m losing my mind over these diapers. I didn’t have an issue for months, then we moved. We have SOFT water here. At 25ppm. I did not know considering we have a well but no softener so I assumed it would be harder. This led to build up. I stripped once. Reevaluated my wash routine for the soft water. Led to build up again (was using all free and clear liquid) Stripped. I got a new detergent because I saw liquid isn’t the best with ALL. We not use tide regular powdered and I measured out my diaper laundry using a formula per cloth diapers for beginners. Washer routine is from them is
Rinse and spin cold
Heavy duty wash, heavy soil, hot, (my measurement for tide detergent came out to) just under line 1. Extra rinse

However. Diapers smelt like fresh poop. Not barnyard. Just poop that didn’t get washed. So RESTART. Switched to this regimen

Wash 1, normal, heavy soil, cold, less than line 1, extra rinse
Wash 2, heavy duty, heavy soil, hot, less than line 1 extra rinse

Guess what? Buildup just with this wash and smells like poop or pee still, how is that possible at the same time? . Rinse forever to get all the suds gone. I did the same routine again but even less for the first wash. Now it’s smelly like pee and poop. No suds. I am so confused. Any help would be appreciated. I have a LG top loader HE. I have about 7 lbs of diaper laundry going in for a load which is considered a medium load for my washer. I use agitator balls. I’ve tried bulking more with towels. Doesn’t matter what I do

 

[aymgoa]

UPDATE. Diapers smell brand new! Rinsed until suds were gone (about 3). Routine as follows:

Detergent now tide free and clear liquid.

Wash 1- normal wash deep fill. Heavy soil, hot, soak. Line 1 tide
Wash 2- heavy duty heavy soil, hot. Line 2 tide

 

[katrina2017]

@aymgoa Your new wash routine sounds so much better! I hope that solves it for you!

 

[tobiahjude99]

@aymgoa I have soft water too (25ppm about) and also have fought detergent build up like 20 times.

No amount of extra rinse has ever made a badly rinsing detergent work for me. The only solution I have ever found is to switch detergents until I find one that rinses out fine.

I can't use less detergent - like "less than line 1" in my main wash will absolutely leave my diapers smelling poopy. I have to use line 3-4 like with normal laundry, then they get clean.

 

[tobiahjude99]

FWIW I do

• Normal wash + hot, detergent line 1
• Heavy duty wash + soak + hot, detergent line 3-4 ("soak" on my washer adds agitation)

No extra rinses. Like I said, if the detergent needs extra rinses, its going to cause build up no matter what I do. So I switch it.

Tide regular powder (any variety) or Seventh Gen Power Plus both rinse completely for me. No tide f&c variant rinses at all, neither does Kirkland F&c, All F&c, or many other worse f&c detergents that I've tried.

 

[joshuafranulovich]

@aymgoa Ugh soft water!!! Here’s my routine that has been serving us well. First wash: diapers only, warm wash (our water heater is very hot though), line one of liquid Tide free and clear and about a tablespoon of Oxiclean powder. Second wash: add kid laundry, warm wash on “heavy” setting, line 3 of liquid Tide plus the oxi powder again. Third wash: I run a speed wash on cool with no detergent to get the suds out. Occasionally I’ll need to do 2 quick washes but maybe once a month or so. Also, the Kirkland free and clear liquid works great too if you shop at Costco. Just adjust the detergent amounts to line 2 in the second wash because they have different doses. Good luck!

 

[otu12345]

@aymgoa So after reading through your post and comments, here’s what I would do:

1.) trash that worksheet and whatever group you got it from. Recommending no detergent for the prewash is bad advice.

2.) I think maybe you had detergent buildup before, but not necessarily now. It just doesn’t sound like you use hardly enough detergent at all, but I would also switch to liquid since your water is soft.

3.) Starting with “clean” diapers, I’d run them through another cycle, or a rinse and spin, and look to see if there are suds in the water. If so, keep running detergent-less cycles until they stop making suds.

4.) If they do not make the water sudsy, I’d bleach soak & start using more detergent.

edit: formatting

 

[griff340]

@aymgoa I think I a having this same issue!! Visiting family for two weeks and they have soft well water. I quickly realized I had used way to much detergent (ALL or Kirkland free and clear) and every time I try the swish test it is not clear but the diapers are starting to not smell clean. Today I ran a couple washe jus on hot with no detergent but despite all the detergent in the cloth they’re not getting clean We still have a week here and I don’t want to have to go buy more disposables but I don’t know wha to do my LO now has a red spot around her bum hole and I don’t know if it’s from this or something else!

 

[otu12345]

@griff340 For your case, I would not rely on detergent buildup to wash dirty diapers. I doubt you had washed them enough to create an issue with detergent buildup. Wash them, then rinse until no more suds. Adjust amount of detergent so you aren’t using too much the next time.

 

[aymgoa]

@griff340 Same thing happening with our little man! So it’s probably from the diapers. I don’t want to go buy disposables so I’m trying literally everyday to try and find the solution.

 

[griff340]

@aymgoa Let me know if you find a solution! I’m so discouraged. We are moving here in a couple weeks as well so I definitely need to figure something out.

 

[aymgoa]

@griff340 Updated solution in comments! Finally have no smell or detergent residue.

 

[griff340]

@aymgoa Thank you!! Glad you got it figured out!

 

[griff340]

By the way, found out the washer here (front loader) is not working properly and hardly puts any water in the wash cycle. No wonder my diapers were still loaded with detergent and dirty at the same time!

 

[aymgoa]

@griff340 I will definitely update! This has been ongoing for a few weeks for me and maybe some of the suggestions here will help

 

[mitchel007]

@aymgoa I also have soft water and do a VERY similar routine except on the first wash I use at least warm water. I wash every other day, hang it to dry, and once a week wash it all again for the big wash, so it's super bulked. And I add some dirty clothes (I mean not as dirty as diapers) in an effort to use up the detergents suds. I also use Tide PurClean.

 

[seanmcc]

@aymgoa I have soft water. About 10ppm. I do 2 hot water wash cycles (no extra rinse) with about line 1 of tide original powder.

Never once had an issue with detergent build up.

I'd suggest using hot water for your washes, this should hopefully help loosen the poop getting stuck in your diapers (if they smell like poop they aren't getting clean) and hopefully help the detergent rinse out properly too

Are you loading your machine correctly for proper agitation? Anytime my diapers haven't cleaned properly I had overloaded my machine

 

[aymgoa]

@seanmcc Thanks for the tip! I can try a hot cycle with the first wash too. I followed the worksheet by cloth diapers for beginners where I actually looked at my machine manual for load weight and what size they consider it. For my washer, a medium load is 6-10 lbs. my dirty diaper weight is 7. That’s how I got the less than 1 line detergent measurement is from the math on the worksheet considering the diaper weight. So I don’t believe that’s the issue, my washer has a max load of almost 25lbs

 

[browning]

@aymgoa Making your first cycle hot will help heaps I reckon

 

[seanmcc]

@aymgoa Tbh I left that group. I found the worksheet and the advice given didn't work for me. According to the worksheet I should've only been washing 11 diapers at a time, but I have most success with about 24-26. I also felt really harshly judged/shamed for saying I use detergent in both my washes and had multiple people tell me I must obviously have detergent build up (I don't and never have). It was very catty and I much prefer this sub over any of the FB groups