Washing question

[lourdes]

An update in case!
Made it to a day four main wash with daily prewashes. We also changed to have in cloth a bit longer. Disposable for the big long sleep then switch to cloth, the little wakes up every 1-3 hours following until up for the day. Loaded to close 2/3 wet. I think I can add a bit more by dirtying kitchen linens more frequently. But that’s pretty good!

Wash routine is now:
1-1.5 line of Tide F&G with some diluted bleach. Changed oxi to line 1. Still same borax amount.
After each prewash I hang everything to dry on a massive folding clip hanger. (I noticed I had a wet smell before the last main wash) once dry I put in the hamper. No odours at all this way!
Main wash about line 4 (a bit under) of Tide F&G. Oxi was at line 2. Same amount of borax.

And it’s not suds-city this wash but still sudsy. I think that’s a win! Thanks for the help! Hopefully this is a good routine now!

1) How much detergent should I really use?

I scooped a bit above line 5 of Tide powder Free and Gentle. It was so sudsy took an hour plus longer to clear. We have an LG 4.2 cu HE front loader. My reading into the manual says that it shouldn’t be too sudsy or else it’ll error. So probably a fine line.

Also thinking the sudsing was an under filled washer too. Once wet it was a little over half full. So I’m thinking that I’m going to push the main wash to day 4 just to get adequate loading. We cloth during the day with cloth wipes and liners. I don’t really have anything else suitable to bulk with that isn’t huge and I don’t want to ruin the little’s clothes.

2) Should I figure out the bulking first then try to figure out the detergent amount?

Just in case! My washing routine so far:

First wash
Line 3 Tide F&G
Line 2 Oxi
About 1/2 c borax (water hardness of 160-170 ppm)
On heavy duty - warm, heavy soil runs about 1hr. Typical length for our machine. Can’t do a shorter one even on normal/cotton so I figure let’s get them extra clean
Do this daily

Main
Above line 5 Tide F & G (split: half in the drum; half in dispenser)
Line 2 oxi
About 1/2 c borax
On heavy duty - hot, heavy soil.
Washer calculated for 2h6min. Ran for about 3h30min because of the suds.
First time ran day 3

 

[edee]

@lourdes Generally speaking you want the amount listed on the packaging for heavily soiled laundry and your water type plus extra if you have a bigger washer than what the packet instructions are for. Half that amount in pre or first wash. For the main wash add in all your dish cloths, tea towels and hand towels. Adult undies and singlets or socks are great too. The extra soiling from dirty tea towels for example will also reduce suds. The washer should be loosely full when dry a d then compact Dow to 2/3-3/4 full when wet and rubbing for optimal agitation. Have a look at the bottom of this page for great suds and loading example videos

https://cleanclothnappies.com/front-loader-wash-routine/

 

[lourdes]

@edee I definitely had two things against me. Thought I had it full enough but knew likely it wasn’t. It was almost 3/4 full dry and I watched it 40 mins in saw it was actually 1/2 wet. JThen being a bit laissez-faire about being the amount.

CCN is very helpful! That’s how I figured most of the routine. Just hard with amounts because our washer is so big. I know they don’t recommend going past day 3 without the daily prewashes. Think next time I’m going to aim for line 4/5 for the main. That’s either a large amount of items and the latter for 3/4 full HE machine. And very good tip for the kitchen linens! We don’t have a lot but they could definitely help load up in addition to the extra day to load. But I need the others items to load up our regular wash or I’d have to switch our normal load to every 2 weeks instead . Honestly the site has been awesome for us to learn and have a good normal washing routine. I’ve been following it for a few weeks

 

[edee]

@lourdes I am soo glad I could stop my partner from buying a ginormous washer, we usually only wash once a week but I am just throwing tea towels and dish cloths in the wash daily and we have a ridiculous amount of face wipes with solids now another thing you can do is, slightly reduce the amount of detergent in the pre wash to have dirtier washing for main wash

 

[lourdes]

@edee We got our washer before we were even thinking about a little. But thankfully we only have a little space for the washer. Limited us in the size we could get way back when. Ours was the second or third smallest one in the store. My dad tried to get a bigger than 5.0 cu washer but it wouldn’t fit so that was fortuitous.

Yeah I was thinking that as well! Would get the suds to actually clean and dissipate out. The instructions for line amounts are ambiguous too. It’s more based on amount of items in the washer not soiling. They just don’t want us to get ahead here

From what I understand a few washes until I figure it out won’t be too detrimental to the diapers. I got plenty of ideas now to fix for the next wash!

 

[cees]

@lourdes Figure out loading first. I have a 4.2cf LG front loader too and I load it full when dry which results in 3/4 full wet.

 

[lourdes]

@cees When I prepped I noticed it had to be stuffed to get 3/4 full wet. I think it should be feasible to get there if I wait one more day.
Figuring the prewash a bit stronger will help here to make up for the wait

 

[cees]

@lourdes I personally run the pre wash every night to avoid any negative consequences

 

[lourdes]

@cees Yes totally! Wasn’t clear, meant the wait of main wash to day 4. I’m not getting rid of the daily wash. Waiting a couple days wouldn’t help at all

 

[cindyfernandez]

@lourdes I use flats which are a bit bulkier, if you just use pocket style inserts then yeah, I can see a bulking issue. But as long as you prewash each day, they should be fine to wait that long.

 

[lourdes]

@cindyfernandez I have a mix of pockets and AiOs so definitely noticed 3 days part time isn’t going to cut it to fill it.
The prewash is definitely going to be a daily thing just to make it through to day 4

 

[steve77777]

@lourdes That sounds like a lot of detergent to me. I use tide f&c and do a cold rinse then a hot wash. I do another rinse at the end to be sure all the detergent is out. For the hot wash I fill somewhere between line 1 and 2, and only occasionally add a scoop of oxi.

We are using cloth full time (unless my husband doesn't want to fiddle with snaps) and trying to use cloth wipes for every change. I wash every 3ish days. I do have a top loader, non-he, washing machine though.

 

[lourdes]

@steve77777 I’m thinking about adding an extra rinse and spin for sure now!
I thought I did a bit much myself so I’ll definitely decrease it once I get the loading figured out!