hot water strip

Amores0121

Baby's diapers are smelling slightly of ammonia when I change him...not all of them but some of them and especially his bg. I usually wash with Tide, just under the 2nd line. Prewash cold. Heavy soil wash with hot wash, cold rinse and one extra rinse. The last 2 washes I used homemade detergent bc we ran out of tide. Exactly what do I do for a hot water strip?

Brandiewine11

Just do some hot water washes with no detergent. Look for suds and/or grayish water. Wash until it runs clear. Thats it. 

If you get a lot of suds, you may need less detergent in your wash routine. If not, and you have hard water, it could be mineral buildup instead.

freezorburn

Basically wash your diapers in the longest cycle your machine has, with hot water and no detergent, several times. I have crazy hard water so I add Calgon to my first wash.

Going forward you could try increasing the temp of your pre wash to warm, and see if that allows you to use a little less detergent in your main wash.

Amores0121

Thanks guys! Idk if I have hard water or not.

freezorburn

You might be able to look up your water hardness at your local water authority's website.

Rrrrrachel

Try switching to a warm rinse or a short warm wash with no detergent for your rinse cycle.

Kelly11235

Amores0121 said:

Thanks guys! Idk if I have hard water or not.

If you get a lot of white water spots on your bathroom faucet or shower curtain/doors, that's usually a good indication of hard water.

If you're in the USA, you can put your zip code in here (I make no promises for it's accuracy). https://www.limeaway.com/hard-water/hard-water.php

Or....your local hardware store probably sells a test strip for hard water.

Amores0121

Kelly11235 said:

Amores0121 said:

Thanks guys! Idk if I have hard water or not.

If you get a lot of white water spots on your bathroom faucet or shower curtain/doors, that's usually a good indication of hard water.

If you're in the USA, you can put your zip code in here (I make no promises for it's accuracy). https://www.limeaway.com/hard-water/hard-water.php

Or....your local hardware store probably sells a test strip for hard water.

according to this I have very hard water. Blech. Do I need to change my wash cycle or add water softener?

freezorburn

Amores0121 said:

Kelly11235 said:

Amores0121 said:

Thanks guys! Idk if I have hard water or not.

If you get a lot of white water spots on your bathroom faucet or shower curtain/doors, that's usually a good indication of hard water.

If you're in the USA, you can put your zip code in here (I make no promises for it's accuracy). https://www.limeaway.com/hard-water/hard-water.php

Or....your local hardware store probably sells a test strip for hard water.

according to this I have very hard water. Blech. Do I need to change my wash cycle or add water softener?

Maybe. It depends. There are a few things you can try, once you've done your hot water strip. Tide already has softeners in it, so if it has been working for you otherwise you might try increasing the temp of your prewash to warm, and you could also try ending your routine with a quick warm wash to make sure that everything has rinsed out really well. 

@tjkdlhb has had some success with adding a small amount of Tide to her pre-wash as well. Hopefully she sees this and can share her experience on that with you.

There's a document that's been shared in the FB group today that says that if your hardness is above 15-16 gpg (257 ppm), that increasing detergent is not going to adequately soften your water. So if you are looking at that level of hardness then Calgon might be something to consider. Here's the link

Amores0121

thanks @freezorburn!

tjkdlhb

I stripped with rlr and bleached my diapers.

Then I changed my routine.  warm short wash with Tide to Line 1.  Then long hot wash with tide to line 3.  No additional rinse (I read something that said that it re-deposits minerals on your diapers... I don't know if it's true or not, but the hard water builds up in my hair something terrible, so I'm going with this for a while)

I changed the routine about 2 months ago, and no stink.

Amores0121

tjkdlhb said:

I stripped with rlr and bleached my diapers.

Then I changed my routine.  warm short wash with Tide to Line 1.  Then long hot wash with tide to line 3.  No additional rinse (I read something that said that it re-deposits minerals on your diapers... I don't know if it's true or not, but the hard water builds up in my hair something terrible, so I'm going with this for a while)

I changed the routine about 2 months ago, and no stink.

How do you know if the water builds up in your hair? I mean what did it do?

tjkdlhb

It gets really greasy, no matter what I wash it with, it never feels clean, and the more times I wash it at home, the worse it gets.  It feels like there's a wax coating on it.

When I wash it at MILs, or my parents house it's super clean.

freezorburn

@tjkdlhb I've started researching different shampoos for hard water and it seems that chelating or clarifying shampoos are recommended, perhaps once a week. I don't know how well they score on the EWG skin deep database though. I recently picked up some of Aussie Mega Shampoo which claims to rinse out cleanly, and I like it better than what I was using before. But again, not sure how toxic it is or not.

I found this thread that mentions some of the shampoos as well as some more organic or gentle methods for dealing with mineral buildup in hair: https://forums.longhaircommunity.com/archive/index.php/t-55001.html

JEPES1348

I plan on buying some test strips too. According to this I also have very hard water, but I really feel our softener makes it feel softer than the city treated water. Test strips this week, for sure. Especially because I stripped/treated my inserts for ammonia this past weekend. 

JEPES1348

We definitely also have iron in our water; we get iron spots in our sinks and toilets pretty easily.

I've been meaning to send our water away to be tested, but I'm lazy. 

freezorburn

Most of the time when we are talking about water hardness, it's calcium and magnesium (I think). Iron can be present in quantities that cause issues, but it doesn't seem to be as common.

When I was looking up the water hardness of places where I've lived, there was a pretty wide range of difference in the number of things listed in various water quality reports. Of course, I was only interested in 1 or 2 numbers, but it's interesting to see what different places test for.

Amores0121

What do iron spots look like? We get the pink/orange stains around the drain in the sink and in the bottom of the toilet..which I always thought was mildew but that site was saying it's due to hard water.  I tried to call my water department and of course couldn't get anyone on the phone and tried looking online but couldn't find any info either.

JEPES1348

Iron looks like rust streaks. Dark orange/brown. I think the pink/orange is mildew/bacteria from sitting water.

PipSqueak0313

Mapleme said:

freezorburn said:

Amores0121 said:

Kelly11235 said:

Amores0121 said:

Thanks guys! Idk if I have hard water or not.

If you get a lot of white water spots on your bathroom faucet or shower curtain/doors, that's usually a good indication of hard water.

If you're in the USA, you can put your zip code in here (I make no promises for it's accuracy). https://www.limeaway.com/hard-water/hard-water.php

Or....your local hardware store probably sells a test strip for hard water.

according to this I have very hard water. Blech. Do I need to change my wash cycle or add water softener?

Maybe. It depends. There are a few things you can try, once you've done your hot water strip. Tide already has softeners in it, so if it has been working for you otherwise you might try increasing the temp of your prewash to warm, and you could also try ending your routine with a quick warm wash to make sure that everything has rinsed out really well. 

@tjkdlhb has had some success with adding a small amount of Tide to her pre-wash as well. Hopefully she sees this and can share her experience on that with you.

There's a document that's been shared in the FB group today that says that if your hardness is above 15-16 gpg (257 ppm), that increasing detergent is not going to adequately soften your water. So if you are looking at that level of hardness then Calgon might be something to consider. Here's the link

Where is that document? That link didn't work for me.

@Mapleme‌ It the link I posted on the fb group on the thread about my mom finding out what I have been talking about with detergent not rinsing.

freezorburn

Mapleme said:

freezorburn said:

Amores0121 said:

Kelly11235 said:

Amores0121 said:

Thanks guys! Idk if I have hard water or not.

If you get a lot of white water spots on your bathroom faucet or shower curtain/doors, that's usually a good indication of hard water.

If you're in the USA, you can put your zip code in here (I make no promises for it's accuracy). https://www.limeaway.com/hard-water/hard-water.php

Or....your local hardware store probably sells a test strip for hard water.

according to this I have very hard water. Blech. Do I need to change my wash cycle or add water softener?

Maybe. It depends. There are a few things you can try, once you've done your hot water strip. Tide already has softeners in it, so if it has been working for you otherwise you might try increasing the temp of your prewash to warm, and you could also try ending your routine with a quick warm wash to make sure that everything has rinsed out really well. 

@tjkdlhb has had some success with adding a small amount of Tide to her pre-wash as well. Hopefully she sees this and can share her experience on that with you.

There's a document that's been shared in the FB group today that says that if your hardness is above 15-16 gpg (257 ppm), that increasing detergent is not going to adequately soften your water. So if you are looking at that level of hardness then Calgon might be something to consider. Here's the link

Where is that document? That link didn't work for me.

Weird, I tried looking it up again thinking I must have accidentally dropped a bit of the URL, but the link from FB isn't working for me either. Maybe the server that is hosting that page is temporarily down?

Amores0121

well, the hot water strip did not work. Poop.

freezorburn

Hm, that's disappointing. Can you walk us through it? What exactly did you do? And is it the same as at the beginning of the thread, that you're smelling ammonia when you take off a pee diaper?

Amores0121

i did a prewash with warm or hot, then did the longest wash on hot no detergent, then did a bunch of hot rinses. but now im realizing i was supposed bto do a bunch of hot washes, not rinses. It smells less, but still there. I got tide now, though so i will do hot water strip and was with tide and see what happens.

freezorburn

Do you have RLR, or Calgon, or washing soda on hand? You'll be better off using a softener with no detergent, since you are trying to get rid of buildup. I'm concerned that until you've removed the buildup, that more Tide at this point might compound your problems.

Amores0121

I may have washing soda, don't have the others. How do I use that with the strip?

freezorburn

Add the same amount that you would for a regular load of laundry, only don't add detergent.  Wash hot using the longest cycle your machine has. Some people will do a hot soak, but I'm not set up for that, so I prefer to just let my machine do all the work. You might need to do this more than once.

 Also, if you use RLR or washing soda, make sure you follow with a few more hot washes, because it sounds like sometimes the stuff that comes off the diapers can get re-deposited on your diapers, albeit not as deeply. Some people report repelling and a bit of odor after using RLR/washing soda, but that it goes away after a few more hot washes.

I like Calgon for its non-precipitating properties -- the stuff that comes off your diapers is less likely to re-deposit on your diapers. When I stripped my ON stash a few weeks ago, I did a hot water wash with Calgon, followed by 2-3 more hot water washes. Following that, I made some adjustments to my wash routine. It took a little trial and error with the wash routine, but I think we are now at a point where we can smell pee in the morning but not ammonia, so for now we are happy.

Rrrrrachel

The washe I'll help more than the rinse. The agitation makes a difference.

Amores0121

should i do my normal prewash to get the poop out before doing the wash with the washing soda? then when im done i just put it in the dryer without ever using detergent?

Rrrrrachel

Wash your diapers as normal. Once they're clean do some hot washes. Keep doing hot washes until you don't see bubbles or cloudy soapy looking water. You can add washing soda to these hot washes if you think you have hard water.

Brandiewine11

Start with clean diapers before you do all that. So rinse, wash, then strip. :-)

Amores0121

ok got it!

TJ1979

Man.  I saw 29 new posts I thought something exciting happened.  It was actually all about laundry.

freezorburn

Amores0121

TJ1979 said:

Man.  I saw 29 new posts I thought something exciting happened.  It was actually all about laundry.

wait, you mean laundry isn't excitiing?

My strip will have to wait until the weekend.  The store I went to yesterday didn't sell washing soda and the only other store I know of that sells it is Meijer.