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HE front loader tricks??

kjsmith9kjsmith9 member
in Cloth Diapering

We're moving into a new apartment at the end of the month, and it has a HE front loading washer.  To be honest, this is the thing I was MOST dreading with apartment hunting... But there's nothing I can do about this.  The lady said it's a Frigidaire, and sent me a few pictures, but of course didn't send any pictures of the washing machine knobs up close.  The "Frigidaire" part is written in cursive on the machine, and the machines of the Frigidaire website having block letter writing... So I'm thinking it might be a few years old?

I've read some of the posts about washing machines, and I know this topic comes up a lot... But for those of you who use this type of washer:

Do you ALL use tricks to get enough water into the machine?  I've read about people dumping buckets of water, adding soaking wet towels, etc.  Any chance the washer will just work without any of this craziness?  I'm now frightened that our diapers aren't going to get clean and I'm not going to know how to fix it :(

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Re: HE front loader tricks??

  • kjsmith9kjsmith9 member

    imagesmpeachey:
    I do the wet towel thing when I have a smaller load. If its a bunch of diapers I don't and they come out just great. You use less detergent so it can be a money saver.

    Great!  How do I know how much detergent to use?  I currently do about 2 Tbsp of Tide powder... And I dissolve the powder in a separate bowl while the water is filling into the washer... So I'm guessing I can't do that with a front loader? 

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  • mandy522mandy522 member
    I feel like laundry doesn't need to be so complicated. Most people say Tide original powder HE up to the 1 line in the detergent dispenser although that is slightly too much for my washer - you'll just have to experiment a bit. I've honestly never heard of anyone dissolving it first. Don't put buckets of water in a FL, you can overload it and cause it to leak or break. Extra dry towels will probably soak up more water than you trickthe machine  into adding. Maybe adding extra wet towels could help, but I've never needed them.
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  • bumpuser5078523bumpuser5078523 member
    I do a rinse and spin with no spin. Then a regular wash on hot with a cold rinse on heavy soil with an extra rinse and extra water with 2 tablespoons of tide. Then a quick cycle on warm wash and rinse on heavy soil with an extra rinse and extra water with no soap.

    If I dump water in my machine through the detergent drawer, it drains it. :[
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  • kjsmith9kjsmith9 member
    imagetheresat858:

    I add a wet towel by doing a 'rinse and spin' with 'no spin' option.  It's honestly not nearly as hard as you are making it out to be....

    I'm not trying to make it difficult.  I just know that I see posts about HE front loaders on here frequently, and our routine is so easy right now that I was hoping it wouldn't become more work... 

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  • kjsmith9kjsmith9 member

    imagemandy522:
    I feel like laundry doesn't need to be so complicated. Most people say Tide original powder HE up to the 1 line in the detergent dispenser although that is slightly too much for my washer - you'll just have to experiment a bit. I've honestly never heard of anyone dissolving it first. Don't put buckets of water in a FL, you can overload it and cause it to leak or break. Extra dry towels will probably soak up more water than you trickthe machine  into adding. Maybe adding extra wet towels could help, but I've never needed them.

    We just have a regular top loading washer right now - I have to dissolve it first because if I just dump the powder in, it doesn't completely dissolve and there are little flecks of detergent on the diapers (mostly gets caught up in the gussets of the covers).  Maybe I won't have to do that now! 

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  • hpoff33hpoff33 member
    It took me some time to find a system that worked for me with our HE FL.  I rinse all overnight diapers out in the tub each morning and then spray them with Bac-Out. Once the diapers are scraped/sprayed in toilet I also treat them with Bac-Out.  I found that adding these two steps helped my stink issues tremendously when used in conjunction with the following wash cycle.  Prewash on delicate cold/cold, normal cycle on heavy setting hot/cold with half a scoop of Country Save, final rinse on delicate cold/cold.  I try to wash my diapers every day, but that is just me.  When they build up for two days, it is just too much for me to do during the work week.  I also sun my diapers every chance I get.  Good luck!  
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  • Angela814Angela814 member

    We have a Frigidaire front loader.

    I use the Quick Wash cycle on warm/warm as my pre-soak cycle. No detergent.

    Add Tide HE powder to just below the 1st line directly into the dispenser (per the manual). Then Heavy Duty wash on hot/cold with the extra rinse option on. Sometimes I'll do a 3rd rinse if the diapers still seem sudsy (Spin Only cycle with extra rinse on).

    The only problems I've had have been with mixing my preschooler's overnight diapers with my newborn's diapers. DD2's diapers need more detergent to get clean, so they get soaked in hot water with a bit of Tide before they get thrown in with all the other diapers. No problems since.

    Sometimes I'll add other laundry (socks, underwear, towels, etc) after the Quick Wash cycle if I only have a few things and don't want to run another full load. If I add quite a bit more, then I just do a bit more detergent.

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  • Aurora_BorealisAurora_Borealis member

    I have a 7 year old Frigidaire FL and have never used any 'tricks' to wash my diapers. No soaking wet towels, no adding buckets of water ever.

    So, here's my routine: a hot quick wash without detergent (33 mins) and follow it with a hot heavy duty wash with detergent and an extra rinse (I can pre-program this on my machine - 56 mins).

     

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  • Gismo123Gismo123 member
    imagemandy522:
    I feel like laundry doesn't need to be so complicated. Most people say Tide original powder HE up to the 1 line in the detergent dispenser although that is slightly too much for my washer you'll just have to experiment a bit. I've honestly never heard of anyone dissolving it first. Don't put buckets of water in a FL, you can overload it and cause it to leak or break. Extra dry towels will probably soak up more water than you trickthe machine nbsp;into adding. Maybe adding extra wet towels could help, but I've never needed them.


    I want to know where you get this info from? I know lots of people add buckets of hot water to the cycle, myself included, and never had problems. I have been doing this for 7 months and never overloaded it or had a leak.
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