Wash routines for hard water and HE washers with no agitator?

adoxyinherear

I am sure this washing question comes up a lot, but I am exhausting the cloth diapering blogs of suggestions and hoping to hear your routines.

Our glorious, ancient top loader finally kicked it, so we went with an LG HE top loader with no agitator. I was wary, but I felt sure we could make it work - and I didn't want to make the investment in a new washer that wouldn't serve us when our diapering days are through.

But, after less than a week, we are experiencing some serious stink with our overnight diapers (nothing on the others, yet, but the nighttime diapers take the most abuse and my daughter often goes #2 first thing in the morning). Everything smells fine coming out, but the minute she pees, they smell terrible. I've been doing a cold rinse and spin, a hot wash on bulky with a big wet towel and three tbsp. of Tide, and an extra rinse. It looks to me like the washer is filling up enough (the bulky setting fills it up 3/4 of the way), and I'm washing less than 20 diapers at a time, every other day. I know we have very hard water, which is why I had to make the switch to Tide when we were using our old top loader. I did not have any issues with stink with our old top loader, and my routine was roughly similar (cold rinse, hot wash, extra cold rinse, 2 tbsp. of Tide).

Your help is greatly appreciated!

nanabanana06

I have an HE machine. Here's what I do:

• rinse/drain/spin cold
• warm/warm delicate cycle w/ no spin (sometimes add a towel for more weight)
• heavy duty hot wash w/ 2 cold rinses and 1-1.5 TBS of Charlie's and 1 scoop Charlie's Booster.

You have to add a t lot of weight to them to get enough water and rinses since they don't agitate as well. Your also using too much soap. It's an HE, you only need like 1-2TBS.

amarissa85

I have an HE. I do a soak cycle on cold followed by a heavy duty cycle with an extra rinse on hot. I am fairly new to CD but after several weeks I have no issues.

iranwithscissors

I have an LG HE top loader also and was advised to do a cold rinse and spin, a soak w/no spin, then a hot wash w/extra rinse.

jess9802

I also have an LG HE top loader. I do a cold rinse and spin, then my custom cycle is Bright Whites, soak, extra rinse. We have soft water, and never had an issue with barnyard. We use Tide, too - at least to line 2 on the scoop. We have soft water, so it's definitely easier to get clean.

What have you tried as far as water softeners?

unaveragejane

This was about the age when I had to start rinsing and soaking DS's overnight diapers to break down the ammonia. They just don't get clean enough in my HE washer otherwise.

adoxyinherear

jess9802 said:

I also have an LG HE top loader. I do a cold rinse and spin, then my custom cycle is Bright Whites, soak, extra rinse. We have soft water, and never had an issue with barnyard. We use Tide, too - at least to line 2 on the scoop. We have soft water, so it's definitely easier to get clean.

What have you tried as far as water softeners?

I've managed to get by without them, so far. I'll do what I have to, but the cost is prohibitive given how often we do diaper laundry and how much it seems like folks have to use?

adoxyinherear

unaveragejane said:

This was about the age when I had to start rinsing and soaking DS's overnight diapers to break down the ammonia. They just don't get clean enough in my HE washer otherwise.

Did you put them in a separate pail instead of your wet bag?

Danie007

Definitely seems like your using too much soap. Have you stripped them since the issues have developed? Try a hot wash strip of 3 or 4 hot washes in a row w/o soap. Sorry I can't help with a wash routine for your machine.

adoxyinherear

Danie007 said:

Definitely seems like your using too much soap. Have you stripped them since the issues have developed? Try a hot wash strip of 3 or 4 hot washes in a row w/o soap. Sorry I can't help with a wash routine for your machine.

I hadn't stripped, but that was my next step. Thank you!

superkarynfragilistic

I'm going to go against the grain here and disagree about your amount of soap. I have an LG front loader an super hard water. I was using Ruby Moon and then Rockin' Green and they did not help with the stink issues. I switched to Tide powder (filled to the first line -- gasp!). My machine has a short cycle (20 mins) and I do two of those on warm/cold (no detergent) and then a regular cycle on hot with an extra rinse. No more stink issues since.

adoxyinherear

superkarynfragilistic said:

I'm going to go against the grain here and disagree about your amount of soap. I have an LG front loader an super hard water. I was using Ruby Moon and then Rockin' Green and they did not help with the stink issues. I switched to Tide powder (filled to the first line -- gasp!). My machine has a short cycle (20 mins) and I do two of those on warm/cold (no detergent) and then a regular cycle on hot with an extra rinse. No more stink issues since.

Thank you. We have super hard water, too, so I'm really hesitant to take a lot of the detergent related advice, as switching to Tide was the ONLY thing that helped us when we were having stink issues with our old top loader.