Diapers still a bit musty?!

bumpuser5078523

My husband doesn't think they smell. He says they might have a slight odor, but they don't smell dirty. Maybe it's my super pregnancy nose?

I upped my Tide, like some suggested, which adds two additional rinses to get the soap out, which is excessive, especially if it's not making a difference.

Should I cut my Tide back down and try bac out? If so, should I quit using the oxyclean?

Original wash routine-
-Warm rinse and spin. No Tide.
-Hot/Cold heavy wash with extra water and extra rinse. 1 teaspoon Tide. 1 teaspoon oxyclean.
-Warm/Warm speed wash to rinse.

My new routine is the same except I use a tablespoon of Tide and I have two more rinses after the wash. The Tide is excessive and I'm not increasing that anymore. I will have a million rinses.

I also did the cleaning cycle on my machine and made sure the folds of rubber were clean. HE FL. 4 years old.

bumpuser5078523

I have a total of 3 rinses after the wash right now. To be clear. So that's 5 washes for one load of diapers every other day, or every third day.

TJ1979

Have you bleached them once or sunned them?

freezorburn

Could there be buildup in your washing machine?

bumpuser5078523

My machine is clean and I have bleached them with lots of rinses after I noticed they were musty. I'm ready to pull my hair out!

Maybe I will switch the first rinse to a warm/warm speed wash with no Tide. And cut my Tide back down.

unaveragejane

Okay, I'm going to go with pregnancy nose on this one. If you've bleached them, cleaned the machine, and washed the dickens out of them, they should be clean, right?? Is your LO getting any rashes or anything that would indicate a problem? FWIW sometimes I feel like my diapers smell slightly odd when I get them out of the washer, but they are fine when dry and aren't giving DS rashes, so I just chalk it up to my own personal nasal weirdness and move on.

Mandmeesh

The extra water in your wash setting-does that mean another rinse or more water added? I was wondering if that was adding too much water so the diapers weren't rubbing against each other to wash well? I don't know-FL's are different I guess

In my TL I use the small water setting to make sure the diapers agitate against each other. I wash about 15 different diapers in one wash

freezorburn

For a while I thought my diapers smelled funny coming out of the dryer. It turned out that the ducts needed serious cleaning. Once I did that the smell went away.

bumpuser5078523

I think I will try the above and if that doesn't work, I won't worry about it. He isn't getting rashes, and seems fine, so I should just forget it, I guess.

My machine will let me add extra water and an extra rinse. I don't think there is too much water, front loaders aren't that generous.

mrshudson618

Can i just say: HE FLs are so weird and I am glad I don't have one. I just don't see how 1T of tide can possibly take that much to rinse. They must seriously use like no water!

In my old top loader I use to the 1 line and there are no bubbles after the initial wash- the extra rinse is really precautionary.

Rrrrrachel

I feel like my synthetics always smell a little funny if I sniff then hard enough. Not like ammonia or poop or anything. Just funny.

bumpuser5078523

I read in another thread that washing soda is used to get rid of mineral build up from hard water. We did have fairly hard water. What would mineral build up do? How do you know if you have it? How much would I use if I have it?

freezorburn

I'm not 100% sure, but I think mineral buildup would make your diapers feel stiff/crunchy. Also, since hard water is in general less effective at dissolving things, your detergent would not be as effective and it would also be less effective rinsing. Short story is that you would be more likely to get detergent/ammonia buildup as well. 

Here is an interesting article about different laundry additives. There's an interesting bit at the bottom about different water softeners and how they work. It claims that some softeners can cause minerals to redeposit on your clothes if not washed away properly, so you need to be careful what you decide to use. RLR is not mentioned, but from what people describe I think it is similar to Calgon, which is what seems to be preferred according to this article.

bumpuser5078523

Thanks! I'm not sure if we have mineral build up. I might research that a bit more. I think I have washing soda already, though. Would it hurt them to use it, if I didn't have build up?

Ashesha13

I had the exact same problem recently and what worked or us was baking soda, blue dawn and tea tree oil.

freezorburn

I don't think it would hurt to try washing soda. Try it and see what happens. When I do a hot water strip with Calgon my diapers are noticeably softer afterwards.

bumpuser5078523

I will try it tomorrow! I'm assuming I do my normal routine and then do the washing soda?

freezorburn

You could do that. In my case, it's usually just my ON diapers that seem to be having issues, so I usually do a hot water strip only on those. 

mmm50

Do you line dry?  We had that issue and I think it was because they take so long to hang dry.  So we have been hang drying for most of the day and then drying them in the dryer.  

JEPES1348

mmm50 said:

Do you line dry?  We had that issue and I think it was because they take so long to hang dry.  So we have been hang drying for most of the day and then drying them in the dryer.  

This exactly. I came to ask. We had this problem last week abs after the diapers were still damp after 3 days I threw them in the dryer. They smelled a tiny bit musty, but then smelled musty again when LO peed in them.

bumpuser5078523

I dry them in the dryer. Because I'm lazy.