Soap Nuts?

wearenutts

Anyone use these or have used these? What is your opinion on them for CD and regular laundry use? Thanks!

PipSqueak0313

I used them (and sometimes still do) for my all cotton flats and preemie prefolds used as boosters. Even in my hard water they worked great. I have found they do NOT work with my microfiber inserts. The rest of my laundry: perfect for washing my towels and couldn't tell the difference between washed in soap nuts and washed in detergent on the rest of our barely dirty from sitting in the office/school clothes. With gym clothes and my fast food restaurant work uniform I got mixed results; sometimes cleaned better and sometimes not as good as detergent. I only have 1 fitted that I have not tried washing in soap nuts so I can't speak to how well they would clean multi-layer cotton diapers.

wearenutts

Thanks ladies! I'm thinking about ordering some since they are so cheap compared to what we spend in detergent now. I mostly have cotton flats but use a bum genius for overnights. I also have hard water. Do you think some viniger would do fine in a load with the soap nuts? To soften the water a bit?

PipSqueak0313

No, I never use vinegar with mine. Use a real water softener, like Calgon, if you need to soften the water. Ironically, I have only used water softener with detergent since I have a hard time getting the detergent to rinse out.

freezorburn

The conventional wisdom on CD laundry is that vinegar used in a hard water situation can sometimes (but not always) exacerbate a stink issue. No one really knows why -- it might have something to do with your water chemistry. If you want to try it, you might test it first with a load of towels.

Here's a really good article on using water softeners for laundry: https://infohouse.p2ric.org/ref/20/19738.htm