Attachment Parenting
Joey Amanda
member
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CD's ... stripping vs soaking
Joey Amanda
member
ok so I use rockin green and they always talk about doing a soak but i have a frontloader so thats difficult I may try it in the tub.. do i soak the shells or just the inserts?
then i hear people talk about stripping with vinegar maybe? how do i do that? do i just do the inserts??
I am just so confused! I think that it is an amonia buildup issue 
thanx in advance
love, passion, adore, always.
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Re: CD's ... stripping vs soaking
I do a soak by stopping my front loader mid-cycle after it's added the water, I have a feature on mine that adds extra water, but I then I add even more extra water by pouring it in with an empty milk jug. I have only done a soak twice since I switched to RG though. I do have to use extra detergent in each load (I use 3-4 tbsps depending on how many CDs I'm washing) or my CDs still smell like ammonia.
I haven't stripped my CDs since I got the front loader which is shortly after I started using the RG so I can't comment on that. But I do sometimes add vinegar to my pre-rinse cycle if I've gone an extra day between washes and they are extra stinky.
TTC #1 Cycle 14 - IUI#1=BFN, IUI#2=BFP | TTC #2 Cycle 8=BFP!!
I use Country Save for ours, which is also really great for not causing buildup. We have a front-loader as well, but it has "soak" cycle. The other thing I do is to send a few towels on "rinse" before I wash dipes, but then not spin them so that they're really wet and heavy. Then I wash the dipes with those towels in there--it tricks the machine into thinking there's more laundry in there, so it adds more water.
As far as stripping, my favorite way is to add a couple of TBSP of liquid dish soap (Dawn or Palmolive) to a load with half the regular amount of regular laundry detergent --any more than that and there's a HUGE sudsing problem. But then when I take them out to put them in the dryer, all the stink is gone!! Okay, usually. When it's not gone at that point, I get really frustrated and almost wish for a return to the days of flats that you dumped in a wet pail with bleach water. Well, almost.
(I've also, if I'm really frustrated, been known to wash my PFs and MF inserts with a tiny bit of bleach when everything else has failed, and then rinse really well. It's kind of a bit of a reset switch after we've had buildup problems for some reason. But I only do that maybe every 3-4 months.)