Ammonia Smell & Burn with Hard Water

tinkersumx · August 2011

I'm getting serious ammonia smell with my diapers. H's diaper gave him an ammonia burn for the first time last night. We have very hard water. For the past few weeks since I noticed the smell I started doing an overnight soak with RNG (hard rock) at the start of every wash- then an extra rinse THEN a wash with just pain hot water & two rinses. Kim at RNG said I should always "rinse, rinse, rinse after rockin' a soak" because of my LO's ultra sensitive skin. BUT I still can't get rid of this ammonia!

Any one have any advice on hard water & ammonia stink/burn? Should I add calgon? Would I need to change to a different formula of RNG? Bleach? Any tricks? TIA!

Oh and we use BG 4.0's and the burn happened from the microfiber insert THROUGH the stay dry pocket! Gnarly.

emolee84 · August 2011

try stripping with RLR and then I also sometimes add a little calgon to the wash. and we used RNG Hard Rock for awhile but it got to the point where I had to add close to 3-4 scoops or the diapers would come out of the wash still smelling (like ammonia, not poop), we switched to dropps and no issues so far (i use 2 packets at a time for a full load and our hard water)

Shortcake2675 · August 2011

My advice is try a different detergent. You likely have ammonia problems because your diapers aren't getting clean.

My winning combo for my hard water is to add 1 cup (twice the regular amount) of White King (a similar water softener to Calgon, but less expensive for me). I use Planet liquid up to the 3 line , Oxi clean 1/2 scoop in the hot wash.

My presoak is 1/2 scoop of Country Save (because I have it and it's just sitting there looking at me), 1 full scoop of Oxi clean, and a warm soak for hours. I've had one as long as 24 hrs (I forgot them) and one as short as 3 hrs. It's working wonderfully.

I have the time to let them soak, but if you don't, you might still try a short soak of an hour or less and see what happens.