Cloth diapering with a HE washer

meg1974 · September 2013

We just got a HE washer, and I can't seem to get our diapers sufficiently clean. They smell and leak all the time. I use Rockin' Green detergent, which is for HE washers. I tried using Calgon water softener (we have hard water), but it didn't help.

Any tips for how to get them clean and how to strip them? I know you can't use Dawn in HE washers, and I don't want to use bleach b/c I'm not comfortable with it getting on her skin.

ArmyQM · September 2013

What's your routine as far as washing? I always did a short wash with no spin on cold with no detergent rather than just a rinse cycle. Then I'd do whatever my longest cycle was. For my machine it was whites. And I'd make sure I put it on the heaviest soil setting and a second rinse. Beyond that your problem might be the detergent you've chosen. I went though a myriad of "cloth diaper friendly" detergents, with vinegar or without, soaking in oxyclean or not, etc and even resorted to bleach at one point. Nothing worked except probably the least Eco-friendly detergent ever, Tide. Yep, powdered Tide. My kids never had really sensitive skin though so the fragrance never bothered us. I found it did nothing terrible to my diapers. In fact, they went through two kids and still have life left. Also, you can use Dawn in an HE machine. You just need to watch how much you use. A few drops is all you need but you do have to do a lot of rinses to get it all out. I know machine repairmen would seriously dissuade you from using it though as it can cause problems to your machine.

mcguirjm · September 2013

Try rinsing first then washing then however many rinses you do after. If you rinse them first the washer thinks there are more clothes in there bc they are heavy due to the water in the diapers and it will use more water to wash.

meg1974 · October 2013

I use Rockin' Green detergent, which is designed for cloth diapers, HE machines, hard water. I tried Tide a while ago, but it left a horrible rash on DD.

My routine is a cold water rinse, hot water wash (on the longest, heavy duty cycle) with a cold rinse, and then an extra cold rinse. Lately I've been doing multiple rinses, and that seems to help a little, but not a lot.

aibrean · October 2013

I have Greenshield Organic for my laundry. We don't really have that much of a smell problem (even with solids).

tjkdlhb · October 2013

Ditto trying another detergent. I know RnG is supposed to be good, but some people find that it just doesn't work well with their water esp. with HE machines.

FWIW we do a warm wash, hot wash w/ detergent and another warm wash. We found that the rinses just weren't cutting it. We also add a wet towel and a gallon of water to the drum each time to re-soak the towel to add weight to the machine to trick it into adding more water.

I still go to my mom's to use her supercapacity top loader every so often. I'm going today and will start with clean diapers, then add 1/4 cup bleach with a long hot wash with 15-20 drops of tea tree oil and 15-20 drops of Grapefruit seed extract, then add a squirt of blue dawn for another long hot wash, then wash with Tiny Bubbles and then rinse, rinse, rinse rinse.... It's a PITA to do, but it disinfects the diapers, which makes me feel better. I probably do it once every few months, though once a month would be better.

I also rinse and soak my overnight diapers in the morning now, so that the bulk of the pee gets out of them to avoid ammonia smell.

I never had these issues with my top loader.

tjkdlhb · October 2013

FWIW, our prefolds/covers seem to get clean easier in the HE machine than our Pockets and AIOs.

Cloth diapering with a HE washer

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