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Suggestions, please (ammonia)

bnanbnan member
in Cloth Diapering
Hi all. My diapers have been smelling of ammonia after LO pees in them. They do not smell at all after washing. I have tried adjusting my wash routine by decreasing detergent amount and changing the final rinse to a light wash thinking the problem is detergent buildup, but it doesn't seem to be any better. I did a half-assed hot water strip (an additional LONG hot water cycle with no detergent - about 2 hours). I am reluctant to reduce my detergent amount even more because it seems like hardly anything, but maybe that's the answer? I do soak the overnight diapers also.

Wash routine (HE FL, 10-12 pockets with MF and hemp inserts and 2 bamboo fitteds for overnight, wash EOD, water is not particularly hard):
Warm quick wash no detergent
Whitest whites (long hot cycle) with 1.75 Tbs Tide
Cold quick wash
I dryer dry inserts and hang everything else inside overnight

Maybe I just need a better hot water strip to get back to zero? Any other thoughts for tweaking my wash routine? TIA!


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Re: Suggestions, please (ammonia)

  • bnanbnan member
    It seems to be the hemp inserts and the overnights mostly. Our water is only moderately hard.


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  • countrycottoncountrycotton member
    I feel like multiple short hot washes will work better than one long one. The idea being that each cycle will get some of the build up out, but not all, so each wash removes more. One long wash is just going to remove so much, then continue to wash in that soapy water. You will know to stop when you no longer see bubbles.
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  • RrrrrachelRrrrrachel member
    You may need to soak the overnight ones or squirt them with bac out. Are you using too much water? That's not a lot of diapers to wash at once and they need to agitate against each other to get clean. As long as they smell good fresh out of the wash I think you're using enough detergent.
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  • bnanbnan member
    Thanks all. I do soak the overnights. Should I try adding bac out?

    Unfortunately my FLer doesn't let me change any water settings, but I've watched cycles before and there's plenty of diaper friction.

    I will try multiple shorter hot water cycles to see if I can get everything out.


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  • RrrrrachelRrrrrachel member
    Yes try bacout. Multiple shirt cycles will work better than one long one because the water changes more often. It's more of a hassle though.
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  • usernewnameusernewname member
    I soak the night and day before I wash. If I remember I go down and change the water. That cleared up my problem.
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  • Danielle2482Danielle2482 member
    I'm actually getting ready to try an RLR strip today for a similar issue.  Do I have to wash the diapers first and then use RLR as a separate wash or just put it in with the detergent after my prerinse?
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  • PipSqueak0313PipSqueak0313 member
    Were you seeing a lot of suds in the final rinse before you started reducing the amount of detergent? Do you see suds at rinse time now?

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  • km_mdkm_md member
    Danielle2482 said:
    I'm actually getting ready to try an RLR strip today for a similar issue.  Do I have to wash the diapers first and then use RLR as a separate wash or just put it in with the detergent after my prerinse?
    I washed my diapers all first, and then soaked my diapers in RLR and water as hot as I could get it. My machine is a pretty basic FL so I just put hot water in bins and soaked them that way, but other people here have done it in their machines. 


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  • bnanbnan member
    @PipSqueak0313‌ yes I used to see a lot of suds at the final rinse when I used just below line 1. Then I went down to 2 Tbs and it was less sudsy but I still sometimes see them.


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  • PipSqueak0313PipSqueak0313 member
    bnan said:
    @PipSqueak0313‌ yes I used to see a lot of suds at the final rinse when I used just below line 1. Then I went down to 2 Tbs and it was less sudsy but I still sometimes see them.

    Ok. Assuming you're using the HE version of Tide, I'm going to let the HE machine users take over since they have a better understanding of the problem/solution..

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  • bumpuser5078523bumpuser5078523 member
    I had ammonia issues and it ended up being hard water build up after a year of use. I used calgon and they are much better! (I dumped calgon in the liquid detergent dispenser and the bleach dispenser and didn't use anything else. Hot wash. And I think I rinsed after that?)
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