Help! Ammonia!

Roxie5739 · September 2014

I have been CD'ing for 16 month with little issues and all of a sudden I have bad ammonia issues when I smell my hang bag the day in between washes.

I hot washed all my CD's except for a few newer ones yesterday, did a 3 hour RLR soak and rinsed twice. Today, the ones I did not do the RLR reek of ammonia, some are brand new or used only a hand full of times. I have washed these tonight, plan on doing a RLR in the morning and then rinse a few times.

If this does not clear it up what else can I do? I wash with Charlies and the booster (about half of what is recommended), on a warm wash (that is tap hot, not the washer heating it up to the "hot" temp) after a pre-wash in my HE FL and then do 2 rinses with all loads. DH did a wash recently and it was all wrong so I had to rewash but that surely did not cause it. I am concerned with too many rinses as I have hard water and read that too many rinses can aide the depositing of minerals on the CD's.

Anything I am missing? I am hoping that this recent RLR soak will fix it but I have a feeling it will come right back.

Tips??

unaveragejane · September 2014

Do you smell ammonia just in the wet bag if dirty diapers? Because that is totally normal.

Do you smell ammonia right when LO pees? Or is he getting any rashes? Then you have reason for concern.

Rrrrrachel · September 2014

You need to always use a full dose of Charlie's. Maybe you meant half as much booster which is fine but don't half the actual detergent.

Ammonia is generally only an issue if you smell it immediately when the diaper is when. If urine sits it converts to ammonia there's no way around that. So if they've been sitting for a day or two they will smell.

Roxie5739 · September 2014

Oh, ok. It is when I smell the wet bag the day in between washes. So I am ok then. I have never had a smelly wet bag at all until now though. It is burn your eyes ammonia. They smell clean once washed and once they come off LO, it is just the sitting in the bag is my issue.

Thanks ladies!!

Roxie5739 · September 2014

AFwifelife said:

Your wet bag is unzipped, right?

Yes

freezorburn · September 2014

Sounds like things are under control here, but I just wanted to comment on the extra rinses with hard water thing. I think it takes a long time and many, many washes and rinses for hard water buildup to get to a point where it is problematic. It's far more important to make sure that your diapers are rinsed clean of detergent and whatever waste water is left at the end of your cycle. That stuff is coming into contact with your diapers in much higher concentrations than the minerals in hard water.

To illustrate -- when we moved here, I started to smell ammonia in DS's wet diapers within a week of washing in this hard water. I tweaked my routine -- switched the initial rinse to warm, and added Calgon -- I experimented with adding to either the main cycle or both the initial rinse and the main, and found that adding to both worked better. The problem cleared up immediately -- I didn't have to strip or anything. So that was likely a problem of either dirty diaper residue or detergent residue or both, since hard water is not as effective at dissolving stuff. To make it more effective, you can either increase temperature or add softener. I ended up doing both and it solved my problem.

The only time I have ever done a hot water strip (with Calgon) was when I started to get a bit of ammonia buildup in DS's ON fitteds. Our Sbish snapless were also noticeably stiffer (after 1+ year of use) than some of the Sbish inserts that I had not been using. The Calgon/hot water strip made them noticeably softer, but I still had a mild ammonia problem in the mornings. I think this is partly a symptom of DS's age. I try to make sure he stays well hydrated and that helps. Soaking in hot water in the morning helps. I've also added an extra rinse to my routine and I think that helps. It's been more than a year now and I haven't noticed any other problems with buildup.

In a nutshell, I think you should do as many rinses as you need to, to get your diapers clean.

Rrrrrachel · September 2014

Yeah I think the main problem with hard water isn't it doesn't rinse as well. Not mineral build up.

Roxie5739 · September 2014

Thanks again ladies. I will go back to the 2 rinses after my wash as I recently experimented with just 1. I think I am the cause of my own issues

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