Best kind/brand for no dryer

leahjuly · October 2014

Hi Ladies,

Im getting ready for my first baby and planning on cloth diapering. Im currently living overseas and will be for at least the first six months with the baby. I have a small european front loading washing machine and no dryer. Does anyone have recommendations for a style or brand of cloth diaper that drys well on a laundry rack? Im guessing this would eliminate all in ones for us? I was planning on using mostly pre-folds with covers but Im sure my husband will be a lot more helpful changing diapers if we also have an easier option like pockets or two in ones.

Thanks in advance for your help!

freezorburn · October 2014

You'll be best off with flats that you can either fasten or lay in some kind of cover, or stuff into pockets.

Flats come in different fabrics. The fastest drying ones would be muslin, followed by Birdseye cotton (like GMD) or flour sack towels. I'm not sure how quick-drying hemp and bamboo flats are. I would avoid terry cloth flats. Those would take too long to dry.

ETA: I like birdseye cotton better than muslin. Muslin tends to crinkle up, and I feel like I would need to iron them in order to get them to fold up properly. Ironing is a quick way to dry/dinsinfect flats though. I haven't tried FSTs but a lot of people use them successfully.

sasq09 · October 2014

Tho board taught me the wonder of FSTs! The wash easy and dry super fast! Oh, and they cost next to nothing!

Kelly11235 · October 2014

If you really want an AIO, TotsBots all in ones dry reasonably quickly without a dryer.

rbtrumpet · October 2014

definitely flats/covers for every day use! they dry quick

But don't completely rule out AIOs. I only line-dry my AIOs - they usually take less than a day, so you could have some for use just when you're out of the house (or feeling lazy). I wouldn't rely on them as your main diapering type, but you could still use some in your stash!

rbtrumpet · October 2014

ETA (but my computer won't let me acutally edit): I have BG Freetimes and Grovias as my AIOs (someone was mentioning above line-drying times for AIOs). I haven't tried other brands.

CLLDLL · October 2014

The only thing diapering related that I use my dryer for is inserts that I plan to use the next day. I line dry everything else. Kelly is right Tots Bots dry pretty fast for an AIO. Maybe 20-24 hours depending on the weather. (Midwest so not super dry or super humid climate.) My flats (birdseye cotton) dry the fastest at 3-6 hours followed by MF inserts for pockets/Thirsties Duo Fab Fitteds at around 8-12 hours. My prefolds and cotton fitteds are next. Followed lastly by things like hemp inserts, bamboo fitteds, and AIOs.

I really really love AI2s. We actually do the original AI2 a lot. Cover with a tri-folded prefold or pad folded flat laid inside.

Something that hasn't been said yet is that for the NB phase laying a flat/prefold into a cover isn't going to hold in the NB poo. So you will be changing covers with almost every diaper change that way. To be able to reuse your covers, you'll want to snappi/boingo/pin the prefold/flat on. It's really easy, but I can see where it might be overwhelming at first for someone who isn't 100% on board with CD'ing. So maybe you could compromise and get a few AIOs/pockets/fitteds that will take longer to dry for your husband to use and use flats/prefolds for you. Or get lots of covers and then just tri-fold/pad fold.

Unknown · October 2014

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sarenu1 · October 2014

I'd stay way from prefolds. I had to hang dry diapers for a week when we needed to fix our dryer. They get stiff and crunchy when you line dry. Flats dry very fast and I hardly had any issue with stiffness.

Brandiewine11 · October 2014

I line dry (either indoors or out) almost everything even though I have a dryer. I have mostly AIO's or AI2's at this point. If it's humid and I'm drying indoors I just turn a fan on the drying rack. It works fine. I would agree with staying away from prefolds though. Those would take a while and I use the dryer for those. Also if you get some thicker fitteds for ON eventually, just get 3-4 as those could take a while to dry.

TJ1979 · October 2014

What about Best Bottoms? They have a MF insert, so it shouldn't take any longer to dry than any other MF pocket insert. Plus it's super easy for YH or whoever isn't comfortable with cloth. The shells dry in a few hours. You could do a mix of flats/FSTs and BB inserts with BB covers.

Also, yeah, the NB poo is going to go everywhere with BB inserts, but just buy more covers. NBD. Although the BB covers won't fit until LO is about 8 lbs.

RachelCA29 · October 2014

I will hope on the flats train too. I love flats and I line dry everything in the Spring/summer. On a warm, breezey day flats can dry as quick as an hour, about the same amount of time it takes wipeable covers to dry. My prefolds usually need to go in the dryer for 20 minites even after a day on the line, they still feel a bit damp in the center unless it's HOT out.

I am a huge fan of pad folded flats in tuckable covers, even in the explosive poo stage. We used folds with a snappi at first but after he reduced the number of poops a day we use pad fold and don't go through too many covers.

I would avoid fitteds, even with a dryer they take so long to dry!

Kelly11235 · October 2014

It's also pretty easy to wash a cover by hand if you need to during the newborn stage, so you don't have to buy a whole bunch of covers. (Unless you want to.)

PipSqueak0313 · October 2014

One other note about flats....since you will be moving in a short while....flats are easy to handwash if you need to while traveling. They are also one sized so you won't have to worry about which size to pack and actually don't take up a lot of room in a suitcase (as compared to AIOs and fitteds) - also a plus while traveling.

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