Stink Question

bumpuser5078523 · October 2014

I came to terms with my pail stinking like ammonia before I washed. I thought this was our normal.

While Anders had his yeast rash, I was bleaching every wash, it hardly smelled, and that is washing EOD with two in cloth. I also noticed Logan's ON diapers were better and now they are burning my eyes when I take them off in the morning. (He's in them up to 13 hours). I haven't noticed stronger day time diapers yet. Anders is almost 6 weeks old. Logan is 1 1/2 years.

Wash routine:

Rinse-Speed wash. Extra water. Extra rinse. Warm/warm. High spin. No detergent.

Wash-Normal wash. Heavy soil. Extra water. Extra rinse. Hot/cold. 1T tide ultra powder. 1T oxyclean powder.

Rinse-Speed wash. Extra rinse. Extra water. Warm/warm. Repeat until bubbles are gone.

I doubled my detergent since I have double diapers, but I have had to do one or two extra rinse cycles because I am still getting soap bubbles. I might cut it down a quarter of a tablespoon and see how it goes.

What should I do?

Should I do a mild bleach soak on my ON diapers each morning unless my daytime diapers start having issues? I either soak them for 24 hours in just water or water with bacout. That apparently isn't cutting it.

Do I need to try something different with my wash routine? If so, what?

ETA Tide has water softner in it, right? I have hard water, should I add a softner? If so, what one? I can get calgon at Walmart, but it's expensive to use every wash. (Is there a cheaper place to get it?) Would baking soda work?

Brandiewine11 · October 2014

Not the expert here, but just to clarify, are you only having problems with the ON diapers for L? No stink on A's diapers?

1tbsp doesn't sound like much detergent at all so I'm not sure about cutting back on that. Do you rinse then soak the ON diapers? I rinse, soak, then rinse again before going in the pail.

Rrrrrachel · October 2014

I wonder if with the extra water they're not rubbing each other enough to agitate well.

Rrrrrachel · October 2014

And yes tide has water softeners in it.

Rrrrrachel · October 2014

And have you washed your washer lately?

CLLDLL · October 2014

I agree with Rrrrachel on the extra water. It might be too much extra water, so the diapers aren't getting to rub against each other well enough to get fully clean.

I doubt you need more softener since Tide has it included.

Do you have a TL or a FL? HE or not? Maybe try reducing the water a bit and watch to see whether they look like they are floating in too much water or just right?

My other guess is maybe you did increase the detergent a bit too much. If it's an HE anyway. If reducing the water doesn't work then maybe try reducing the detergent a little bit and see if it helps. You'll probably need to do some hot water rinses on at least the ON diapers to get out the extra detergent before you'll notice a difference though.

Rrrrrachel · October 2014

Yeah if it's he it will do a good job with shockingly little water and shockingly little detergent.

bumpuser5078523 · October 2014

Sorry, I tried including will the info.

It is an HE, so it's not too much water.

It's only Logan's ON diapers so far, but I just quit bleaching two washes ago.

I'm going to try and cut back a tiny bit on my tide. I'm going to rinse them a bunch and see if that helps get build up out, if that's the issue.

bumpuser5078523 · October 2014

I rinse them in a small bucket with warm water, sometimes I let them it for like an hour, wring them out and soak them in hot, sometimes with bacout, until the morning, when I do laundry. So one ON diaper soaks for 24 hours and the one I just took off him goes straight into the wash when I wash on the second day.

bumpuser5078523 · October 2014

I will try rinsing the other ones. Maybe it will help.

I only soak them for so long because if I take them out of the water and put them in my pail it smells.

I use S'bish fitteds, the non fluffy cotton ones. And one WAHM fitted.

trudytudy · October 2014

I recently changed my wash routine a bit and I am so glad. I was using all FC and the only issue I was having was the diapers were stinking in the pail sooo bad. Even after a few hours of being in the pail the whole bathroom would smell like ammonia, and don't get me started on the smell of loading them into the washing machine (HE FL). I did a bleach soak and then switched to tide. I do a half scoop for a pre wash and then a big scoop of line 3 for a heavy soil wash. No extra rinse. They recently sat in the pail for 4 days and there was NO smell. None. I also have hard water.

freezorburn · October 2014

How are things going, @doie04? Just re-linking an article about laundry additives to answer some of your questions about the different kinds of softeners available on the market: https://laundry.about.com/u/sty/laundryproblems/Your-Laundry-Questions-And-Answers/Laundry-Additives-and-Hard-Water.htm

It might be worth getting a hold of some test strips to see how hard your water is -- it might give you some guidance as to whether the softeners included in tide is enough or whether it's worth it to add Calgon or another softener. Because there's hard, and then there's crazy hard. Thankfully there are lots of other Tide users here with varying levels of water hardness so you can compare notes with them.

FWIW, I'm also in the process of troubleshooting my ON diapers. If you're still seeing suds/cloudy water during your final rinse, I would address that first -- either you need additional rinse or you might have buildup in your machine. Also, if you can smell ammonia I would avoid introducing bleach to your morning soak -- that can make for a potentially toxic stew.

My own current thing I'm trying this week is lengthening the time of my main wash and I'm changing my final extra rinse to a quick warm wash. This is following a huge improvement after doing a hot water strip (with Calgon, followed by several more hot water washes) on my whole ON stash a few weeks ago, but after one rotation through them started to get a trace of ammonia again, although not as bad as before. I'm hopeful this will solve the problem and I won't have too many more "outside the washer" tasks to do.

Rrrrrachel · October 2014

I recently realized my wash cycle has something ridiculous like 30 minutes of agitation. I think that goes a long way towards keeping any cd problems at bay.

bumpuser5078523 · October 2014

Thanks for the link, freezorburn!

I havent used one of the ON diapers I used less tide on yet, so I'm not sure.

Duh. Ammonia and bleach are a really bad combo. I'm an idiot.

bumpuser5078523 · October 2014

Still stinky!

Now what??? I haven't noticed issues with my bamboo inserts or prefolds yet, but I'll pay more attention today.

blondolphn · October 2014

On a side note, we've been giving Jo slightly more water to drink and that has helped to cut back the smell a bit. The nerd in my dh was explaining that the ammonia smell was coming from the protein or something in her urine.

Rrrrrachel · October 2014

Is it still just your pail that is stinky? Sorry this thread has had a lot of rabbit trails.

bumpuser5078523 · October 2014

My mind is full of rabbit trails!

His ON fitted reeks of ammonia still. Burn your eyes and nose ammonia.

It's not giving him burns or anything, though. I'm thinking my routine needs fixed, because when Anders had yeast, I was bleaching every wash and they didn't smell so bad coming off of Logan in the morning.

bumpuser5078523 · October 2014

Blondolphn, Logan has strong pee if he doesn't have enough water, also.

Rrrrrachel · October 2014

I know you're soaking but did you try rinsing and wringing them out by hand a few times?

bumpuser5078523 · October 2014

I usually soak them for like an hour in just water. Wring them out. Soak them in hot water with bacout until the next morning when I wash. I wasn't soaking the ON diaper I took off him that morning that I wash. I have been washing every other day.

The reason they soak so long is because if I take them out of the water and they sit in my pail until the next day, my pail is stinky.

I just changed him and the two bamboo inserts, in his 4.0, smelled a bit funky, but he was in it for 6 hours and it was soaked. (For the record, he isn't normally in them that long! We had errands to run and he fell asleep in the car and stayed asleep when I put him in bed.) Would it smell because he was in it too long, or are my inserts going to have problems soon? This is getting frustrating.

Rrrrrachel · October 2014

It's hard to say. They could just be smelly from time and strong pee. My diapers aren't smelly in those conditions but I only have a six month old in diapers. I am frustrated for you.

bumpuser5078523 · October 2014

Okay, his next diaper smelled a little, he was in it for three hours and it was also soaked, which means he drank quite a bit of water and it wasn't strong pee. It was also a 4.0 double stuffed with bamboo inserts.

I'm going to play around with my wash routine and see how it goes. If my inserts are having issues, it's not a problem with only my ON diapers.

bumpuser5078523 · October 2014

I would say it's mildly hard. I get the buildup on cups if the water is left to evaporate and on our faucets.

Brandiewine11 · October 2014

Yeah, I'm wondering if you have some mineral buildup then rather than too much detergent. Theoretically in hard water you need more detergent. (Just as a comparison, I'd say my water is also moderately hard well water, and I needed 2 tbsp of Tide for EOD wash with 1 kid.)

An RLR wash might help you here. It can't hurt to try it.

WeLiveInMaine · October 2014

A spritz of bioclean bac - out on top of every diaper added to the bin should really knock it out. It's really great stuff!

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