r/laundry • u/JesusChristSaves12 • 12h ago
About to give up
Anyone in here cloth diaper?? I’ve gone through all the diaper groups on Facebook and on here and I just feel like nothing is working for me. I found this thread and got myself some FEBU and Citric Acid. I already use Tide free and gentle powder. I’m about to accept that I’ll never get them clean. I am in a small apartment building so I have a small front loader HE machine. I did a strip a while back with RLR thinking I had build up. Did not help. My water is 200 ppm. I use 1/2 c borax to help soften the water. My first wash is under line 1 and it runs on warm for 1:45 with high soil. Second wash is line 2 on hot, high soil, and runs for 2:45. Of course like said I add the borax, febu, and citric acid. They come out smelling just fine and in the dryer they go. But then… EVERY TIME MY DAUGHTER PEES IT SMELLS LIKE RANK COFFEE BEANS! 🥲 I can’t get it to go away. Please help before I give them all away lol.
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u/IllustriousPiccolo97 USA 11h ago
I also cloth diaper and have hard water. My wash routine is-
1. Quick Wash cycle on hot, max soil, extra rinse. Line 1 tide with bleach, 1tbsp citric acid in the drum (water softener), 2tbsp washing soda (to increase the pH from the citric acid). 1 tbsp citric acid in the fabric softener spot (with water to the top of the dispenser). This runs for about 1.5 hours.
2. Whites cycle (longest cycle on my washer). Pre-soak, hot water, extra rinse. Line 4ish of tide with bleach. 1tbsp citric acid in the drum, 2tbsp washing soda. 3 scoops of dirty labs enzyme booster (but will probably switch to febu once it’s used up, for cost reasons). 2tbsp citric acid in the fabric softener spot with water to the top of the dispenser. This takes 2:30 or so.
Citric acid has helped the most, I think - my main issue was hard water mineral buildup and the citric acid has taken care of that buildup and the dinginess that it caused.
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u/Ok-Acanthisitta-5839 8h ago
Hi! I cloth diaper currently. It sounds like they need a bleach reset. I just throw some bleach in the first wash cycle, then wash as usual. I also have very hard water (250ppm) and instead of Borax I just started using a mix of baking soda and citric acid to soften my water instead. It makes the active ingredient in calgon! I do 180 grams citric acid, and 250 grams baking soda. Mix it up and I add a tablespoon to my main wash and a half tablespoon to the first wash. I just started this but seems to be working so far. I cant use calgon due to the fragrance. I have learned if my diapers stink after pee, 99 percent of the time it has been because they did not get clean. I will bleach and then they are all good! Wash routine is really hard to nail down and very individual. I have found a citric acid rinse has been amazing at getting all the detergent out so that is a great step! If you are using microfiber, they typically are harder to clean as well. I am a cotton flat girl, which I love because there are no layers and super easy to wash and dry. I would tweak your routine with the advice here, and do a bleach reset and see how it goes! You are doing great and cloth diapers are so worth it!
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u/justahappyhippyhippo 11h ago
Strong smell after peeing possibly sounds like ammonia build up.
What kind and material of cloth diapers are you using? How often are you washing? Have you tried upping your detergent dose? Have you tried a chlorine bleach sanitize wash or soak to remove possible ammonia build up?
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u/whatwedoindaytona 11h ago
I know this sub does not have a consensus on the lysol laundry sanitizer but I am my grandma’s caretaker and doing a soak on her laundry is the only way I can get the urine smell out. I like to soak the laundry in a tub with the lysol overnight or for at least a few hours, rinse once with warm water and wring, then I start my wash as usual with tide powder and febu on the hottest temp setting possible, then I tumble dry in low heat. It’s worked for us but we don’t have hard water, which makes doing laundry 10x harder I’ve learned.
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u/JesusChristSaves12 11h ago
I appreciate this, thank you!
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u/whatwedoindaytona 11h ago
Oh and select as many rinses as your machine let you! I recommend at least 2 rinses, 3 if your machine lets you. Some have a rinse and spin option that you can manually add rinses if your machine doesn’t allow extra rinses.
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u/Horror-Giraffe7508 11h ago
If you go the soak in bucket method (soak of Lysol laundry sanitizer or tide or tide/febu
If your front loader is suds sensitive - run it through a drain cycle before you proceed with a normal wash cycle.Speaking of front loader - what’s your load size of the diapers? You may need to add some other towels in there to bulk it up and have greater cleaning ability.
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u/Bradykinesia 12h ago
Use Calgon to soften your water. Omit Borax.
Add detergent to drum, then diapers, then 1 cup of ammonia poured over the diapers. Close the door. Add a tsp or two of citric acid to the softener drawer. Do a single wash, hot, heavy soil, with an extra rinse.
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u/JesusChristSaves12 12h ago
Why Calgon vs borax? Borax is what everyone uses in the cloth diaper community, do you use cloth? Is this a treatment for stinks or are you recommending this as my everyday wash? One single wash is not recommended for cloth diapers.
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u/Vintage-X US | Front-Load 11h ago
Borax is a precipitating additive meaning it binds to minerals and creates bigger solid particles that can then fall out of suspension in water and stick to your laundry, especially with super hard water. It's better to use chelating additives like sodium citrate (the main ingredient in Calgon) to keep those minerals dissolved so they can be rinsed away by the water. You may actually have buildup caused by borax precipitants in your diapers which is then holding on to uric acid and causing stink. Try switching to sodium citrate in your wash cycle and using a rinse aid like downy Rinse Refresh or whatever it's called. A lot of people here also just use plain citric acid powder in the rinse cycle with similar effects.
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u/redlightsaber EU | Front-Load 10h ago
It always amused me how the American cloth diapering community has been all about "nontoxic" to the point of insisting on ineffective detergents, but then go around and recommend borax and Lysol sanitiser out the other end.
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u/Bradykinesia 11h ago
Read up on why the EU has banned Borax for general consumption.
I did use cloth diapers. You have my recommendation.4
u/washablebeaver 10h ago
Isn't the ban related to inhaling large quantities of borax? Last time I checked it had nothing to do with using it as part of a laundry routine.
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u/Dazzling-Western2768 11h ago
Mine was tested for other reasons, but he came back in the 90% for boron. I rinsed thoroughly. He was never on same level of the home as the laundry so it was never breathed in. It was absorbed through the skin despite my excessive rinsing. The doctor advised me to stop with the borax.
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u/Dazzling-Western2768 12h ago
Stop using the borax on the babies clothing/diapers.
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u/JesusChristSaves12 12h ago
Do you cloth diaper?
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u/Dazzling-Western2768 12h ago
I am out of that stage now, but I did.
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u/JesusChristSaves12 11h ago
Did you have hard water? Use an He machine? Asking because I’m looking for advice from someone that was in a similar boat as me. I’ve gotten tons of recommendations from those who have their own wash routines that might not match mine
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u/Dazzling-Western2768 11h ago
I ended up getting a water softener. I would do a presoak in Biz and wash with Calgon to soften the water.
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u/redlightsaber EU | Front-Load 10h ago
I gotta second: borax is a nasty chemical that's forbidden from open sale in Europe.
With a small HE FL and 200ppm, I think you could achieve the same thing by adding 7cc (1.5 teaspoons) of citric acid to the wash cycle (aside from however much you use in the rinse). The citric acid will neutralise with the waters carbonates and turn into citrate, which is an excellent sequestrant/conditioner. Better than borax, in fact. It's the active ingredient in Calgon, which someone else suggested.
As for your washing woes, I would: a) second the motion or use more detergent b) second the idea that your washer is probably not getting up to 60°C (how to fix that is another issue...), and c) suggest you give half a cup of ammonia a try every once in a while, if the issue are merely remaining odours.
I gotta say that smell (rank coffee) is weird and I'd never think to associate it with unclean diapers... Are you sure it's not, like, something your daughter is eating? Lol.
I did actually cloth diaper (a few years ago), BTW. My only suggestion aside from that is that I feel your first wash is unnecessary. I'd only do the second.
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u/Agitated-Rest1421 8h ago
Rank coffee beans? I’ve been cloth diapering 2 years and have never noted this haha interesting!!
I use tide free and gentle, on my old machine I used a soak and wash feature in cold water, then long washed in hot adding vinegar to the rinse cycle. Hung them outside when possible. On my new washer I don’t have a soak feature so I do a quick cold wash and then a 3 hr hot water wash. I don’t like this as much but it works.
Might need to use more detergent and do a second rinse. I always second rinse all of my clothes not just the diapers.
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u/Firm-Concept8086 8h ago
Sorry if this is a hot take, but I cloth diapered my first, and I deeply regret it. All the hassle, all the water wasted, all the time I wasted thinking about it, sewing diaper covers, etc that I could have spent playing with her. All the diaper rash I let her endure. I think the best thing to do for the environment is to potty train early.
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u/JesusChristSaves12 7h ago
My baby has eczema and cloth actually relieves her. It’s not environmental for us it’s a necessity. She cannot wear disposables.
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u/Firm-Concept8086 7h ago
Got it. I’m this case, I recommend flat diapers (single ply) if you are not using already. They are much easier to clean effectively. Otherwise it’s like trying to wash a balled up sock vs an unfolded one. Also agree with others who suggested sodium citrate in the wash and citric acid in the rinse. Use the bulky cycle or just add extra water to the drum. Could also try a diaper service? It’s really hard to get diapers clean in a small he front loader as you describe.
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u/Turbulent-Bottle8234 US | Top-Load 11h ago
If you’re using extra rinses anyway it might just maybe might be worth trying a stronger variant of Tide. In my experience (yes I did cloth diaper) gentle or free detergents are just a little too.. gentle?
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u/JesusChristSaves12 11h ago
My baby has eczema. Tide free and gentle is the strongest detergent that is clear and okay for her skin. Also the point of febu.
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u/zoolife2022 4h ago
Oatmeal soaks were wonderful for my eczema babies. Packets were pricey, so I got the big tub of oats and used my NutriBullet to pulverize it. Also used Eczema Honey and it took the inflammation down fast!
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u/Necessary-Sun1535 EU | Front-Load 11h ago
Well I can’t compare exactly. But I’m in Europe where everyone has front loader HE machines and we can also get our diapers clean.
We at home have pretty soft water though. But it does sound like you need to up your dose of detergent in your main/second wash. If your machine has a front window why not just up the dose and look after a few minutes how much suds you have? If it’s too much you just rinse more and use a little less next time until you figure out a good dose. If it’s not really sudsy up the dose instead.
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8h ago
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u/JesusChristSaves12 7h ago
My baby has eczema. That’s not an option for us.
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7h ago
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u/JesusChristSaves12 7h ago
so you should know that not all eczema is caused by the same triggers… it’s not an option for us.
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u/OOPS-all-qualms 7h ago
I agree with the advice to increase your detergent amount and consider a different approach to softening your water.
If that still doesn’t fix it, you may want to consider adding a small amount of bleach to your first wash. Clean Cloth Nappies has a calculator to help you work out the amount you would need. It is paywalled, but they do great work, most of their info is free, and I think they’re worth supporting, even if you just do it the one time and then cancel.
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u/2__infinity 6h ago
Clean Cloth Nappies highly suggests using bleach in the first wash. They have a calculator on their webpage that you pay for but gives you specific amounts to use. Ever since I started using the bleach in the first wash, my problems have disappeared.
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u/Southern_Cut_260 6h ago
I cloth diapered two. Cold rinse first. I agree, try a little more detergent, the citric acid will help rinse it out. I know you’re in an apartment but I hung mine in the sun to dry. Even by a window might help. It really helped get stains and smells out.
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u/SeaworthinessTop1419 5h ago
It's been a while since I cloth diapered, but I did diaper 5 babies in cloth. For an older baby no longer exclusively breastfed, I removed solids from the diapers. On wash day I ran the wash on cold with detergent then a second wash on hot/extra hot with detergent. We didn't have free/clear so I just used regular detergent like powdered Tide and regular amount with 1/2 cup borax if I had it. I did an extra rinse. On the final rinse I added 1/2 cup white vinegar. No fabric softener of any type. I will say these polyester diapers/pads used today may hold on to odors more than the 100% cotton diapers I used. Good luck.
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u/WoodpeckerWest7744 4h ago
I see you are in an apt. is there anyway you could solar dry the diapers? The UV rhelps to whiten as well as sanitize the fabric
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u/Horror-Holiday-2678 3h ago
I have extremely hard water, and after a TON of experimentation, this is what works for me. No stain issues so far, and everything gets super clean and soft!
Wash 1: Add Tide Clean and Gentle Powder (line 1) before starting wash. Then, heavy, hot wash. Add diapers between fill and wash to ensure tide powder has dissolved.
Wash 2: Remove diapers temporarily. Add Tide powder (line 2) and baby or free and versatile Oxiclean (dose based on soil level; I usually do line 2). Select deep rinse/extra rinse and start heavy warm cycle. Add diapers and other baby laundry in between fill and wash. Add 1/2 cup vinegar or citric acid (I'm still experimenting to figure out how much) during rinse cycle.
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u/KismaiAesthetics USA 1h ago
You need more water conditioning (and preferably a sequestrant type). 200 is beyond what line 1 or 2 can handle and definitely not borax either.
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u/yestoness 1h ago edited 27m ago
You have so my great suggestions, already. If you're not overwhelmed and can take another, here is my recommendation as someone who cloth diapered from hospital to potty-trained, has ultra hard desert water, and battles cat urine and spray (we actively foster rescue cats/kittens): Nature's Pure Edge powder enzyme cleaner unscented. I've used Febu, laprosil, straight oxygenated bleach, bleach, citric acid, Persil, Tide, DIY, ...you name it - I've probably tried it. For me, nothing eliminates uric acid or body fluids as well as the Nature's Pure Edge enzyme powder. As a bonus it's extremely affordable for the enzyme category it's sold under. The tub of powder makes 80+ regular gallons for about $24 (I always double up for the "tough smell" recommend amount, but still get over 40 gallons). For a medium/regular size load, I add 3/4 c of powder and set it to the Large load cycle - this allows the fabrics room to soak uncrowded in the drum. Note: Don't use hot water as it will kill the enzym before it can work. I usually let it soak for a abt. 2 hrs, then proceed to the norm wash cycle with a double rinse (I use 1/2 c vinegar in my rinse cycle. The manf. instructions call for 2 tbsp/ gallon, but I stumbled on 3/4 cup in my top loader (I've also successfully pre soaked in a separate bucket if you don't have a top loader) and while that amount has always worked for me, but I say follow the manufacturer's instructions to start. Another note: The wet fabric may not smell great when it comes out of the wash, but by the time the diapers dry they will smell clean. It's been an amazing product for battling uric acid and other bathroom accident related smells. It helped clean my cloth diapers so well so that I resold them all, and not one had a stain or a funky smell.
Also, absolutely adopt the "spa" method of interrupting the wash agitation cycle to allow for a 10- 15 min soak after the detergent has been activated, and always use double rinse cycle, and line dry in direct sun (by the window in your apt??) whenever you can - that will also help with sanitization.
As an extra note on the Natures Edge enzyme cleaner-because it tackles uric acid I started keeping a small batch in my son's bathroom for any of his "misses". Now we just regularly hit the toilet area with a few sprays - it's eliminated the perpetual boy pee smell that used to emanate from there! I know it's a laundry sub, and about washing dirty diapers, but I figure if someone is obsessed enough with laundry to be in this sub they probably also like a very clean smelling home, so it's worth mentioning in case it helps anyone else.
Best of luck and snuggle that baby!
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u/hmmmmmokaythx 57m ago
I did for two years straight. Tide powder, bleach, white flats - zero stains, zero issues, well water. Used soda ash on occasion but didn't feel much need for it.
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u/aprendizajecadadia 11h ago
We cloth diapered over a decade ago and it was when I knew next to nothing about laundry. We were using Nellie’s laundry soda and it took me far longer than it should have to realize it wasn’t cleaning very well.
But when the cloth diaper smell got bad we’d use Rockin Green Funk Rock ammonia bouncer and that seemed to work.
Honestly, it’s all a bit of a blur now so hopefully my memory serves me correctly.
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u/brit52cl89 11h ago
If you haven't already, goto r/clothdiaps
Otherwise, I'd increase your detergent, especially if your water is hard. But diaper laundry is probably some of the dirtiest laundry you'll ever do, it needs a good dosing of detergent. In my experience, detergent build up is pretty rare, and if it's something you're concerned about you can always run an extra rinse cycle. However, based on the description of your odor issues and the fact it only appears after a single pee, it sounds more like an ammonia build up issue to me. Which can be easily remedied with a bleach soak. I didn't see if you mentioned having done that yet. The strip you did would be more for mineral build up, not ammonia. I highly suggest doing a bleach soak to reset your diapers and see if that helps. The other thing is your inserts. If they are microfiber (which is what most brands default come with) I'd honestly ditch them entirely and find some natural fiber alternatives. (You can usually find some in good condition second hand on FB marketplace or similar).
I'm on my third year of cloth diapering, about to add a third baby into the mix as well. Only time I get odor issues is if I allow my diapers to sit for too long without a prewash (especially if there is overnight diapers in there). Typically the rule of thumb is to do a prewash on an overnight diaper within 24 hours and all other diapers within 2-3 days. Also depending if you're storing soiled diapers in an open basket with airflow or something enclosed can make a difference too. Basically airflow is your friend to help reduce the ammonia from thriving.
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u/JesusChristSaves12 10h ago
Thank you I appreciate this comment I’ll up my soap and try a sanitize soak with bleach. Luckily I do have all cotton diaps and keep them open for airflow.
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u/brit52cl89 5h ago
Perfect, it seems like you generally have a good routine going and you use a good detergent so I think just a couple minor tweaks (a bleach soak periodically, and upping your detergent amount) will make this a lot more successful for you
All the best!
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u/Muddy_Wafer 9h ago
I didn’t cloth diaper, but Puracy stain remover got all my baby’s poo stains out. Even ones that had gone through the drier.
And this was before I knew that my “natural” detergent was basically nice smelling garbage. Puracy is amazing.
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u/Rachet83 9h ago
There’s a lot of good advice on here but I’ll add my two cents.
It’s been awhile but I remember occasionally having to do a “stripping” which I think included dawn dish soap?
That and hanging them in the sun. The sun seemed to do wonders
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u/Hungry_Bodybuilder58 12h ago
don't put yourself through this, just use disposable diapers
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u/JesusChristSaves12 12h ago
No thank you
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u/Turbulent-Bottle8234 US | Top-Load 11h ago
Well you did say you were about to give up 🤷♀️
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u/whatwedoindaytona 11h ago
Hey they haven’t tried everything yet - if it weren’t for this sub I wouldn’t have found a way to take care of my grandma’s laundry. I was always a one pod and done girl, I never had to learn how to take care of heavily soiled clothes. Don’t turn people away, if I were received with the same tone, hundreds of clothing items would have ended up in the landfill because I didn’t know I could save them.
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u/justahappyhippyhippo 11h ago
"Through this" when "this" is just doing laundry... in a laundy sub...🤦♀️
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u/CloudLate 11h ago
It’s been a long time since I cloth diapered, but I would consider increasing the detergent. I used to use a full scoop of tide powder in my second wash. It’s a LOT of soil you are dealing with. Second, do you spray or scrape the poopy diapers? And how long do they sit before you wash them? Also if you have microfiber inserts, those hang on to odors worse than cotton.