Cleaning Soiled Diapers in a SQ Front Loader

[julianweber]

I have a Speed Queen AFN50F that was purchased over a year ago. I also have a new boy who is now making stinky diapers. The diapers and soiled clothes are not coming clean. There is a yellow stain left behind. We are using a hot wash with All Free and Clear powder, borax, but not bleach. What would the AW crew recommend to get these things clean.

 

[yogitunes]

been there.......

products like borax, ammonia, and oxi-clean will work wonders on whites, especially diapers....BUT, you must do an extended SOAK, preferred overnight, up to 24 hrs, most times with the warmest water and double the detergent for the soak.....this is where a wringer machine comes in handy big time

just about the only thing that will clean them in one cycle is bleach, and for some stains, such as diapers, that is a requirement....this also falls true for spillage into some clothing as well.....

of course a head start of baking soda and borax in the diaper pail will start working right away.....

if your concerned about bleach on the clothing, you don't have to use the full amount......plus add an extra rinse, or run through a whole cycle afterwards with just clear water.....

all in all, I do have the whitest whites!...

 

[mrb627]

Hot Flush Method

I might suggest using a hot start method. Start the machine on your regular cycle set for a hot wash. Let the machine fill completely, tumble a couple of time in either direction. Then, stop the machine, set it to spin and pump that water away. Repeat this routine one more time before letting it sit till the door unlocks. Open the door quickly and dump your detergent formula inside the steaming load of diapers. Close the door and start the machine on regular. This will give the hottest wash possible by preheating the clothing and machine while flushing loose soils down the drain so your detergent does not have to deal with it as well. Results should be greatly improved.

Malcolm

 

[appnut]

A perfectly good example of why whites in a front loader with a heater would take care of this without hardly a fuss. 

 

[combo52]

When I Washed Diapers

I always put 25-30 in the washer at a time [ you can probably wash almost twice as many in this washer per load ] and ran the machine through a cold rinse and spin cycle to rinse out remaining soil.

Then run a hot wash cycle with the extra rinse selected, you should use chlorine bleach and a better detergent [ all is not a great detergent ] if any detergent or bleach smell remain run the rinse and spin cycle again.

I think you will be far more pleased with the result, I have had a SQ FL washer for 9 years now and love it.

 

[julianweber]

Thanks for the responses.

John, do you have a recommendation for a fragrance free detergent you like better?

 

[strongenough78]

I would try Wisk. They make a Free & Pure version of it. I havent used that version, but Wisk has gotten out a lot of stains in my clothes. I love it. It really gets odors out too.

 

[pierreandreply4]

Just a tip

and if you relly went to clean such stain i would say if you have a topload washer i would soak them all night in the top load washer in a solution of hot water with bleach with tide gentle with no perfumes and the next day wash them in your speed queen front loader in hot water like normal

 

[tomturbomatic]

Congratulations on the Heir!

John was not doing diapers in a front loader when he was putting cold water in the machine before a hot wash. Building up the heat with a hot prewash is important with a front loader without a heater as is a water heater set to its maximum (140F), even if only for 30-45 minutes before the wash begins, if you are worried about safety, depending on where you have it set now. For the best cleaning of soiled diapers you might want to visit the Chemistry Store and buy a small amount of STPP, Sodium Tripolyphosphate. Add 2 to 4 tablespoons with your detergent and you will not have to use chlorine bleach, although maybe a little bit of OxyClean-type bleach might be needed from time to time, like after a meal with plums which can make diapers look like there has been a Technicolor demonic possession. Powder detergents like TIDE HE are best on this type of soil.

STPP is NOT the same as TSP, which is sold in hardware stores.

 

[julianweber]

Ordered STPP

I have ordered 20 pounds of STPP and will give that a try. In addition we will be trying the preheat method that Malcolm suggested.

I am also looking for a good diaper pail to drop the soiled ones into and pretreat with baking soda/borax as Martin suggested.

Thanks for the suggestions.

 

[alr2903]

Please take Yogi's advice and Rinse, Rinse, Rinse.

 

[tomturbomatic]

Great! You will not believe the difference that STPP makes. Get some powder TIDE HE and combine that with the STPP for really super great results.

I have a SQ FL myself and find that I get great rinsing results by NOT using the extra rinse button. I just let it go through the regular cycle and then after that high speed spin at the end of the cycle is over, I reset the machine to "Rinse and Spin" for the 3rd rinse which is much more effective after the complete extraction of the final spin.

Keep us informed about the little pooper's progress.

 

[volsboy1]

My Sister had the same problem with her 3 boys.Nothing worked until I bought her 10 pounds of Trisodium Phosphate and 10 pounds of  Sodium triphosphate.

The last one Sodium Triphosphate is the one you want.You can buy T.S.P. in hardware stores but I have only found the other on Ebay..

I was wondering why the T.S.P. at Home Depot did not work well..It takes really hot water to make it work and it does not bond with the minerals as well.

They say it hurts the water ways but human waste contains more phosphates than detergents..

The Sodium Triphospahate is not cheap but a little goes a long way... Your also using a front loader so it would work better for you...

That Savogran TSP is not the same close but nope not it...

The link I sent ya is what you want it works wonders...

<h1 id="firstHeading" class="firstHeading" lang="en"><span dir="auto"> </span></h1>

http:// www.ebay.com/itm/2-5kg-5-5-LBS-Sodium-Tripolyphosphate-Food-Grade-KOSHER-Min-96-5-Pure-/160744680627?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item256d212cb3

 

[launderess]

One - Chlorine bleaching activity takes place within five minutes or less with higher water temperatures equaling less time. Any stains not removed within that period likely will not be shifted with chlorine bleach and longer contact time merely results in textile degradation. This is why commercial laundries run a short "rinse" cycle with chlorine bleach *after* the main wash cycle. In fact the mantra used there is "wash cycle is for cleaning and a bleach cycle for whitening".

Two - The residue stains seen on diapers above are the same as the infamous marks commonly found on male undergarments. In both instances it is the bile and other components of stool that cause such stains. The other worry is that stool reflects largely what has been consumed. Beets, green leafy veggies, carrots, curry, etc... any or all foods that can produce stains before going down, will do so when they exit the other end.

These marks are notorious for being hard to shift totally for even after the best laundering/bleaching process some yellow or green can still be seen even if only faintly. Again ask any housewife or mother of boys, and or anyone who does laundry for say a hospital or nursing facility and they will tell you about stool stains. If you often examine bed linen from the latter two closely you'll often see faint tell tale marks from previous stool stains, same as with undergarments.

In all instances the best method is to deal with things before the spot sets. Stool should be removed soon after contact with any textile. Diapers should be flushed/rinsed until all loose deposits are removed and as much of the underlying staining as possible while fresh. Then diapers can be left in a soaking bucket until enough for a full load is reached. Ideally diaper laundry should be done daily regardless of full load or not. The longer stool residue remains on fabrics the more difficult it will be to shift totally.

How one washes diapers will largely depend upon laundry equipment available and their capabilities. If one has a modern front loader capable of reaching temps of 140F or beyond then a pre-wash (cool to warm water) followed by a hot to boil wash with a good oxygen based bleach detergent (or added on it's own) should produce acceptable results. You want to start with a cold or warm wash to ensure enzyme activity breaks down the various protein stains found in urine and feces. Dreft is quite good for laundering diapers (you can add oxygen bleach) because while a very strong detergent (to cope with baby goo and spew stains) it also rinses cleanly.

If one is going non-bio then that method all be ensures an increase in detergent and bleaching will be needed to cope with stain removal.

In the old days women pre-soaked/washed diapers then boiled on the range. Again depending upon the nature of the staining this may or may not have resulted in total removal. It did cope with sanitizing however.

Should one decide to go with LCB it is important to have multiple rinses. That is the load needs to be rinsed until no detectable scent of bleach remains. If you can still smell LCB on textiles the stuff is still there and can bother skin as well as continue working upon textiles which leads to increased damage. After bleached laundry is well rinsed white vinegar can be added to a final rinse to "sour" and "anti-chlor" the load.

Sadly even with the most elaborate and best laundry routines stool stains will never shift totally. Commercial laundries/diaper services will save up such soiled loads and run a "reclaim" cycle. This involves using *VERY* strong chlorine bleaching with higher pH levels than normal. Theory being there is nothing ventured, nothing gained. That is if the stains do not come out enough to return items to service they go where they would have in the first place, the rag/seconds bin. Indeed many diaper services have "seconds" that they sell off as rags or whatever purposes because they are too stained for first class use.

Between the frequent and often harsh laundering required and the frequency of it that you understand why large stores of diapers are needed. After awhile the things simply aren't fit for use because they are in tatters and or too stained to be decent.

 

[neptunebob]

The www.diaperhyena.com has a lot of tips for diapers too...

First of all, Kudos to you for using cloth diapers. When I was cleaning up restaurants you would not believe how many Pampers and Huggies I had to pick up, the amount is incredible.

After the kid is potty trained, the diapers make excellent cloths for car care, home cleaning and you will find a lot of uses for them.

But please, after this is all over, do as Dr. Ruth would say: youuuse a contwaceptive!

 

[iej]

I'd suggest the following:

1. Find a suitably sized bucket and some rubber gloves.
2. Get some oxygen-bleach rich powder detergent. If you were here I'd say normal Ariel or Persil Bio. I'm not sure what the equivalent of that is in the US, but I am sure some of the more traditional Tide powders with bleach are possibly quite similar.
3. Fill the bucket with hot water and add plenty of the detergent, give it a good stir.
4. Add the clothes and ensure they're completely saturated.
5. Leave overnight to work its magic.
6. Place the clothes directly into the washing machine and run a long cottons cycle at the highest temperature the machine will do and that is safe for the clothes.
7. Select the prewash cycle (if this exists over there) as it will give them a short wash first which will rinse out the detergent solution from the bucket and then add fresh detergent from the drawer which will be more chemically active for the wash. If you don't have this option, run the machine on a short rinse and spin first. Then do the cotton's cycle.

If you were on this side of the atlantic, a 90ºC (195ºF) cottons cycle with a prewash option might remove them with oxygen-bleach detergent, but those high temps can be a little harsh on clothes if they're not pure cotton or have any kind of synthetic threads in them that won't cope well with boiling water. For towels and stuff like that they're fantastic though.

I have had excellent results with very stained clothes on a 60C (140F) cycle with either Ariel or Persil powder. The liquid versions aren't as good at shifting this kind of stuff.

Back in the 1960s-70s there used to be a product called Napisan which was specifically used for this purpose. You put it into a covered bucket and left cloth nappies (diapers) soaking over night and it basically dissolved away all this stuff. AFAIK it was just a powder with loads of oxygen bleach and enzymes.

---- edit ----

I had a look at the ingredients of Tide's products and most of the powders have nothing like the cocktail of enzymes you'd get over here.

I'd suggest using a top of the line liquid detergent and an oxygen bleach in the same soak process in that case.

You should be able to buy an oxygen bleach stain removing additive in most supermarkets I would assume. Most of them are just Sodium percarbonate based products that release a peroxide during the wash.

I was looking at Persil bio for example:

Enzymes: Mannanase, Amylase, Lipase, Subtilisin
Bleach : Sodium Carbonate Peroxide
and the detergent aspects of the formula are very complicated.

The liquid version has: Mannanase, Amylase, Pectate Lyase, Subtilisin

http://www.unilever.com/PIOTI/EN/p4.asp?selectCountry=IE&language=EN&productid=1507327

 

[dascot]

We used cloth nappies with both of our two, and found no major issues with getting them clean. Though, as Bob suggests, we are in Europe with a machine with a heater.

The general way we did them was a 60 degC cycle with a prewash - the suggestion above to do a rinse and spin cycle if you don't have a prewash option is a good one. I didn't always use the prewash, but if there'd been particular incidents then I would do. Used standard non-bio detergents (variously Persil, Fairy, Ecover, supermarket own brand) and all worked equally well. No need for bleach or other additives.

Never generally went higher than 60 as we mainly used shaped ones, not just the plain flat terry cotton squares. They did both of our kids, some of them were handed down from friends and most have been passed on to other people afterwards. Any terry cotton squares that got scruffy have, like muslins, been kept for dusters etc

A couple of tips that we found useful besides the above:
- use a slosh of white vinegar in the final rinse cycle - has a nice softening effect without reducing any of the absorbency
- don't worry about pre-soaking unless you really, really need to - it just adds an unnecessary step to the cleaning process, and more soap/additives that you'll need to rinse out
- don't use chlorine bleach, again, unless you really feel the need to.
- one for the nappies themselves - are you using a nappy liner? We found fleece ones to be really good - they didn't stain much and helped prevent the actual cotton from staining, plus went in the wash and dried really quickly.

 

[rapunzel]

I was never too fussed with soaking in the diaper pail - too messy, stinky (especially in summer) and it is heavy. I started off soaking in the pail, but after a couple of times schlepping from one end of the house to the other, I decided to just throw the diapers in there and not bother putting water in. The pail would get washed out with Dettol regularly to manage the odor.

Two or three days worth of nappies would be pre-washed and soaked for an hour or more in the machine with extra sodium percarbonate and tepid water, just to get rid of excess soiling. Then I'd do a very hot regular wash with lots of water to really dilute out the urine and pooh. This was then followed by two deep (the first warm and the second cold) and one spray rinse. With extra stubborn stains I would add bleach to either the wash part of the cycle or the first (warm) rinse and do two more rinses, then hang the nappies out in the sun to dry if I fancied a hanging.

Using diaper liners contained number twos and made pooh removal easier. It also helped with keeping stains at bay.

Don't know what you are using, but I thought fitted cloth diapers were the bees knees.

In the SQ front loader, you could just put the diapers through two complete cycles. The first one cool/tepid and the second hot. Use detergent in the first cycle and only bleach in the second. Try to keep it simple and watch your lower back carrying heavy, soggy nappy pails around. Drying diapers in direct sunlight helps to keep them white - not that I bothered with that much, I'm too lazy. Dryers are for drying; sun is for tans, G&Ts and flowers.

I also never really bothered with rubber gloves. Using the pinch, lift and drop method worked fine for me. Thumb and index finger did the job perfectly and some air freshener took care of the rest.[this post was last edited: 11/6/2014-17:07]

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[norgeway]

My Mothers method!

From the 60s when I was a baby, grab the diaper by the corner, drop into the commode and flush...holding onto the diaper, this removes the loose..a..stuff..., then boil in a porcelain diaper pail for about 20 to 30 minutes, then drain and run thru the longest cycle with Ajax deterjent and Clorox and hot water in our 1955 Frigidaire Pulsamatic, rinse twice and hang up!!