Question from a new member

[jetcone]

I have to agree with Pipsqueak

on the Tide not rinsing out well, I found in testing the new formulations are hard to rinse out. I'd agree with what Tom says about the STPP for your water hardness and then try some other detergent or soap. I would think chlorine bleach rinse and then  a good rinsing and then a wash in pure soap flakes + STPP would leave soft clean diapers.

I don't get the idea that multiple rinses create ammonia causing conditions. That is usually caused by the breakdown of proteins.

For example old fish.

 

 

 

[Pipsqueak]

Stan

You are correct that I have to manually restart the machine for the second rinse. My machine doesn't have a fabric softener dispenser (or I've never looked for/found one). The agitator has a solid top surface. I had to clean the built up gunk of old fabric softener out of a top loader with the fs dispenser in the agitator back almost a decade ago, I have avoided liquid fs since then. Half the time I forgot to add a dryer sheet and I couldn't tell much difference between the loads with and the loads without so I stopped buying dryer sheets about 4-5 years ago too. I can try getting a picture of my washer controls added tonight.

Jetcone, rinsing diapers doesn't cause problems. However, there is a group of people that are spreading bad advice or are using the experiences of a limited number of people and claiming it applies to everyone.

Washing diapers really is easy and doesn't involve much more than what washing a load of regular laundry does. Diapers are stored in a dry pail (poop is disposed of down the toilet) until wash day. A pre-wash cycle usually without detergent (any cycle with agitation and a drain and spin), a hot wash with detergent and water softener as needed, followed by the second rinse cycle. Then hang or put in dryer to dry. Bleach is used if a problem arises that can't be fixed by a "heavy duty rinse" or a second wash with detergent and to sanitize in event of a yeast infection and used diapers. That's not the part I'm having trouble with.

I'm off to go play with my washer. I'll be back with updates later.

 

[stan]

Too bad you don't have

The fabric softener for your machine so it could be used for the STPP.
The only other way I can think of is that if your machines lid switch is in working order.. You might be able to leave the lid open, so that the timer will stop it from going into spin after agitation. At that point you'd have close the lid, stand over it while it spun, wait for it to refill with first rinse water, add a little STPP at that time. Short of doing this..it would be hard with a little running around to catch the machine when it was refilling.
Maybe you can find a fabric softener that fits your machine. It would make things easier
Sounds to me that you've got the pre rinsing, soaking, washing, rinsing down pat. It's a matter of getting the machine clean between tubs, and dealing with the hard water. Your on your way with that.
You'll find a detergent that works for you, but personally I don't think Tide is going to work out, there seems to be too many problems reported with rinsing. After that, your good to go.

 

[stan]

Dose your control panel

Look like this?
One below is a 1994 70 series.

 

[Pipsqueak]

Stan

Not quite.

 

[Pipsqueak]

As promised

Picture of my washer

http://i64.tinypic.com/fx5gyd.jpg

 

[stan]

It's near identical

To my kenmore 80 series.
Good washer, and easy to work on..and plenty of spare parts out there for it.
So I'm assuming that your filling the machine with hot water, then after fill. Your switching the temp to warm/warm to get a warm rinse?

 

[Pipsqueak]

Warm rinse

You got it. Or I fill it on hot at soak and then change to warm/warm when I set to wash. I do that often if I need to check water level settings before washing but need to run upstairs while machine is filling to check on the little guy.

 

[stan]

Another question

Dose your washer drain into a stand pipe, or a laundry sink?
Mine drains into a sink, so I'm able to see my rinse water. Based on what I see, sometimes (not often) prompts do a second rinse.

 

[Pipsqueak]

Drains

Into a pipe.

 

[neptunebob]

I dont have any advice...

But I thank you for not using Pampers - those things are the worst when you get out of your car and step in one, because they seem to be everywhere.

Now, next step for the environment - family planning!

 

[jetcone]

Bob truer words !!

One day I looked out at my dead end street to see a car in my driveway, I went out just as it pulled away, to my horror the woman had tossed her used Pampers into my bushes and sped down the hill!!

 

I couldn't believe it, if I had been thinking fast I would have hurled it at her rear windshield!!

 

[tomturbomatic]

Has your STPP Arrived?

Please let us know of your washing experiences with it.

 

[combo52]

Washing Diapers Etc.

It is about impossible to have detergent build-up in clothing, that is about as ridiculous as having sugar build-up in your coffee cup.

 

Detergent dissolves very easily and rinses away just as easily. You can get a bad mineral build-up in clothing from using TOO LITTLE detergent and of course from hard water, too cool a wash temperature and cheap ineffective detergents.

 

Using STPP is an excellent idea in your hard water, a water softener system for your home is an even beter idea.

 

When washing diapers a cold pre-rinse is just as effective and cold rinsing is better than using a warn rinse.

 

Washing in hot water is differently best as is adding chlorine bleach in the last few minutes of the wash cycle.

 

The goal is to get the diapers clean and germ free without ruining the environment, this is probably one of the good reasons that you are using cloth diapers in the first place.

 

[Pipsqueak]

I have to disagree

With the comment that detergent is easy to rinse out. When my cotton clothes become more scratchy than my wools just from using detergent and become soft again when neither detergent nor water softener is used - the cause is definitely related to the detergent.

Yes, the STPP has arrived and so far adding it to the water and letting it agitate briefly before adding the detergent (in soft water dose) is working much better than either using Calgon or detergent in hard water doses. My cottons are now detergent washed and are no longer torture devices. I added a little too much detergent to the last diaper load and it didn't rinse quite as well so now my diaper pail smells like detergent instead of dirty diapers.

So far I have only experimented with a store brand free and clear liquid (determined it's only good for the lightly soiled colored clothes) and the Oxydol with Biz. (Determined that it's better than the detergents I have used in the past)

I haven't sorted through the lists of detergents for a better detergent to use on the diapers so I just used the Oxydol one on the last couple loads. So far no sign of diaper rash or other skin irritation on my son.

 

[stan]

Maybe Laundress

Will stop by to explain "encrustation"
If I understand whats she's mentioned in the passed, I think that it has to do with the alkaline detergents..their modern builders and hard water conditions.
In certain conditions, detergent dose build up on fabric.
Let's face it, were washing fabrics (a porous material) not a coffee cup (non porous)
And diapers are definitely designed to be porous.
STPP is going to be your best friend to assist, and to prevent encrustation. As well as optimal rinsing the of the detergent
(that's holding the dirt and oil) away.
But I'll let Laundress explain, as she know the nuts and bolts of this better than I do.
Sounds like you've found a detergent that works for you.
Let us know what detergent and STPP ratio works for you, and your water.

 

[combo52]

Encrustation In Fabrics

Is NOT detergent, it is minerals left behind from hard water and other poor washing practices.

 

 

 

Yes you can obviously leave a little detergent behind if you don't rinse fully, but it can be a good thing, detergent keeps the clothing soft, it also helps the clothing wash better next time they are washed and detergent helps lucubrate and protect fabrics from wear.

 

 

 

But residual detergent in fabrics will quickly reach a certain point based on the amount in the rinse water, it can not and will not keep building up in clothing each time an item is washed.

 

If this were true all you would have to do if you wanted to wash a big load of dirty laundry is throw in a big towel that had been washed many times before, LOL.

 

[tomturbomatic]

Inadequate rinsing can leave detergents in fabrics. I remember when TIDE XK was introduced with enzymes. People started getting rashes around waistlines from the enzymes left in the elastic starting to work on the proteins in their skin because one rinse was not enough. Now, with the use of non-phosphate builders in detergents in place of phosphate builders, not only can the hard water minerals, which are not handled as effectively by non phosphate builders in powder detergents, build up in the machines, but they can also build up in the fabrics because they do not rinse out as freely. I experienced this first hand back in the early 80s when ALL was about the only low sudsing detergent on the store shelves and my condo had the Westinghouse stacked washer and dryer. I discovered after I bought the ALL that it was a no-phosphate formula. I had to add Grand Union's phosphated water conditioner to every wash and to a deep rinse to keep the towels from feeling like wire brushes. You also want baby clothes and especially diapers rinsed thoroughly so that traces of detergent don't irritate a baby's delicate skin and so that in diapers, the detergent is not put back into solution when the diaper gets wet.

As for cold water pre rinsing of the diapers before washing, with today's lower water heater settings, you would want to do everything within reason to warm up the tub and the load before the hot fill so a warm pre rinse would help raise the temperature of the wash water because the warm tub and load would lower the temperature from the hot fill less than would a cold tub and load from a cold pre rinse. If the wash is started right after the pre rinse, you can also benefit from the hot water in the pipe drawn up to the machine as part of the fill for the warm pre rinse.

 

[washer111]

Detergent in Fabrics

If this were false, then I (and many other members) who made the switch from a conventional TL machine with the choice of HE rinsing (or not) would not have noticed considerably softer clothing when they switched to FL machines that rinse better. 

 

We had a water softener in use by the time we disposed of our previous TL machine, and the Miele seriously improved upon fabric 'feel' after the wash. 

 

[tomturbomatic]

If anyone has ever read the instructions for stripping leftover, unrinsed detergent or soap film from fabrics on the side of a package of water conditioner or in the owner's manual for a combo or front loading washer, the instructions say to use the hottest water the fabric can stand, load the laundry and add no detergent, just the proper amount of water conditioner. The suds that will appear are from the old detergent or soap being pulled from the fabrics. The instructions, which I believe were printed on the underside of the door for the lint screen and the bleach dispenser, for the old 33" WP-made combos said to do this until no more suds appeared in the little round observation window behind the access panel, then start using a low sudsing detergent.