Charlie's Detergent Additive and oxyclean

Ok I have always used the one size and recently had to switch to Toddlease I am deathly afraid of ruining elastic. I have horrible stink issues and oxyclean seems to help a little. I have heard its bad for elastic? Anyone know? Also Has anyone used the hard water additive potassium diphosphate from charlie's soap? I used it when we lived in another house and am not sure if it helped me or not? Debating whether to try it? Also anyone heard of Dee Tergent?

Hi Brittany,
 
More and more we are encountering reports on stink issues associated with laundering diapers.  There are many homemade eco detergents sold over the internet these days that simply do not have the cleaning strength required to launder cloth diapers resulting in "stink issues".  Hydrogen peroxide will not harm Mother-ease elastics but it will harm the natural fibres the diapers are made from ie bamboo or cotton.  When combined with uric acid it dissolves the diapers fibres.
 
Due to the amount of problems we are encountering associated with these eco detergents we can not recommend the use of any of them nor would we encourage the use of any hard water additive.  A good quality detergent will contain a chelating agent which accommodates variations in water hardness.


It is for these reasons that we have introduced our laundry product line called Kind.  We have four years of experience with it and have used it extensively to launder all of our cloth diaper line range from natural cloth to the high tech synthetic Wizard Line.  It is effective and gentle on our diapers.  It will do an amazing job on your whole family's laundry all while being environmentally sensitive.
 
Another eco detergent we could recommend and is commercially available would be Green Works by Clorox.
 
Regards,
 
Erika Froese

Thanks! I wish you would sell kind in the US! I will have to give Greenworks a try!
 
 

Erika,
 
What do you guys think of Allens detergent? And how about soap nuts? Any thoughts on those?
 
Thanks,
Karen.

I used Charlie's Soap for several years (until I used a 5 gallon bucket).  It got so that I was running every load with bleach to deal with the smell.  I haven't tried the hard water additive, but I have a friend who swears by White King in her whites to take care of hard water issues.  My elastic on my diapers seems fine, but my bamboo diapers are looking quite threadbare. 
 
After trying soap nuts and Allen's Naturally I'm using powdered Tide, and it seems to work really well.

There are web sites such as this to help with cloth diaper friendly detergents: http://www.pinstripesandp...hedetergentchoices.htm
Karen, Allens is supposed to be one of the best.
I found Nature Clean at Superstore (for those in Canada) and am using that now - no enzymes, softeners, bleach and safe for baby laundry.  It's going good so far but only been a week!

KarenC


Erika,

What do you guys think of Allens detergent? And how about soap nuts? Any thoughts on those?

Thanks,
Karen.

 
We at Mother-ease are not detergent experts.  We can only comment based on the correspondence we get.  100% of the laundry related problems we encounter stem from the use of the "eco" detergents available, including Allens.  We have encountered 0 problems to date (remember we've been doing this for 20+ years) with users of Tide or Purex or Ivory Snow etc.
 
A detergent's most effective ingredient is its surfactant.   Powdered laundry detergents  are limited to the amount of  surfactants they contain, most contain less than 5% of this  key active ingredient.
 
Powdered products are sometimes difficult to dissolve and disperse especially when you consider variations in water hardness, the amount of water used per load,  and the  washing  machines agitation capabilities.
 
Because the powders  may be difficult to dissolve and disperse, some residual material becomes encrusted in the diaper fabric.  The fabric loses its softness and tends to be rough on the skin which could lead to irritation.
 
The low levels of surfactant content may be not be sufficient to remove the residual chemicals accumulating within the fabric pores, overtime this will lead to a decrease in the absorbency of the fabric.
 
Soap Nuts- We actually tried these!  Within 4-6 weeks our diapers stunk so badly we had to stop.  Same washing equipment, same wash routine. The Soap nuts were used according to package directions instead of the usual Kind detergent.  We would recommend these be left for squirrels.
 
Erika

Erika Froese

KarenC


Erika,

What do you guys think of Allens detergent? And how about soap nuts? Any thoughts on those?

Thanks,
Karen.

We at Mother-ease are not detergent experts.  We can only comment based on the correspondence we get.  100% of the laundry related problems we encounter stem from the use of the "eco" detergents available, including Allens.  We have encountered 0 problems to date (remember we've been doing this for 20+ years) with users of Tide or Purex or Ivory Snow etc.

A detergent's most effective ingredient is its surfactant.   Powdered laundry detergents  are limited to the amount of  surfactants they contain, most contain less than 5% of this  key active ingredient.

Powdered products are sometimes difficult to dissolve and disperse especially when you consider variations in water hardness, the amount of water used per load,  and the  washing  machines agitation capabilities.

Because the powders  may be difficult to dissolve and disperse, some residual material becomes encrusted in the diaper fabric.  The fabric loses its softness and tends to be rough on the skin which could lead to irritation.

The low levels of surfactant content may be not be sufficient to remove the residual chemicals accumulating within the fabric pores, overtime this will lead to a decrease in the absorbency of the fabric.

Soap Nuts- We actually tried these!  Within 4-6 weeks our diapers stunk so badly we had to stop.  Same washing equipment, same wash routine. The Soap nuts were used according to package directions instead of the usual Kind detergent.  We would recommend these be left for squirrels.

Erika

UPDATE
 
I tried the Green Works Detergent and after a couple weeks up using it me and my son both had rashes all over our skin and his diapers stink so bad :( ... back to detergent trying

Brittany1287,
 
It would seem odd to me that a detergent like Greenworks, made by a company as large as Clorox, with a team of chemists, and laboratories, and extensive testing, would produce and market an environmentally friendly detergent that would cause rashes.
 
We only have very limited experience with the detergent and have had no issues but that doesn't mean it is good for everyone.
 
A detergent that has been on the market for a very long time and specially formulated to be gentle on skin and effective in washing cloth diapers is Ivory Snow.  I would recommend you try that, following the instructions and using the hottest water possible.  You could try a second last rinse and add some white vinegar to it.  This should solve your problems, and if not, we may need to look at other sources for what the problem may be.
 
Please let us know how you make out.
 
Erika Froese

I loved Tide original powder but I *think* the new Ultra Tide caused skin irritation to me and my boys (not positive it was the detergent but it happened when we switched.)  And Tide is only making the ultra formulation now.  But their liquid is still regular Tide; now that I know it's OK to use liquid, I'll try that.  I may also try Wisk Deep Clean, someone on Diaperswppers said that worked for them.  We don't get build-up stinkies or ammonia stinkies here (unless we try a natural detergent- Rockin Green SUCKED for us) but my toddler son's poopy diapers tend to smell like poop until I wsh them 4-5 times, even if I use bleach.  So I don't think it's bacteria, but I'm suspicious of oils or acids in his poops that might be difficult to clean out (sorry TMI,) I'm wondering if the liquid detergent might actually take care of it since the powder isn't.

Jessnye,
 
You may want to exercise caution with Wisk Deep Clean.  I believe it may be a stain remover and so will contain harsh solvents we recommend against.
 
Erika Froese