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| my husband and I just purchased the part time package of OS dipers. I think we will really like switching to cloth but I am so worried about the washing of them. my current plan is to use rockin green to wash them but im not sure what routine to use to wash my diapers. My washing machine is HE so it has a prewash,presoak and a rinse and spin feature, I was planning on using one of these features before washing my diapers... any recommendations? and do you recommend that we line dry the diapers or is it ok to throw them in the dryer during thee winter? |
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Washing diapers can seem intimidating indeed if you read forums like these on the net. Just remember that only those who are having issues are going to post, families where everything is going smoothly aren't likely to post that very often. Just relax and keep it simple. The majority of people successfully wash cloth diapers with simple routines and have no problems. And with fitted diapers like ME you're even less likely to have issues (pocket diapers tend to be a bit more complicated to clean).
Starting with a cloth friendly detergent is great (although probably not even really necessary) but I wouldn't worry too much about your routine. About the only thing I'd recomend you do differently with diapers than you would with clothing is just to put them through a cold pre-rinse. Just one plain water rinse, a whole rinse cycle is unnecessary. Your machine may not have a pre-rinse feature as such but it probably has just a rinse/spin feature that you could use before a regular hot wash. Then just follow that with a regular hot wash and perhaps an extra rinse at the end (most HE machines will have a button for that so you shouldn't need to come back to the machine or anything). The extra rinse may not be necessary with Rocking Green but it's a fairly standard addition so I thought I'd mention it.
Line drying or using the dryer is really up to you. Line drying will certainly save electricity and some wear/tear on the diapers but it's not like it'll ruin the diapers or anything.
Karen. |
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Congrats on choosing cloth! There can be a bit of a learning curve at first, but I think you'll find that you really love cloth. I planned on easing into it slowly myself, figuring it would be leaky and lots of work, but after the first diaper, I never went back. No more leaks, and really not more work.
You will read a lot about people trying to get their washing routine perfect, but remember that people who aren't having any problems probably aren't writing in to say that all is perfect! So chances are that you will be just fine.
I would probably use the prewash (the idea being that this would be a water change, as opposed to presoak, which would use the same water for the main wash? It may be hard to know for sure the difference between the two without watching the cycles, but that's my guess, and it's better to change out the water if you can) and then a regular hot wash. The benefit of doing this as a prewash (rather than rinse and spin) is that you can probably choose to have it on hot, while rinse probably defaults to cold.
When I was washing full loads of diapers, I programmed in a hot prewash followed by a hot regular wash because then I could just press start and forget it. Another option I would sometimes do instead of prewash is a hot "quick cycle" with no spin. Then when I put it to a regular hot wash, it would use a little more water because of the weight of the wet diapers from the quick cycle.
So all that to say, you can just play around with it and see what first your machine and preferences, but getting something hot that changes out the water and then a regular wash should do the trick. Most people have success with only 1/4-1/2 of the recommended amount of detergent, and put it only one of the washes (some people like to put it in the prewash if they've been having problems with getting diapers thoroughly rinsed, but most probably just stick with the main cycle). I like to put some vinegar into the prewash, but that's really a personal preference, not a necessary thing.
Personally, I have always line-dried my diapers because I started with cloth for the environmental benefits and line-drying saves a lot of energy. I use an accordian-type drying rack for inside drying, and depending on your climate, drying inside during the winter can be really fast and also help put some much-needed humidity in the house. The diapers should also last longer and not keep stains as much (they don't get heat-set as much, and if you can line-dry in sunlight you'll be amazed at what it does to stains). That being said, probably the majority of CDers here use the dryer because of space, climate, convenience, etc. |
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Hah, Karen, I think we were writing at the same time!
So I guess the only thing we said differently is that I like a hot pre-wash/rinse because then I don't end up doing extra rinses. Personal preference and machine options can make your decisions on things like that. |
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Yeah, totally personal preference on stuff like that. It would probably help rinse out any detergent left over from a previous wash better than cold. Not as good for stain prevention though...
Wish I had a programable machine like that. Even my new 'fancy' front loader won't allow me to 'program' anything, all I can do is use the already available cycles and change things like soil levels (basically the lenght of the wash cycle) and add an extra rinse at the end. No option to add pre-rinses though so I have to use the rinse only cycle and then start the hot wash.
Karen. |
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True about stain prevention, I suppose, although between using fleece liners and line-drying, stains were never a real issue for me. If the point of the pre-wash/rinse is to shift the nasties, cold or hot should work just fine, I just like the added detergent-rinsing with hot.
I thought we had similar Samsungs, Karen? I have a pre-wash button on the right side of the button area, left of the cycle dial, in line with "my cycle" and "delay start," but my machine has to be older than yours and maybe they changed the features around. |
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I think yours is the silver tech one right? I bought one that was almost the same as the silver tech one but slightly smaller, no silver tech and and I think one or two less cycles (and about $300 less). Apparently less options besides that one cycle too. Mine only has buttons for extra-rinse, delay start and extra-wash (which just lenghtens the time of the wash cycle - not sure what you'd need that when you have a 'soil' button that does the same thing).
Karen. |
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Yep, the silver one, although as far I was concerned, that just came with the spin-speed that I wanted. :-)
So I just hauled out my manual to try to figure out if there's any difference between extra wash and just upping the soil level, and I agree with you that it doesn't look like there is. So why bother? Just to have another button, I guess. I did find out, though, that the pre-wash is always cold, so is functionally probably just like doing a rinse and spin, just allows you to walk away rather than reset. So I guess the only way to get a hot pre-wash is what I've been doing recently to my night diapers (before throwing in other whites), which running a quick hot wash before the regular hot one. But that's still coming back to the machine. So anyway, here I thought I'd been doing a hot pre-wash and wasn't, and it all worked anyway, without regular extra rinses. Maybe I'll just do a rinse and no spin on those night diapers now, save the water heater . . . |
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Yeah, I hesitated because mine spins a little slower but mine still spun quite quickly (1100 RPM instead of 1300 in the silver tech one). It was the only feature I really wanted in the more expensive model but I figured it just wasn't worth the extra $300.
I guess the only advantage to both a soil cycle and extra wash is just that if you use both you can up the wash lenght even more. Dunno, seems like a waste to me... I'd rather of had the pre-wash option instead of that but oh well, I'm at the end of my diaper washing days anyway.
Karen. |
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