HE Cloth Diaper Routine

I recently made the switch to full time cloth diapering, which means I had to perfect my washing routine. No more getting away with tossing stuff in the sanitize cycle and walking away.

I'm no expert, but from what I've read, the most important part of washing cloth diapers is using lots of water. HE (high efficiency) washing machines are made to use as little water as possible. So that makes washing diapers a challenge.

The first few washes my diapers came out smelling...weird. Not bad, like they were dirty, but kind of musty and earthy. Clean diapers should come out of the wash smelling like nothing, so obviously that wasn't working. I read this was probably detergent build up. As these diapers came to me second hand, it was definitely possible! Because I don't have a good ol' water wasting top loader, I used my bathtub to help me strip the detergent out. I filled the (clean!) tub with cold water and loaded up the diapers. After a few swishes, it was obvious there was detergent in the diapers. I swished and swished then drained the tub and filled it again about 6 times. I then ran 8-10 rinse and spin cycles before they finally came out smelling like NOTHING. Hooray!

I hunted around and I saw that some people open their detergent drawer and add water through it. That's a great idea, except you void the factory warranty and run the risk of damaging your washing machine by adding extra weight the washer isn't accommodating for. If I owned my washer and dryer, I'd absolutely take the risk for clean dipes without 10,000 wash cycles every time, but I don't, so I had to come up with something else.

HE washers weigh your laundry before adding water so the least amount of water can be used. Diapers are absorbent, so that tiny amount of water gets soaked up in the diapers and they flop around not getting clean. So, here's what I've come up with. I am using a Kenmore Elite High Efficiency machine.

• Saturate diapers with water before tossing them in. There is a utility sink in my laundry room. I fill it with cold water and soak the diapers in it. It's a bit messy transferring the diapers from the sink to the washer
• One Kids wearcycle with detergent, on warm/warm, 2nd rinse, and auto soak options
• One Express cycle on cold, 2nd rinse, heavy soil level, no detergent
• One Rinse&Spin cycle, No detergent. After this cycle I pull the dipes out and smell them. If I smell anything they go back in for another rinse.

I sun my diapers when I can, but if I don't have the time (or the daylight), I tumble dry. Be sure to check your diapers' specifications on using the dryer!

My diapers have come out smelling fresh and clean. It takes a bit of extra work, but I am successfully full time cloth diapering with an HE machine and my dipes are pristine!

What's your wash routine?