Re: Cloth diapers and which laundry detergents to use/avoid - a wonderful chart!
 

We love Rockin' Green and it was designed for hard water. Great for the stinkies, too!

Re: Cloth diapers and which laundry detergents to use/avoid - a wonderful chart!
 

Does anyone make their own detergent? I stuck to the list and all was well while Stateside, but I'm back in China and can't find a detergent that doesn't make the dipes repellent. Lots of leaks (that are more like spills, since it's not that the diaper's soaked, it's just not soaking it in!)

BTW I don't have any ingredients like borax or glycerin, and I don't know what washing soda is so I don't know whether I have it!! I do have bar soap, baking soda, and vinegar, though the BumGenius directions say not to use vinegar... I don't understand why, and I've written but not heard back.

Re: Cloth diapers and which laundry detergents to use/avoid - a wonderful chart!
 

This buy far is the best list I've seen.thanks.

Re: Cloth diapers and which laundry detergents to use/avoid - a wonderful chart!
 

I know your post is pretty old, but I've been looking through the stickies this morning and saw your post and was wondering how things turned out. :hug Did you make your own detergent or did you find a store-bought type that worked better than what you were using? :think And did you ever find out why the BumGenius directions said not to use vinegar? :think

Re: Cloth diapers and which laundry detergents to use/avoid - a wonderful chart!
 

:giggle my cloth diapering experience is to use detergents totally NOT reccomended by these charts and avoid the reccomended ones like the plague. The worst stink and rash I've had with Margaret was with RnG... I use dreft on her diapers now and love it.
I'd use a greener detergent if it worked but I've yet to find any..
Deanna

Re: Cloth diapers and which laundry detergents to use/avoid - a wonderful chart!
 

:yes Same here.

Re: Cloth diapers and which laundry detergents to use/avoid - a wonderful chart!
 

Ooo, thanks for checking in!

As far as what works, I found that soapnuts are commonly used in Chinese traditional medicine so I bought a half-kilo for less than even the cheapest detergents, and began washing in soapnut liquid. I have to use cold water most of the time but once a month I fill up buckets with hot water (boiled or from a different source) to do a hot-water wash, which seems to work to "strip" any build-up.

The BumGenius guys said that vinegar can mess up the elastic. I'm not sure how that'd be worse than a drier, which we don't use but they say is okay to do. But we haven't needed to try the vinegar anyway so it's alright!

Re: Cloth diapers and which laundry detergents to use/avoid - a wonderful chart!
 

a dryer is fine. I dryer dry all my diaper covers ect on hight heat and I have some that have been in my stash/possion since 2003 :giggle. You just dont want to pull at covers diapers elastic when hot allow them to cool. I've also made vinager a fairly regular part of our CD rountinue with out any issues.

Deanna

Re: Cloth diapers and which laundry detergents to use/avoid - a wonderful chart!
 

Oh, that's great to hear! Thank you so much for the update. :rockon

I hadn't heard that before. :think I'm so glad what you've been doing is working for you!! :tu

That's good to know! Since 2003, wow! Thanks, Deanna!

Re: Cloth diapers and which laundry detergents to use/avoid - a wonderful chart!
 

Thanks for the info -- that's so good to know! Are these AIOs? I'd still like to do vinegar since I'm washing her other clothes with the diapers and it makes clothing softer, sometimes an issue since we line-dry.

Re: Cloth diapers and which laundry detergents to use/avoid - a wonderful chart!
 

My current stash consists of 2/3 prefolds and various wraps and 1/3 pockets.. In the past I've had fitted AIOs pockets flats prefolds pretty much BTDT all.

Deanna

Re: Cloth diapers and which laundry detergents to use/avoid - a wonderful chart!
 

Reviving an old thread....curious on more responses from people making laundry soap (ivory/washing soda/borax) & washing cloth dipes with it :yes

Re: Cloth diapers and which laundry detergents to use/avoid - a wonderful chart!
 

bump!!!

Re: Cloth diapers and which laundry detergents to use/avoid - a wonderful chart!
 

When it was cost-effective for me to do it, I washed all my laundry including my cloth diapers with homemade laundry soap. It was 1c borax, 1c washing soda, and 1/2c oxyclean. It worked really, really well for a while, and then I switched because the cost of the ingredients became more than the cost of ECOS.

ECOS is marked 4 stars if it's the free & clear kind. I buy that one at Walmart for roughly $8. I have used the ECOS with coconut softener/lavender scent and honestly I haven't seen a huge difference except needing to strip the dipes more often, but I don't know if needing to strip them more often is due to the detergent or the fact that DD has toddler pee now as opposed to baby pee.

DD also had a terrible reaction to Charlie's Soap. It was like the diapers were burning her skin. :( I know it doesn't happen with every baby, just putting it out there.

Re: Cloth diapers and which laundry detergents to use/avoid - a wonderful chart!
 

I found arm and hammer works really well!