Detergent?

[HotPotato1010]

How do you know what kind of water you have?

[Quickshep19]

Originally Posted by HotPotato1010 How do you know what kind of water you have?

Some CD stores sell test strips.

Jodie ~ wife & mama

[oojoyjoy]

Try googling your county/city water hardness. I was able to find ours that way.

[hollybabies]

Just have to say, read this thing on Wazoodle about fabrics and textiles, and they say that diapers get build-up not because of mainstream detergent, but just the opposite. It is minerals not being washed out by weak "CD safe" detergents that are causing buildup, and you need something good and strong that actually cleans. That seems to be true in everything we have tried, and had to settle on good old TIDE. Oh well.

[momma_dna]

Originally Posted by HotPotato1010 How do you know what kind of water you have?

Call your water provider

[Kabuki24]

Originally Posted by shen7 The "safe" charts are bogus. Stay away from ingredients that you know to cause irritation for your family, and probably avoid built-in fabric softeners, but anything you would trust to get peed and pooped on clothing or towels clean is what you should use on your diapers. Just make sure your final rinse is not full of suds and they pass the smell test and you're good to go.

I agree! Use whatever works. I use either Gain free or Tide free and never have had stink issue once.

[lynn97]

Originally Posted by jenn.mcc Regular liquid Tide lover here. No stains, no stink, no problems!

Same here! And I've tried plenty of others...

[anne_josh]

In general use whatever works.. honestly, I think it has more to do with the washer and the water (amount, hard or soft, etc). I am using a HE washer now and it's driving me insane. Diapers are a little different than washing clothes in that they need to get good and clean and ALL the soap has to get rinsed out, but the basics still apply. Hot water, detergent, rinse.

[snoggle]

I haven't started CDing yet (just building up a stash for baby due in December), but it does look like the two lists completely contradict each other on a lot of the detergents. What I read that makes sense, is to start simple (use something easily available) and don't add a lot of extras. Then if that doesn't work, tweak from there, but don't start out making it complicated if you don't need to.

[lauralita]

I tried All Free 'n Clear in our HE, and after a few months, it just wasn't cutting it. We switched to using either Soap Nuts or Laundry Tarts. I like that they're both inexpensive enough that I can use on my regular laundry too.