Wash on hot or cold?

Jocelyn - posted on 07/12/2009

i use to wash with super hot water (sanitary cycle, it would heat the water IN the machine) but we moved and don't have that option on our new washing machine, so now i wash with cold, but i add a bit of baking soda. never had a problem.

Laura - posted on 07/12/2009

My wash routine is cold soak/rinse with Bac out. Hot wash with my detergetn extra rinse at the end. Hang to dry if I can otherwise dry med heat in dryer.

Vilate - posted on 07/12/2009

isn't it interesting how many different types of ways there are to wash huh?



I do it simple. I wash in Hot, I rinse in Warm and then I let the sun take care of the stains. I use a few (3-5) tea tree oil in the wash to help kill the bacteria.



So there you have it simple and straight forward! :)

Teresa - posted on 07/11/2009

I do 2 cold rinses (no detergent) with large water to diaper ratio, then hot wash with cold rise (only setting for hot wash that the washing machine has) with 1/4 of recommended amount of detergent (like a tablespoon). This is what has worked best for me, but I mostly just have prefolds.

Marci - posted on 07/11/2009

I need to clarify something I said. If you dry your dipes in the sun, that will also disinfect them!!

Marci - posted on 07/11/2009

I use a pre-wash in cold if there is any poopy ones (I use a poop liner that I throw away but it doesn't always catch it all) and then I do a hot/warm wash with like 4 rinses. You really should use HOT water, unless you are using vinegar too. Vinegar is a disinfectant. Detergent isn't and if you don't use hot water and/or vinegar, you are not disinfecting your dipes!

Heather - posted on 07/11/2009

First, be really careful using oxy type cleaners... not recommended for most cloth diapers... all systems have directions that are specific to that type of diaper... for instance, if you use bum genius or fuzzibunz or another pocket microfiber diaper, the directions are to wash once in cold with 1/2 the regular detergent (no dyes, no brighteners, no softeners, no organic compounds) and then wash in hot with 1/2 the detergent... then you run an extra hot rinse to make certain that all of the detergent is gone. You also have to strip the diapers with some regularity - every 6 weeks or so (though I usually wait until I have a few diaper failures - when the pee just seems to stream OUT of the diaper instead of being absorbed)... to do this, you wash once in hot water with a couple of tablespoons of the original blue dawn dish detergent and 1/2 cup bleach, then you run it through 2 or 3 more hot wash cycles to make certain you have removed all of the soap/bleach. Lynlee, it's possible your son has a bacterial rash, and you probably want to give your fuzzibunz a good stripping... diapers should NEVER smell unpleasant AFTER you've washed them... if they do, the they are not yet clean! Usually this is related to detergent buildup which is absorbing and keeping bacteria in the fibers of the diaper.

Stephanie - posted on 07/10/2009

I wash with with hot first and then cold,and always with an oxyclean type product.

Sonya - posted on 07/10/2009

We always wash in hot because when we didn't our son got a bacterial diaper rash that just wouldn't quit. Haven't had a problem since washing on a sanitize cycle (super hot water). The directions for my diapers say to prewash in cold to remove solids, etc. then to wash in hot. Those are also the instructions that the people at the diaper store told me. We have fuzzi buns and prefolds. Good luck!

Sandy - posted on 07/10/2009

I do a hot wash and cold and I haven't had any problems with staining. I use bumgenius and happy heiny and CPF.

Amber - posted on 07/10/2009

I wash mine on cold to get all the pee and poo out of them and so the stains dont set in, then i do a wash with hot water. When i bought them this was how i was told to wash them and so far i havent had problems with them. ive only been CDing for 2 months though.

Shanda - posted on 07/09/2009

I always assumed it was for killing bacteria. The only way I"ve figured out to do a hot wash is to switch the cold line to the hot faucet and vice versa. I just did that and ran it with oxygen bleach (like Oxiclean but the version made by Country Save) and stripped and WOW what a difference! Maybe I'll just have to do that once every couple months.

Lynlee - posted on 07/09/2009

I have washed our fuzzibunz on cold most of the time for the past 2.5 years but I don't think it has done them any favours. The inners are grey and never smell very pleasant but I reckon the poo stains come out better in cold water. I have been trialling hot washes in the last week to see if our son's rash could possibly be connected with not washing them in hot. I haven't noticed a difference so far but the stains are more obvious in hot. I am not sure what exactly is the reason you are supposed to use hot - is it purely for killing the bacteria or some other reason?