How to Wash Cloth Diapers in Hard Water
The biggest question when it comes to cloth diapering, is how in the world to they come clean!? How do you wash them!? I promise it is way easier than you think!
The biggest tip is to know what type of water you have – soft water or hard water. This greatly impacts the type of detergent you should use and if there are any additives to include in your cloth diaper wash routine. Today, we are specifically addressing how to wash cloth diapers in hard water.
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Hard Water
We are lucky enough to have hard well water where we live. This means our water has high mineral content. Typically these minerals are calcium and magnesium. This happens as the water percolates through deposits of limestone and layers of the earth, picking up these minerals and maintaining them in dissolved form.
How Do I Know if I Have Hard Water?
You can see evidence of hard water around your sink faucets or drains in the form of white mineral deposits, buildup or scale. You can also see it in appliances that use water, such as a coffee maker.
I have not tried this myself but I have read that you can add about 10 drops of liquid soap to a clear water bottle filled from the tap. Shake and see the results. If the water is cloudy with minimal suds on top, then you have hard water. If the water is fairly clear with lots of suds on top, then you have soft water.
Is Hard Water Bad?
Hard water is not a health risk, however it presents problems with mineral buildup in water pipes, faucets, water heater, etc. It also makes it harder for soap and detergents to suds up. This is because the cleaning agents in the detergent bind to the minerals in your water instead of the dirt in your laundry during the wash cycle. So instead of detergent helping to clean your clothes, most of the detergent ends up essentially helping to soften your water during the wash cycle.
How to Wash Cloth Diapers in Hard Water
There are basically two options to address the extra minerals found in hard water. One, install a water softening system. This will be beneficial to all of your plumbing fixtures, faucets, water pipes and water heater by eliminating mineral buildup. It will also help with soap sudsing up better in the shower, dishwasher and washing machine for laundry. But it comes with a hefty price tag.
So option two, add a water softener directly to your laundry! We use Calgon water softener in every load of cloth diapers. This helps to bind with the dissolved minerals, so the laundry detergent can do its job to actually clean the diapers.
We also use Original Tide in powder form. Powder detergents have more water softening agents in the formula, as compared to liquid detergents. So obviously this is helpful when you are dealing with hard water.
I would also like to add that the scent of Original Tide has never caused any skin irritation. If that is something you are concerned with, we haven’t experienced any issues with this.
Fluff Love University offers more in depth information about washing cloth diapers. They also have a looong reference list of basically any detergent ever made and how it holds up with cleaning cloth diapers. I highly recommend checking them out when you are done here.
Our Cloth Diaper Wash Routine
We wash cloth diapers every other day. Some people can go longer in between washes, but I have a heavy wetter, so I don’t want to risk ammonia build up by waiting an extra day. It also pushes us on having enough diapers, if we wait an extra day, as we have a smaller stash.
We use a mixture of prefolds with covers and pocket diapers (so I pull the stuffing from any pockets before putting it in the diaper pail). Since our little one is eating solid foods now, any poop goes into the toilet. My best hack for making this easy is to DIY cloth diaper liners. The poop literally just rolls off into the toilet! Ah-Ma-Zing! Once the solids are disposed of, the diaper goes straight into the diaper pail. If its just a pee diaper, it goes straight into the diaper pail – no rinsing required.
If your baby is breastfed or formula fed, you can simply throw everything in the diaper pail. Yes! EVERYTHING! No rinsing required! Breastfed or formula fed poops are water soluble, so it all comes out in the wash. I know its hard to believe, but trust me!
On laundry day, I remove the washable diaper pail liner and take the whole bag (which includes diaper inserts, covers, liners and wipes) to the washing machine. The entire contents of the diaper pail liner bag gets dumped into the washing machine. Then I turn the liner inside out and throw it in there too.
I run this through one cycle of “Rinse & Spin” with the settings on cold water and small load. When this cycle is complete, I add ½ cap of Calgon water softener and ½ scoop of Original Tide. I run a cycle of “Heavy Wash” with the settings on hot water and small load. And that’s it!
Some people suggest adding a final cycle of Rinse & Spin in order to make sure there is no detergent left on the diapers (which could lead to detergent buildup and cause diapers to repel, lose their absorbency and require stripping). I typically don’t run our cloth diapers through this final rinse & spin because I don’t find there is any detergent remaining on the laundry and in 12 months of cloth diapering, haven’t experienced any issues with detergent buildup.
Line Dry Your Cloth Diapers
We also line dry our cloth diapers. Fun fact – we actually don’t own a clothes dryer, by choice! We hang all of our laundry on the clothes line to let the glorious sun do its trick. I could write a whole different post on line drying, because its hands down the best!
But sticking to the topic of cloth diapers, skipping the dryer will make sure your cloth diapers last a long time. Line drying helps save the cloth diaper fibers, the elastics and the PUL lining of whatever diaper type you choose to use (AIO, pocket, covers). The heat of a clothes dryer wreaks havoc on cloth diapers! Even if you don’t have a clothes line, you can use a drying rack outside. You can use a drying rack inside, in a garage, hang a clothes line in the garage, hang one of these nifty gadgets on the shower rod. Anything but the clothes dryer please!!
An added benefit of line drying in the sun, is stain removal. I remember the first time I grabbed clean diapers out of the wash, I thought all of our diapers were ruined! They were all stained from good ole breastfed poops and I was devastated. I questioned if they were actually clean or if I had done something wrong. But they smelt good and I just went with it. I figured, oh well, they are just diapers. They are made to get pooped on, right!?
I was absolutely amazed when I took them down from the clothes line a few hours later. There were absolutely no stains!
Every single diaper was bright white and looked brand new! I continued to be amazed every single time I washed cloth diapers, because of the stark difference from out of the wash to off of the clothes line. This is all thanks to the powerful SUN!! I find that the sun works wonders on any baby stains. And of course, they smell great from being in the fresh air and it didn’t cost us anything! The sun’s energy is…FREE!!
Added Benefits of Having a Clothes Line
I can name a few more benefits from hanging cloth diapers outside on the line. It requires a trip outside to hang them up and a second trip outside to take them down. Hello exercise!
Its also a great opportunity to take your baby outside. Bundle them up if its cold and strip them down if its hot! Babies love being outside and benefit greatly from the fresh air.
Our little one has always loved these trips in the stroller or baby carrier to the clothes line. Now that he’s a little older and walking, he toddles around and helps me take all the laundry out of the basket. This is one of his favorite activities right now!!
Yes, sometimes it makes a mess as he spreads the freshly cleaned diapers all over the ground, but it’s an activity and a learning opportunity. He will sometimes hand the diapers to me, learning about reciprocal interactions as I say “Thank You.” He also learns about in/out and wet/dry. And of course he learns about how the pine straw, bark and grass taste while we are out there too.
As a pediatric occupational therapist, I am always looking for real life activities and opportunities to develop those motor skills. It is amazing how easily this can be incorporated into something as simple as your cloth diaper wash routine.
So there you have it! This is how we wash cloth diapers in hard water. Leave a comment if you found this helpful or share your own cloth diaper wash experience to help the cloth diaper community.
