We've been using our pockets heavily for 4 months or so now and they don't stink, per se, they just smell a little funky when they're all in the laundry room hanging to dry. I know BumGenius says bleach is ok - how did you use it? did it bleach the colors out too?? I've tried hot water rinses and GSE and sunning and they're still musty.
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Is the smell the pockets/shells, the inserts, or both?
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@pelikila: I think it is a little of both. Our water here is so hard, we just refilled the water softener with salt (after a.. communication error between DH and I it had been empty since january I think). They don't seem to be repelling, and don't smell like ammonia.
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I have AIOs so I don't know if it would be different, but I start load, with soap (I use Charlie's), and pour in between 1/4-1/2 cup of bleach after about 5 minutes (after the basin is full and it's churned for a minute or two) and let the load go through like normal. I've never had any color damage.
ETA: I also do an extra rinse.
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I have used bleach before. When I did it I did a rinse spin, then a rinse no spin to make sure everything was saturated with water first, then added a 1/4 cup of bleach into my hot wash cycle, I did an extra rinse (over and above my normal 2 rinses) afterwards. It didn't bleach any of my pockets (fuzzibunz, AMP, WAHM) but it did lighten a couple of my WAHM fitteds (not enough to bug me).
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1/3c instead of detergent. I rinse until the bleach smell is gone. It hasn't affected the colors at all.
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@Weagle: @MsMini: @FutureMrsMcK: thanks ladies!! I was all set to try last night and DH said "but won't that make them all white?" and I needed some reassurance that I wasn't nuts!
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@scg00387: Have you tried an overnight soak, especially now that your water softener is back in action? Maybe with some Funk Rock? I've only used bleach when I striped my pockets and then I'd use a 1/4 cup for a 1/2 full regular sized bathtub. If you do use any bleach, start sparingly and do several rinses afterward to make sure it all gets rinsed out.
ETA: it can degrade the elastic so be mindful of that. I never had it wash out the colors on my shells but it will fade fitteds.
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I literally just got off the phone with BG customer service b/c of smell issues. She suggested putting dawn detergent directly on the diapers for smell and that bleach is really for disinfecting.
PSA: Apparently my Earth Mama Bottom Balm may have ruined my entire stash of cloth diapers. We haven't been using a liner in between because I was under the assumption that with that ointment, we didn't need to. Stupid stupid me.
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@Tidybee: Bear in mind that with Dawn you need to keep rinsing them until the water isn't soapy anymore. I had a big ouch with using Boudreax's (I know, I know, I totally had a brain fart) and it took me like 6 or 7 cycles to get it all out.
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We do the bleach addition about every month or so. We use the Flip system so the inserts and covers are almost identical to the BG's. DH does cold wash (with detergent)/rinse, hot wash (with detergent and bleach)/rinse, extra rinse x2.
Ours didn't smell when dry either, but if she wet her diaper I would think she pooped when she didn't.And right now we're using the Charlie's soap but I am about to switch to Tide powder detergent at the advice of the CD group I belong to on FB. All of them (no matter the brand of diaper they use) swear by it and say it helps with lingering smells.
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@Tidybee: That is a cloth safe ointment and I used it without issue. What is happening for you?
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@pelikila: About 4 months into using 4.0s, they developed a really strong smell and began leaking. They smelled right out of the washer and as they dried on the drying rack, they would smell up the whole room. I stripped several times for smell and leak with no improvement so totally fed up, I contacted BG Customer Service who said if I didn't use that ointment with a liner, I most likely ruined my whole stash. I'm kind of devastated.
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@Tidybee: Have you hand stripped? Like scrubbed each diaper by hand with some blue Dawn and a touch of bleach? Also, another consideration is to use some diluted Simple Green to try to cut through the "oil". My local cloth diaper store recommends that for when people use a non-cloth safe cream as it has worked for them. I can give you specifics if you are interested. There is no way EMAB should have ruined your diapers.
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@pelikila: I haven't ever tried an overnight soak... going to go google! I hate bleach, it scares me so an alternative would be nice
@lindseykaye: I've heard good things about Tide too.. hmm!
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@scg00387: We use Tide, and it's awesome! I only have to run the bleach cycle that BG recommends every 2-3 months, if that!
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@Tidybee: I highly doubt that the EMAB balm is the culprit, most of the people in my local CD group (about 200) use EMAB and no one has had any issues with it. It is CD safe!
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@Weagle: @scg00387: I wish I had known Tide was safe before I shelled out the ash for Charlie's soap!
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@pelikila: I just spent the better part of my vacation/4th of July holiday hand scrubbing my entire stash with dawn, washing/rinsing and drying in the sun. The first day they smelled great! It's now 3 days later (but DD has been in disposables as we were traveling) and they stink again. It's like the smell gets worse as time goes on but they're not being used.
@MsMini: I wrote to the company and they too said that shouldn't be the problem. I plan on calling Cotton Babies again on Monday but the rep there was pretty certain it was the balm and told me I ruined them so she wasn't offering any other suggestions. -
@Tidybee: Are they still leaking too or just the smell now? If they are still leaking, is the insert absorbing at all or is it the shell that is repelling? What kind of soap are you using and what is your wash routine? If you are still getting smell after hand stripping you probably aren't getting the soap totally out. I had to try quite a few detergents and variations on my wash routine before I finally got it right and it made me want to all but rip my hair out so I understand how frustrated you probably are right now.
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Rockin Green makes something called "funk rock" that works really well in conjunction with stripping. I use EMAB balm and no liners and we haven't had issues.
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In my experience, bleach didn't help our cause, stripping them did (when smell was the issue).
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Mr. T thinks I'm strange because I am anti-bleach. I won't have it in the house. He's tried to sneak in contraband a few times but has always been caught.
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