Sweet Jesus, these nappies are minging!

[BabCNesbitt]

We've been using a selection of reusable nappies for DD (5 weeks) - all going well until last weekend, when they've started absolutely stinking the flat out when they've been drying. (We have an old hot air blowing central heating system, and keep the drying rack in front of one of the outlets.)

At first we put the used nappies into a dry pail, then just chucked everything, wraps, nappies and all, into the machine, washing them at 60 with no pre-wash, no fabric conditioner, etc etc. Apparently not doing a pre-wash was a rookie mistake, so we've now been rinsing them on 30 before doing a wash at 60, with vinegar in the final rinse. No difference - they still smell when they come out of the machine, the flat is still reeking like a primary school toilet, and I'm tempted to say 'balls to this' and just switch to disposables. Any other suggestions as to what we're doing wrong or what else we can do to save the nappies/our nostrils? Thanks!

How much powder are you using? Did you buy them new or preloved?

It sounds you've sort of set the smell in when you washed them at 60 and now the nappies could do with a stripping. I found the quickest way to do this was with a dishwasher tablet (it works with pul nappies and the microfibre inserts). You wash the nappies as usual then do another wash with the tablet in the drum and then do two rinses. Then you stick the nappies outside (do you have somewhere where you could do this?) for a good long while. Result non stinky nappies.

The other method is to do a load with a full amount of powder and then rinse rinse rinse until you can't see any bubbles in the machine.

What nappies are you using?

we always do a cold rinse before a wash cycle - that will be more efective than a 30 prewash

i agree with trying a strip wash

if you had access to an outdoor line, another fairly effective thing to do is leave them hanging out for a week whatever the weather, then get them in and wash them again (discovered this by accident with some stinky preloved ones)

Tribble - we're using Faith in Nature laundry liquid, which is meant to be low lathering, usually about a tablespoon or two of the liquid. (We've also been adding some nappy sanitizer this week.) We've got rather a selection - Totsbots Bamboozles and Easyfits, a few Onelife and Motherease, a Wonderoo, a Blueberry Minki, all second hand from eBay, and a few new Bumbles. No outside space, alas! Would the dishwasher tablet trick work with cotton and bamboo nappies, too?

Queen - impressed at forgetting nappies for a week!

It probably would, I would take your minki nappies out of the mix (I've never done my easyfits (don't know why, I was slightly paranoid about the print)and blueberries with this method, although others swear by it). You can still do the inserts though and the fitteds and outers that are just PUL. To be honest it's probably the inserts that are causing the stink.

With your fitteds you can get away with soaking them in your nappy bucket in some nappy sanitizer overnight. But DO NOT do this with your PUL outers.

Actually how about this, take your fitteds and inserts and pop them in the nappy bucket to soak overnight in some nappy sanitizer and then sticking them in the machine with a dishwasher tablet with your outers and then rinse until you're sick of rinsing them and then rinse them once more.

Can you stick them by an open window in a closed room so that the fresh air can get to them, it really does do wonders to nappies. Or stick them over a window ledge? I have just moved out of a first floor flat and I use to do that to mine occasionally.

heres a link to cloth nappy tree and a thread about stripping cloth nappies.

Agree, strip them then always do a cold rinse before you wash.

This is a really stupid question, but what's PUL? And by fitted, do you mean the Motherease, Bumbles etc? We've generally chucked everything in the machine together, which is probably a complete mistake...

Will try the open window trick in the spare room soon, but inlaws visiting tomorrow, so don't want to inflict the smell on them. They're nice inlaws.

Bab PUL is the waterproof fabric that your wraps are made of, and yes the fitteds are your motherease and bumbles. Actually I chucked everything in the machine, makes no difference to our stash and mine is a larrrrrggggeee varied stash.

We had the same problem living in a rather small flat. Then we switched to using Bold 2-in-1 and the nappies don't stink anymore! :)
Bear in mind, our nappies are on their second child (Tots Bots FlexiTots - great! IMHO), so they've been through their share of pees and poos and 100s of wash cycles.... even doing a rinse with vinegar and pre-washing with soda didn't help as much as switching to bio powder (the scent is helpful too).
Another thing that really made a difference was a larger washing machine (we moved house and now have a larger machine). So maybe doing the nappies in smaller loads... just something to consider.