Can't work out how to wash my nappies :-/

[BreeVDKamp]

Well, DS' nappies!!

I thought you were meant to do a cold rinse, no detergent, then a normal wash at 40 or 60.

If I select pre-wash, that is part of a full wash and takes a couple of hours. If I select rinse, that is part of a full wash an added on at the end of the normal wash bit. There doesnt seem to be be a way to only do a rinse on my machine :-/ I have read the manual.

I've currently got a cold wash on with no detergent, to rinse, and when that's done (1.5hrs), will do a wash with detergent. Seems very uneconomical. I'm not a laundry whizz and need tips!!

In your position, I'd go for the prewash cycle, as the first bit will rinse out the nappies before they get a "proper" wash.

How old is your DS? Before weaning (and especially if bf)the poo is water soluble so the separate rinse cycle is probably not so important.

...or you could buy a new washing machine

We were "lucky" in that ours broke before having DC1, so we were able to choose one with a separate rinse/spin cycle - we do a rinse without the spin (8 mins) followed by a cottons wash at 40 degrees (about 2 hrs). We only wash at 60 degrees when doing a strip wash every few years months. If we didn't have the rinse cycle, I wouldn't do a while cold wash just to rinse out a bit of tiny-baby poo, though!

Thanks mack! This one is only 3 weeks old haha

DS is 11 weeks so yes I will do as you suggest then. But what about when he gets older and is weaned? And a prewash as part of a 40 cycle - will that set stains? When people say heat sets stains, I have no idea how hot is hot

I think there's a lot of cobblers talked about washing reuseable nappies TBH. I chuck mine in on 60C wash, normal bio powder and some soda crystals. Use less powder than you think you need, and I sometimes do an extra rinse at the end. Never had a major problem with staining - nothing a few hours on the washing line on a sunny day wouldn't shift. I am a bit religious about doing hot maintenance washes in my machine to cope with the odd bit of poo that makes its way in (DS is weaned).

I can't imagine my mother's generation spending hours agonising about non-bio vs bio powder, rinses etc....

Very sensible Punny! I guess I'll experiment and keep your advice in mind, I'm sure you're right about previous generations!

I put mine in a bucket with napisan to soak then add them to a normal wash at 30 degrees. Washing line really does help with stains too like pp said.

Is there a quick wash or similar setting on your machine? You could run that as an initial rinse cycle? I sometimes use this option if there are particularly rank nappies or if they have been in the bucket a while...

Do you have a gentle or hand wash cycle? I use this one as a pre-wash rinse on my machine as although it's a long cycle it uses a lot of water but not much energy (not heated up much, not too much movement) and I turn the spin off.

I do 60°c, one washing powder tablet instead of 2, and a tiny bit of napisan. No pre wash.