Soapnuts - are they any good on reusable nappies?

[bewilderbeast]

Has anybody got any experiences of using soapnuts with reusables? I was thinking of combining them with dolly washer balls as our current non-bio seems to make clothes and nappies a bit stiff and there are lots of washing powders that I am very allergic to so don't really want to use them on DS if I can help it. I have both cotton and bamboo nappies. Do they get nappies as clean as washing powder. I'd quite like to use them for their environmental benefits as well.

depends..... how manky do your nappies get? i mean if you use paper liners and flush the poo, or it's quite solid and most of it comes off theyré fine... add a bit of ecover bleach to keep em white and they work quite well... much softer than non-bio.

unfortunately if you have 2 babies that produce sludge that gets into every nook and cranny and coats the entire nappy like i do then no, unfortunately i've had to switch back to bio-d non-bio for the nappy wash.

ds has fairly nuclear waste like poo, I do use paper liners but he spreads his toxic dumps beyond the boundaries and he does manage to stain them a bit. I was thinking that the addition of dolly washer balls might help to beat the gunge out of them.

don't get me wrong... if you do a rince wash first, then wash on 60deg with the soapnuts and ecover they get clean.... i just found there was still a mild 'aroma' about them.

you can put essential oil in the conditioner drwer which solves that but i found it was making the nappies with inbuilt fleece liners repel pee with disasterous consequences so had to stop doing it and i couldn't get past them not smelling clean iykwim.

give it a try and see how it works for you.... my machine is pretty crap so probably doesn't help... i found at my parents house with a decent machine they worked much better

I have been using eco-balls on a 60 degrees, quick wash, washing around 8 or nine nappies at a time, plus some wipes and I find the ecoballs make the coloured nappies stay nice longer, but the white nappies greyer.
I did a a wash the other day with the ecoball and a tiny bit of non-bio and the white nappies were really lifted.
Re the 'clean' smell, it might not be the cloth you are smelling, but the washing powder. I read that washing powder is designed to stay in the clothes and exude the so-called 'fresh' smell, which is actually synthetic fragrances. So it might not be so great to have that smell, as it could indicate there is a powder residue.
Lets face it, it's not going to smell 'fresh' for long once it's back on the baby.
Bicarbonate of soda in the pre-rinse should eliminate strong smells.
If you still find there is a smell, it could be you have too many nappies in the load to get clean, try washing smaller numbers and see if the smell goes.
Another tip I was given was to add water before washing, via the powder drawer, as many eco-friendly machines don't use that much water. A couple of pint glasses seems to help.
Hope that helps.

maisie... when i said aroma it was a polite way of saying they still smelt of poo definitely not the clean smell of cloth!

I use white vinegar in the fabric conditioner compartment - it gets rid of smells and keeps everything soft (also gets rid of limescale in the machine) - do a rinse cycle with vinegar before washing too, if the nappies are really bad. However, I find the Eco detergent available from Spirit of Nature gets things cleaner than soapnuts.

Pink Tulips