I love and adore my reusables but..............................................

[TrinityRhino]

my kitchen(where the washer is) seems to faintly smell of wee all the time and so does dd2

What am I doing wrong??
I have tots bots(nippa), fleece liners and wacky wraps.

I am dry pailing them.

I am washing them at 40 degrees

Should I be washing them at 60 degrees?
Is there something(i was thinking tea tree oil) I could add to the wash?
Is there something I could add to the bucket(tea tree again, I 've heard) but still be essentially dry pailing.

I am using non bio tablets for washing and no softener. I don't use softener because it aggravates the littluns excema.

What do you wonderfully experienced lot think??

i thought bicarb wasnt very good for nappies though?

I haven't heard that baking soda is bad for nappies - what does it do to them?? [interested face]
I have heard it helps with hard water deposits and is a natural deodouriser and softener - which seem like good things for nappies.
Personally, I don't really like it on nappies, because even with a small amount in a prewash, I can still feel the powder on the nappies after the wash.

i read somewhere that it attacks the fabric of the nappies.

Look! Look!
I found this article. It looks like baking soda is OK, but 'washing' soda is the one to watch. Not that I know what that is.
Is washing soda the same as soda crystal?

I dry-pail and shove the lot in a 60 degree wash. After a year my wraps were starting to get a bit smelly so I've started adding a glug of white vinegar to the fab.conditioner drawer.

They are blowing on the washing line at the moment so I'll go and have a sniff and see if it worked!

You have got a good tight lid on the bucket, TR?

i wash approx 9 bumbles at 60 in ecover liquid, they don't smell (although they did when mil did a short wash at 40), there's no build up of anything on them as far as i can tell, and there is no odour upon appearance of the first wee. they are wet-pailed and with nothing added to the bucket.

Am having a similar problem and am planning to wash the nappies with no detergent this weekend and them hang them on the washing line (even though it'll probably rain) to air! I usually tumble for a short while then finish on the radiator in my bedroom.

Run your mashine on a hot wash with nothing in (no laundry, no detergent etc) to get rid of any build up in the machine(you'll only need to do this once not every time you wash lol!). Put the nappies through on a rinse cycle then wash with extra rinse using half or quarter amount of detergent. If really bad i do a prewash with napisan too.

if you have a smell from the pail, try adding a couple of drops of tea tree oil/lavender oil to a peice of fleece (fleece liner possibly) in the nappy pail, neutralises the smell.

i dry pail and the lid on the bucket isnt particulary tight but i havnt had any smells so far!