i know this has been done before but smelly nappies after drying

[vnmum]

i am using a mixture of cotton tots bots, bamboozles and fluffles and all of them are getting a stale urine smell after a few uses. this mainly seems to be if they are tumble dried but with the crap weather it would take forever for my bamboozles to air dry and my cotton ones go stiff and crispy if not tumbled.

i use little powder, nappy buddies in wash and white vinegar in conditioner drawer. i usually wash on 40. i dry pail.

i washed without powder at 60 yesterday and put some in the dryer and some to air dry. the ones nin the drier still had a whiff and the air dried ones werent as bad but i put them in drier when they were nearly dry for 20 mins to soften them and the smell got stronger.

ive just bought some ariel liquid to use as i think it may rinse out better to try and avoid residue but is there anything else i can do?

i was going to get a load of bamboozles or bambinex to use for DC2, due in dec, and DS at the same time but if im going to get these smells after tumbling then its putting me off. im going to need to tumble dry with having a newborn in winter and going ff what DS was like it will be BF poo every 2 hours or so so im going to need a quick turn around.

any advice so i can carry on using cloth happily and not resort to disposables for my little one?

The liquid does rinse out better.

Do a cold prewash cycle before the main wash - it neutralises the urine

Try using Napisan with the washing powder. I had same problem with DD's nappies and nearly went off washables altogether. Tesco stock it in their baby section near Milton products. It is bliss!!

Napisan kills the elastic with prolonged use though. We do a cold prewash with ours and air dry and they don't smell at all. Oh, I also do a 60 degree wash all the time.

I never have a stinky problem, and don't use napisan. Its got bleach and other nasties in it.

The other thing is - how full is your machine? If its crammed full they won't circulate and wash properly.

I usually do a rinse and spin with white vinegar before the wash

My nappies are not coming out as fresh as they used to since I moved and started using a different washing machine! It has helped putting fewer nappies in, cold rinse first than an extra rince at the end. Also get more stains now might be worth cleaning your machine, run it empty at highest temp and clean all round the door/ filters etc. just a thought

add some white vinegar in the final rinse with a few drops of a nice smelling essential oil- i use lavender, i don't have a problem anymore and i use eco-balls at 40 degrees

I have found this with the bamboo nappies I'm using. And not with my others???

thanks everyone. i already use vinegar in my rinse so i'll start doing a rinse before my main wash, im not sure if the pre wash on my machine is cold or not. the machine is generally only half full as its a large load machine so they should be circulating properly. i will try all suggestions and see how i get on.

cold rinse before washing, wash as normal. if still whiffy wash at 60 with no detergent. If still smelly after that i find an overnight soak strips out any smells (have used php, boots nappy soak and napisan-all worked ok but don't put any coloured nappies in the napisan). That's a last resort though really cos it's not good for the nappies to be soaked in chemicals!
Also i wouldn't worry too much about needing to tumble in winter- I was worried about this too (also due in dec and no longer have dryer) but then remembered that my nappies actually hung out far more frequently in winter than they have so far this summer cos it didn't rain much in winter! Also with the heating on they finish off quite quickly on an airer.