I did it!! I am so freaking excited!!
Do you remember when I was complaining about how disappointed I was that the Rockin’ Green Hard Rock and Funk Rock failed to cure my ammonia? If not, click the link – you can read stories of others who were disappointed as well. I didn’t have ammonia smell until Lizzie hit closer to 2 years old, then I got rid of it, and it came back when David turned 22 months old. Something about that toddler pee is just super duper laden with ammonia and if you don’t clean your diapers well enough they will stink – especially the overnight diapers.
Am I right?
Well, to cure the ammonia problem I tried Hard Rock and Funk Rock. It didn’t work. I emailed Kim the creator of Rockin Green and followed her directions. Read that post for all I did and it still didn’t work.
So I ordered Eco Sprouts since supposedly it works better than Rockin’ Green. First I stripped with Dawn detergent, then rinsed a bunch of times and then I soaked all night in Eco Sprouts and then washed 3 more times in Eco Sprouts.
The result: Ammonia smell was mostly dead. (a la Princess Bride). I wasn’t knocked down by the pungent odor in the morning, but a quick sniff revealed a slight smell of ammonia. Their website says to do a full soak all night in ES detergent when you first get it. I might have ruined that process by stripping with Dawn before soaking, but I can’t imagine how that would do it. And since my water is so hard I used 1 more tablespoon than the package says I should.
Rockin’ Green – FAIL
EcoSprouts – FAIL
Then I bought Crunchy Clean, the hard water version {WIN!!}. I also purchased a few additives, since my water is hard.
Wait – what is hard water? How can I tell if I have hard water? And why does hard water affect cloth diaper cleaning?
Hardwater.org.uk defines hard water as:
Water described as “hard” is high in dissolved minerals, specifically calcium and magnesium. Hard water is not a health risk, but a nuisance because of mineral buildup on fixtures and poor soap and/or detergent performance.
In a nutshell, hard water has so many minerals in it, the soap in the laundry is working hard to fight the minerals that it doesn’t even clean the pee/poop effectively. You can tell if you have hard water by looking at your faucets and soap sudsing capabilities. If your faucets have white crusty residue, and/or if it takes quite a bit of soap to make suds then you have hard water.
So that was my problem – my hard water was not cleaning my toddler boy’s pee very well.
My solution!
I washed David’s night time diapers in this exact way and he woke up without even a hint of ammonia!
One regular cycle with 1/4 cup Borax only
One heavy cycle with extra rinse with a sprinkle of Borax, 3-4 drops Tea Tree Oil, and 3 large Tablespoons of Crunchy Clean hard rock version.
********************
That’s it! I had to add Borax and Tea Tree Oil with the Crunchy Clean, that is all!
I am so happy to have this problem resolved and I hope my solution helps you too!
We’d been using Tide (because rockin green didn’t work for us at all either, not even the hard rock OR the hard rock 2nd version)…I tried the hr2 and it made my diapers stink again, even though they had been fine. Bum genius/cotton babies recommends a little bit of bleach every once in a while in with the diapers. So I tried that. We’ll see how it works. At only 1/day it’s hard to tell, and I only washed 3 of the 7 I have out, so we’ll see how it goes by next week.
could you not add the borax and tea tree oil with the rockin green or eco nuts too? were you using the hard rock version of rockin green. I have hard water too and amonia pops up about once a month but ‘rockin the soak’ with rockin green seems to help. I may have to try the borax and tea tree oil though if it gets bad. I also boil my inserts every so often and its amazing how much soap build up comes out.
i’m glad you found a solution though! I think i will try the tea tree oil. I’m going to rewash all Brighton’s diapers before the baby comes so that they are nice a fresh for her. Brighton’s potty trained now so I don’t use them right now.
I tried so many things with that rockin green hard rock version and the funk rock – tried the borax and tea tree oil, tried dawn dish soap then the rockin green…..Rockin Green just did not work no matter what I tried and I spent 2 full days doing nothing but washing and stripping diapers with it. (I had to use sposies in the mean time) I was so disappointed but not every soap works with every water supply.
I have noticed that I don’t get ammonia until my kids get near toddler age, so you should be free from ammonia for another 1.5 at least – hooray for only one in diapers! That will be so awesome for you!
Funny enough it wasn’t my inserts that smelled like ammonia, it was my bamboo overnight diapers. I washed on super hot tons of times and never saw any suds, so my problem was not soap build up, my problem was the soap wasn’t cleaning the pee out it was only washing away the minerals from my hard water.
I agree with Annie, not every detergent or system works for every person. I have a friend who lives about 25 minutes from me who has to use a total different detergent for her diapers.
YAY I’m so glad that the CC and the TTO worked for you too!! I have never thought to add extra borax to the wash though.
I’m still kind of surprised it takes you that much CC hard water formula to get your diapers clean. Maybe you can slowly back off to find what works for you now they are clean? I use 2 TB for a really full load or really dirty (aka, left them 3 days instead of 2 in the pail…) diapers. Otherwise, 1 TB always does it for me plus adding the TTO.
My mother in law surprised me with the Borax and on the box it says it is a natural water softener so I added some to soften my water. It is so much cheaper than Calgon, and works so well.
I will try and back off – I don’t want to use it all up too quickly and really don’t want buildup.
Oh and the scents, YUMMY!! I have pink sugar. so yummy!
Borax is so NOT SAFE though!!!!!! Especially if you are pregnant, and considering you should wear gloves when you use it I do not feel it is safe at ALL for any laundry, especially clth diapers. There are tons of articles out there on Borax, here is one: http://www.magicalchildhood.com/articles/borax.htm
It is scary to me that so many Cloth Diaper detergents use Borax!
I rinse each diaper super well before putting it in the diaper pail, then do a HOT rinse cycle with a squirt of Bac Out. Then I wash HOT in Clean B, followed by 3 warm rinses (actually just a warm/warm extra long cycle with no water in my FL) and do not have any ammonia issues. I do not have hard water though thanks to my water softener.
oh wow, thank you for sharing this link! I have tried putting bac out on every single cloth diaper and then squirting some in the machine and I still had ammonia stink, so that is not a good solution for my hard water.
After reading that article I will make sure and keep the Borax up high and out of the reach of my kids and I will not be letting my kids help put the soap in the machine. But it washes and rinses completely, so I don’t think I will stop putting it into my wash. The other alternative is Arm and Hammer Super Washing soda – another water softener. Calgon is pricier but works great too. Oxiclean didn’t work super well so I stopped using it as an additive 🙂
Yeah, I have heard of BacOut being pretty much useless if you have hard water.
I have been wanting to try Crunchy Clean, because while my wash system works, it is still not “perfect” so I am optimistic since you love it!
Have you ever heard of anyone using a stain/odor lifter such as Clorox 2 on diapers? I use it on our our regular laundry, and always want to try it on diapers, but get too scared!!
I have not heard of people using Clorox2. I will definitely research it though. I want to know more about it as well!
Crunchy Clean has so many yummy scents, I think you will love them 🙂
I have always been a fan of Borax. I used it to get out formula stains eons ago.
Yay for Crunchy Clean! We, fortunately, have not had ammonia issues, but we have used CC exclusively for the past year and a half after Rockin’ Green gave Violet a rash. Absolutely love it!
I’m a big fan of Tea Tree oil for all manner of uses since it is antiseptic, antibacterial, antifungal, and antiviral.
I just started using Crunchy Clean and it is my fav detergent so far (I have also tried Rockin Green, Lulu’s, and Clean B). All my clothes seem cleaner! I was having barnyard stinkies problems in my nighttime diapers and Crunchy Clean along with a prewash with Bac Out seems to have solved the problem!
I think using a little extra detergent, even though I have a front loader, has also helped. I also put in a couple wet towels to trick my front loader into using more water. It sounds complicated, but now that I’m used to it, it’s easy!
Funk Rock didn’t work? I just got a bag to try…ugh. I have the toxic toddler pee too!
It didn’t work with my water…..and I tried soooo many things that Kim told me to – check out my previous post that I linked to, I wrote out exactly all the washes and rinses and soaks she had me do and none of it worked.
I blame my hard well water. Kim blames my usage of Tide. But I found something that worked and I am so glad!
Yay! So glad for you… <3 the picture of Lucy on your blog header!
I have to COMPLETELY DISAGREE with your review. I do not think that you gave Eco Sprout a fair chance at all. Simply to wash once in Eco Sprout might not remove all the ammonia smell. You stated that it “mostly” removed the ammonia. Did you follow the directions? The directions on their website clearly states to do a first time users soak. This is HIGHLY recommended, and several reviews also stated that they had not done the soak and once they did, the problem was solved! Eco Sprout does have natural water softeners in it (ie: borax). Also, if you have very hard water, you are required to use more detergent, so maybe you just did not use enough.
I own a cloth diaper store and we sell a TON of Eco Sprout and my customers love love love it. We also sell RNG and a lot of my customers love that too. However, I get more thank you’s from customers battling ammonia after switching over to ES. I think you should have consulted ES, gone on the website, and followed the directions before posting a FAIL. That was unfair to the company and to those looking for a good ammonia remover.
My diapers are 100% ammonia and all stink free. Even AFTER 3 days in the diaper pail. I wish you would have given them a better chance.
Thank you for sharing. I failed to mention that I DID soak all night in Eco Sprouts, then I stripped with Dawn, then washed again 3 times with Eco Sprouts. (I’m off to remedy that big oversight and write that in) I purchased a bag and continued using it on my cloth diapers. It was just that the night time ones still had a slight smell of ammonia. Perhaps I did not use enough, that might be. I used one more table spoon than was written on the bag’s directions but I could have tried doubling the amount required.
I just happened to find something that works – Crunchy Clean. Not every detergent will work for everyone. I spoke with a cloth diaper store owner in Nebraska since I live in Kansas and they recommended Eco Sprouts for my problem saying their customers loved it too. I am not writing this post to tell people NOT to buy Eco Sprouts. Just saying what worked for me.
As for contacting Eco Sprouts – I had already gone through contacting Rockin Green and spending 2 days washing and stripping diapers with her different methods, I just wanted to find something that would work without having to contact the company and go through another full day of washing and stripping after I already did what was on their website. The Crunchy Clean worked like that, thankfully.
What is your wash routine now? I’m having issues with my covers and Thirsties pockets smelling like poop. I use both tide and calogon. It works for my prefolds and flats but not on my covers or other diaper shells. Seems like the only way I can get rid of it is if I do my pre-wash, then a cold bleach soak and then wash again in tide and calogon then let the sun do the rest. I hate having to do this every time I wash even though I have stripped my diapers numerous times. P.S. I’m from Kansas too!
Hi Terryn ,
The tough thing about living in Kansas is that you don’t have year-round sunshine. That was my biggest frustration with washing cloth diapers. Sun drying does SO MUCH good. Your cycle sounds like what I ended up doing too, except instead of a prewash and then a soak, I just did a prewash with borax then One heavy cycle with extra rinse with a sprinkle of Borax, 3-4 drops Tea Tree Oil, and 3 large Tablespoons of Crunchy Clean hard rock version. Try the crunchy clean, I bet you have a fantastic experience. Water in Kansas is so hard, thanks to the limestone.