What's the lifespan on a prefold?

[Desert Rose]

The newborn/small prefolds I am using on dd are new. They are nice and fluffy and thick. However, I broke out ds's old pf's and no matter how many times I wash them, they are pretty limp and almost flat. Not anywhere as quilted as I remember them being. They were used for about a year to a year and a half, approximately 2 years ago. They were washed in hard water. Is it appropriate that they should be in this condition, or is there something I can do? I really don't want to buy new ones, but I may have to. :sigh What do you think?

[2sunshines]

What kind of prefolds are they? I'm just wondering if they are possibly another brand that just doesn't fluff up as nicely like gerber or something... :think

Prefolds have a super long life span. You should literally be able to use them until they start falling apart. Some of my prefolds i purchased with my first 6 years ago and they are still in excellent condition.

It could be the hard water... Are you line drying them or using the dryer? Can you wash in hot with some added calgon water softener and then dry on hot and see if it makes a difference?

[The Tickle Momster]

Some might depend on size. :shrug I bought small, regular and toddler sizes 6 years ago for dd1. The smalls and regulars are in fine shape, but my toddler ones are starting to fall apart. :shrug It is very strange, since those are the ones I've used the least.

[Lady TS]

In our hard water, before we got our good softener, I'd give them a year, year and a half until they started falling apart in shreds.

Drying them in the dryer helped immensely to fluff them up. I gave up hanging them last year for the most part.

And yeah, I agree that the toddler ones fall apart way before the infant ones do. Not sure why that is. The toddler ones seem to be a looser weave, so maybe that's it? :shrug Or maybe because it's more fabric with less support and it's more prone to wear?

[Desert Rose]

These are regulars...premium with the blue stitching form Green Mountain diapers. I wash in hot and dry in the dryer (except for occassional sunning). I bet the hard water ruined them. I am using calgon now on dd's supply, but did not with ds's. I wonder if they can be saved or if it is too late?

[Iarwain]

I'd never thought of hard vs. soft water as affecting the lifespan before but that makes sense. I've never seen the kind of lifespan in any diaper that I see other people talking about. We have well water which is pretty hard, and even when we lived in town the city water here is also on the hard side. I usually get about 2 years of continuous use out of prefolds before they start to fall apart. Strangely the cheaper Gerber DSQs have held up longer than the thicker, "better" ones I bought from that popular seller on ebay. I have no idea why.

[musicmama]

My prefolds from Little Lions have NEVER fluffed up. They're super flat and scratchy. :/

I have some GMD's I bought from a couple of people but they stink SO BAD and I can't get the smell out. The ammonia smell was so bad yesterday morning it was burning my eyes. I've stripped them every way possible. Can they sometimes just not ever get clean or something? Matt's telling me to either buy new ones or use sposies at night :yuck