Stinky Microfiber- help!!!

[mipennsn]

Any diapers I have that uses microfiber soakers stink. Strong ammonia smell.

I am striping them with RLR right now and they are on water change #11. I hope whatever is causing the stink is gone.

I am just getting back into cloth after moving out of a house with horriblly hard water, to the point I had to go to all natural fibers an even then I had problems. I bearly used microfiber there.

If the RLR doesn't work any other suggestions? I'm tempted to go to all natural stuffers.

[mommylobster]

I'm not sure if this will work for diapers but if my microfiber cloths get stinky I boil them for 15-20 minutes. If they still stink you can do it again.

I think the reason microfiber gets stinky is because it holds on to bacteria so well (that is why it is so good for cleaning) but they can get stinky. I rinse my cloths in hot water (sometimes with soap) right after I use them. This prevents them from getting stinky :shrug

[Happygrl]

I'll second the boiling water. Its the only thing that truly kept the stink out of my microfiber. The first time I did it I had a LOT to strip since most of my stash were pocket AIOs with microfiber inserts. I had tried every other method of stripping and, in a latch ditch effort, decided to try the cheapest method. :giggle I filled every pan I had with water and brought them all to a boil. As soon as they were ready, I started the washing machine with hot water and then dumped each pan in, added soap and let it wash. I did that a couple times. And no more stink!! I've never had any stink issues since then. Every few weeks after that I'd add a pan or two of boiling water to a load for 'maintenance'. We've since moved and I haven't had any problems.

Be careful not to dump directly onto any PUL--look at the inside of my wet bag and you'll see why! :giggle If you have pocket diapers, I'd put the inserts in the wash, add all the water and THEN add the diaper parts (if you are going to strip them as well).

Rinsing right away can help, sometimes. It didn't for us--we tried rinsing right away and we were also daily washers at that point.

[mipennsn]

I have some AIO with microfiber. I was trying to figure out how to boil them. I like your method, since I was trying to figure out how to boils those. Those are the most frustrating ones. Dh doesn't like touching wet diapers so pockets and AIO's are very importent in my diaper stash. (He is a SAHD.)

[PDX Mommy]

I'm having the same problem. It's the reason we've been out of cloth since mid-December. :( I'd love to get back into cloth, but all of my diapers have ammonia build-up. I'll probably end up stripped and selling off all the pockets and then going to just natural fibers.

[Niphredil]

Our micro fiber smelled so bad with the hard water. When we moved it was noticeably different after just the first wash.

[mipennsn]

Microfiber is a known problem in my community amongst my friends. City water is somewhat ok, well is definitely not. There is a reason Dow Chemical started in this area, because of all the junk in the ground water.

[Chaos Coordinator]

when my microfiber got stinky, i replaced it all with hemp :shifty

[mommylobster]

when my microfiber got stinky, i replaced it all with hemp :shifty

I don't mean to derail so you can pm if you want but will you please tell me more about hemp :yes

[mipennsn]

I don't know much about hemp, but I know it is super absorbent. I hope I can salvage to AIO, without ripping them apart. I am thinking about making some for the baby so I will probably put hemp in those since I have a few yards of it.

[Chaos Coordinator]

I don't mean to derail so you can pm if you want but will you please tell me more about hemp :yes


we were using all pocket diapers at the time. i bought a bunch of joeybunz inserts from clothdiaperclearance.com :tu i've also picked up used ones on diaperswappers.com

they're good and absorbent and can be placed directly against baby's skin as a doubler as well (unlike microfiber which can't be against baby's skin)

they were great when H was smaller but at one point he had 2 tons of pee, peed every 10 min and peed a stream through our fitteds and prefolds. at that point i had to dig out some old microfiber inserts because IMO the microfiber wicks it up faster than the hemp does, which is important when your toddler pees a stream through his diapers lol

[2sunshines]

worst case scenario, before you give up, try washing them with a little bleach. I know a lot of people hate bleach, and it wouldn't be my first resort, but with microfiber, it usually resolves the problem. :yes

[ilikestrawberryjello]

worst case scenario, before you give up, try washing them with a little bleach. I know a lot of people hate bleach, and it wouldn't be my first resort, but with microfiber, it usually resolves the problem. :yes

Yup. That's what I do. A bleach load on hot then I wash again normally to get any risidiual bleach out. I boiled my inserts once and just ended up with a stinky house. :shrug

[mipennsn]

At our old house on the well I had to use bleach. I figured if I didn't put in a little bleach it was probably not much more than chlorine in city water.

Looks like I will have to boil then maybe bleach. One of the AIO I washed yesterday, about knocked my socks off tonight.

[aleigh]

I stripped mine with blue Dawn- that's what Cotton Babies recommends. It worked great. Now I do 3 washes when I wash:
1st on cold w/ a tiny bit of detergent & tea tree oil
2nd on hot w/ a tiny bit of detergent
3rd on warm

All 3 washes have an extra rinse. I haven't had a problem with stink since I stripped them & started doing that.