Washing in cold water? Is this madness?!!

[sasha]

I've been trying to find out if this would be OK. Part of me thinks: but they won't be clean! but from what I've managed to find online, there's a lot of people who wash in cold only, and have no problems at all. We use mainly Happy Heinys pockets, and Cushie Tushies at the moment. Plus the wipes are cloth - a combination of old terry flats and old flannelette sheets, cut up.

I dry them in the sun when it's sunny - we don't have a dryer, so when it's raining they go undercover, but still outside. Any thoughts? I wash almost everyday, so the nappies aren't sitting in a bucket for days on end.

[LimeSlice]

I wash in cold. Always have - no probs

If I do a strip wash it is hot all the way, but normally, cold totaly - no probs.
Sun out any stains, otherwise they go in the dryer most


HTH

[Artechim]

I always wash in cold, no problems.

[Nai]

I only ever wash in cold - I have used MCN's for almost 4 years now and have never had any problems.

[MrsB26]

cold wash here too, and all is good

[~Kim~]

same here - cold with all my washing not just nappies.

[Indadhanu]

I only wash in cold. Full stop. Nappies, clothes, towels, sheets etc... all cold. No stains here, the sun bleaches them out.

[sasha]

Ok, well that's proof enough for me! They're on a cold wash as I type!

Now my only other concern is drying when it rains - the sun is fantastic at bleaching stains and I know it's doing a good job of killing germs... but what about drying them undercover when it's raining? We don't have a dryer and in all the info I've read, the nappies are dried in dryers in winter. Do you think I should wash them in hot if they won't be dried in the sun? (not really an issue for the next 6 months or so, I imagine, but I like to be prepared!)

[Megan]

Cold wash for everything here too including nappies. No problems at all.

[*charmalea*]

over time the sun will bleach out all the stains , panadol stains take a bit longer to come out but eventually they will .

or if it its bugging you that much , spot treat the stain with a paste of detergent , i use eco store and it works well .

[nicjay]

I always wash in cold, would only do a hot wash if we had a gastro bug. I also dry undercover when raining and yep sometimes the stains don't come right out when I do this, but I find that they do come out when I next wash. I use them with a little staining anyway because they are still clean KWIM?

[Indadhanu]

I just dry under cover on a clothes airer inside in the rain, I don't use a dryer for my nappies including in winter, except if I think they could use a bit of softening, and even then its only 5-10 minutes once they're dry, but that's a rare occassion... haven't done it in months...

Oh, yeah gastro is definitely a hot wash, but thats it.

[*EJ*]

I've always washed in cold also, pre-rinse, then a heavy or light wash (varies as to the state of the nappies).

Over the cooler months our dryer got a bit of a work out but i'm loving this warmer weather, some nappies can dry within a number of hours

[sasha]

Cheers for that - it's the 'germs' rather than the stains that were bothering me really (I'm not really a pristine-white kind of gal ).

I'd definitely wash on hot if we had any bugs going around, as well.

[LimeSlice]

get yourself some tea tree oil or lavender oil and put a few drops in the rinse cycle or your mix it with water in your fabric softener dispenser in the washer, will kill everything

[berrme]

I have always used cold washes for my nappies. I have nearly managed 3 years of cloth nappy use without a dryer too. Of course we have had drought conditions, I would love enough rain to make a dryer necessary. Drying them undercover when it rains is fine.

Poo is just the left over food your body couldn't use. Unless bubs is sick there really isn't a major issue with germs. Even then I use cold water but put some sort of anti bacterial in the wash. As LimeSlice said, tee tree oil is good.

[Cassius2]

we wash in cold! (had a twin tub up until a month ago too LOL!).

our MCN clean up well, and if there are any marks we found they went when hung in the sun.

[sasha]

Thanks for all the responses! Good to know cold is OK even when the sun isn't shining