TTMA Soft Water

[kmmd]

Just when I was getting happy with my wash routine, it all changes! We had really hard water (200+ppm) but we just got this whole new water system installed in our house, so now our water is soft. That is quite a change for diaper laundry! I am having some barnyard funk now, so I'm going to strip and then start fresh with the new water. 

I was using Nellies and I had a hard time getting them clean with it with hard water, should that be better with soft water? Or should I switch? I was going to switch to Tide after my tin of Nellies was gone, but I'm not sure about Tide in soft water either. I spent too much time focusing on hard water. 

Current wash routine is warm quick wash, long hot wash with about 1 scoop of Nellies (sometimes more depending on load size), and then cold rinse and spin. Should this still be okay?

Thanks ladies!

[abby]

If you are still wanting to switch to Tide, I would do that first. Then tweak things as needed. No point in working things out w/ Nellies to then having to adjust to the Tide later. Tide should be fine w/ soft water. You will probably find soft water much easier to wash in. Probably the only thing you will have to do different is add less detergent. Good luck. Let us know how it goes.

[mrslka]

Have you retested your water? My parents have a softener and the water isn't actually soft because of how hard their water is. I also have a softener and it puts my water in the soft zone, I use tide with an extra rinse on my main wash then a quick wash. I tried country save, nellies, and Charlie's, none of the work for me.

[kmmd]

Jan 17, 2015 10:34:07 GMT -5 abby said:

If you are still wanting to switch to Tide, I would do that first. Then tweak things as needed. No point in working things out w/ Nellies to then having to adjust to the Tide later. Tide should be fine w/ soft water. You will probably find soft water much easier to wash in. Probably the only thing you will have to do different is add less detergent. Good luck. Let us know how it goes.

That's a good point. I am fine with continuing to use Nellies if it will get the diapers clean, which should be easier with soft water. And I still have quite a bit of it left, so I kind of wanted to use the rest of it up. I was just thinking about switching to Tide with the hard water because I don't think the diapers were getting quite clean enough with the more natural detergents. 

[kmmd]

Jan 17, 2015 10:42:18 GMT -5 mrslka said:

Have you retested your water? My parents have a softener and the water isn't actually soft because of how hard their water is. I also have a softener and it puts my water in the soft zone, I use tide with an extra rinse on my main wash then a quick wash. I tried country save, nellies, and Charlie's, none of the work for me.

hmm that is interesting. Maybe I'll run another test and just see where the numbers fall. The one test we did was just colour based and that showed soft but like you said it might just be in the soft area. Maybe I should just switch to Tide, the more natural detergents just don't seem to get them as clean for a lot of people. 

[mrslka]

Jan 17, 2015 11:03:13 GMT -5 kmmd said:

Jan 17, 2015 10:42:18 GMT -5 mrslka said:

Have you retested your water? My parents have a softener and the water isn't actually soft because of how hard their water is. I also have a softener and it puts my water in the soft zone, I use tide with an extra rinse on my main wash then a quick wash. I tried country save, nellies, and Charlie's, none of the work for me.

hmm that is interesting. Maybe I'll run another test and just see where the numbers fall. The one test we did was just colour based and that showed soft but like you said it might just be in the soft area. Maybe I should just switch to Tide, the more natural detergents just don't seem to get them as clean for a lot of people. 

It won't hurt to try a small box of tide. Just watch for suds in your last rinse.

[chickypoo2468]

Soft water is dumb.
If you're ok with tide, go with that. I did a light wash instead of a final rinse and we had no issues. I'm trying to avoid tide now and I'm having issues.

[chickypoo2468]

Jan 17, 2015 11:15:06 GMT -5 mrslka said:

Jan 17, 2015 11:03:13 GMT -5 kmmd said:

hmm that is interesting. Maybe I'll run another test and just see where the numbers fall. The one test we did was just colour based and that showed soft but like you said it might just be in the soft area. Maybe I should just switch to Tide, the more natural detergents just don't seem to get them as clean for a lot of people. 

It won't hurt to try a small box of tide. Just watch for suds in your last rinse.

But softeners a have a setting for how hard the water is that you start with

[velvethelicopters]

I'm in the 228 or higher ppm range and the softener that was here never dropped anything below 200 ppm. I said frack that and when it died from scale, it didn't get replaced.

I've never found natural detergent to work well in my water. I think that's standard for hard water. I also found liquid detergent was far more effective than powder. That may be just me.

Add Calgon or whatever water softener of your choice to the laundry and mineral strip as needed. I do that normally, so it wasn't a change when I had kids in diapers.

[freezorburn]

I've been thinking for some time that there must be some difference between softened water and naturally soft water. But not sure where to go from there.

[mrslka]

Jan 17, 2015 12:20:38 GMT -5 chickypoo2468 said:

Jan 17, 2015 11:15:06 GMT -5 mrslka said:

It won't hurt to try a small box of tide. Just watch for suds in your last rinse.

But softeners a have a setting for how hard the water is that you start with

Yes but it depends how hard your water is and the softener it self and how it is set.

Around where I live many people have their softener turned all the way up and still have hard water.

[mrslka]

Jan 17, 2015 13:17:31 GMT -5 freezorburn said:

I've been thinking for some time that there must be some difference between softened water and naturally soft water. But not sure where to go from there.

I really think there is also. When I first started CDing we had naturally soft water and it was so easy to wash. Now we have hard water with a softener and it was a nightmare finding a wash routine that worked.

[MapleMe]

I think that with whatever detergent you use, you need lots of water. You will need lots of dilution for the detergent. So I would start with a quick wash and finish with one (like MK said) and do whatever main wash uses the most water

[kmmd]

Thanks ladies. I might just make the switch to Tide, and then play around with the wash routine (hopefully not much) to get something that works.

[velvethelicopters]

Try a mineral strip first, then Calgon or such with your current detergent.

I'm not sure ANYTHING will work wonderfully without the mineral stripping. That build up is just a pest. Plus, the build up holds a musty kind of odor.