Reset your nappies the Cloth Nappy Nerd way
Sometimes you need to reset your nappies, this should only be a rare occurrence but can happen for a number of reasons: due to a wash routine that hasn’t been giving you the best clean, ammonia build up, stains, bacteria or fungus (candida, ringworm, mould). It’s also a good idea to reset your nappies when you have bought preloved items, to make sure they are safe for baby. This is often called a strip and sanitise (S&S). It is simple to strip and sanitise cloth nappies if you follow the instructions below. We have step by step instructions for how to bleach cloth nappies with a small scale bleach sanitise and how to bleach sanitise cloth nappies in a front loader washing machine, making it simple to achieve clean cloth nappies.
- Please note this is at your own risk, there is a risk of damage to elastics and pul especially if the nappies are towards the end of their natural life.
- You should not need to reset new nappies or nappies only owned by you if you have a good wash routine please complete our wash routine questionnaire if you need help with your wash routine and we have a simple wash routine here and template you can download here. Doing reset will invalidate manufactures warranties.
All parts of nappies (including wraps and pul pocket shells) will need to be reset.
For light mould you should start with clean nappies, then do the RESET then do the CLEAN. They may need an additional vanish soak to remove the staining from the mould.
For very stained or smelly nappies or for more than light mould please contact us for support. For items without PUL or elastics you can CLEAN and RESET (Sanitise) in one step by washing on a long 90 degree cycle with detergent and a scoop of vanish.
CLEAN: How to strip your cloth nappies
Option A: Not recommended for mineral or detergent build up but this is personal choice. Detergent does not build up unless you are using over the recommended amount of powder.
DOSAGE:
Full dose of detergent according to water hardness, drum size and heavily soiled laundry
Full dose of stain remover (vanish or equivalent)
INSTRUCTIONS:
STEP 1: Put all nappies on a long 60 degree wash (usually the cotton cycle on your machine, not eco) with full dose of detergent and full dose of vanish.
STEP 2: Follow with RESET if you need to sanitise cloth nappies. You can follow immediately with the reset or continue the next day.
Option B: Not recommended for items with PUL or elastics unless in response to mineral or detergent build up but this is personal choice. Detergent does not build up unless you are using over the recommended amount of powder. Cloth nappy shells (wraps, all in two shells and pocket shells) should only be added for the final 30 minutes, All in ones will need to be added for the full time period. Everything absorbent should be soaked for the full 4 hours.
DOSAGE:
Per 10 litres of water
*30ml detergent
*30ml vanish (or equivalent)
INSTRUCTIONS:
STEP 1: Add detergent and vanish to warm water (no warmer than 60 degrees) and make sure dissolved.
STEP 2: Add nappies, soak for 4 hours, stir occasionally.
STEP 3: Drain and then wash nappies on a long wash (40 or 60 degrees) with no detergent.
STEP 4: Follow with RESET if you need to sanitise cloth nappies. You can follow immediately with the reset or continue the next day.
RESET - Bleach Sanitise For Cloth Nappies
Option A: This is the recommended method of how to bleach sanitise cloth nappies, also known as a small scale bleach sanitise for cloth nappies. There are other ways to sanitise cloth nappies. However, they are not as reliable or simple to use.
DOSAGE: Please use the Bleach Dilution Calculator to calculate how much bleach to use to sanitise cloth nappies.
INSTRUCTIONS FOR HOW TO USE THE BLEACH CALCULATOR:
Enter the % of bleach used e.g. 1.5%
Desired chlorine concentration: 150 ppm for general reset, 235 ppm for stubborn stains (make sure you choose PPM not mg/L)
Desired chlorine volume (amount of water you are using): Enter the L of water you will be using (make sure it is in liters).
Your solution calculation should show as "required bleach volume" - Make sure this is in ml.
INSTRUCTIONS:
STEP 1: Add cold water and amount of bleach and stir, then add nappies, cover with white towels (or other white material)
STEP 2: Soak for 30 minutes.
STEP 4: Hot hand rinse (this will need to be very thorough if using thick bleach as it contains surfactants)
STEP 5: Follow with a hot 60 degree wash with no detergent (at least 1 hour)
STEP 6: Now a long 40 or 60 degree wash with detergent for lightly soiled washing.
NOTE: If you do have a white out (foam party) in your machine that looks like it may escape the machine, you can put 1/4 of a cap fabric softener in the detergent draw and rinse it down with a full glass of water. This will eliminate the suds.
We don’t recommend following an in machine wash bleach sanitisation method because the amounts given actually provide an extremely low dosage in order to safeguard for user error, we feel that the bleach dosage can be more effective, easily calculated and less likely to damage nappies if used in a bucket or equivalent.
Option B: We do not recommend this method. Step-by-step guide of how to bleach sanitise cloth nappies in a front loader washing machine.
I have had to halve the ppm of bleach to 75ppm to allow for user error as we still do not advise that this method is used.
There are a lot of assumptions that go into this so I want to explain how this method has been reached.
Fluff love university recommends 1/3 cup of 5.25% bleach in a small top loader and motherease recommends 1/2 cup of bleach in a front loader. I have chosen 1/3 cup of 5.25% bleach as motherease did not state the % of bleach to be used so I have selected the smaller measurement.
The average front loader in the US is 5kg according to tide.com “how do I know my load size for my washing machine”. When I use the ppm calculator for 78ml of 5.25% bleach I get 75ppm at 52 litres which suggests that flufflove university assumes approximately 10.4L of water per KG. The average amount of water used is c. 10L per KG, so I have used 10L to be on the safe side (the average water consumption can actually range from 6 - 13L)!
DOSAGE:
INSTRUCTIONS FOR HOW TO USE THE BLEACH CALCULATOR:
Enter the % bleach used e.g 1.5%
Desired concentration: 75ppm (make sure you choose PPM not mg/L)
Desired chlorine volume (amount of water you are using): 10L per KG washing machine size e.g for 7KG machine it would be 70 (make sure you choose liters)
The amount of bleach you require should be shown in "Required bleach volume". This is the amount of bleach you will use to sanitise your cloth nappies (make sure this is in ml).
NOTE: YOU SHOULD DILUTE THE BLEACH AMOUNT IN TWICE AS MUCH WATER BEFORE FOLLOWING THIS METHOD
INSTRUCTIONS:
STEP 1: Load CLEAN nappies into your washing machine, choose a cold (40 degrees or higher breaks down the bleach quicker which may render it ineffective) LONG washing cycle (ideally over 2 hours long).
STEP 2: Start the machine with NO DETERGENT
STEP 3: Wait for the washing machine to fill with water, this will usually take 10-15 minutes from the start of the cycle pour the DILUTED bleach SLOWLY down the detergent drawer (the slower the better). Then close the drawer and wait for the cycle to finish.
STEP 4: Follow with a 1 hour hot wash (60 degrees) with no detergent
STEP 5: Now a 1 hour wash (40 or 60 degrees) with detergent for lightly soiled washing.
NOTE: sacnu state a single warm wash cycle without detergent would be enough so if you don’t want to do two further cycles this may be an option.