Washing Diapers in a Twin Tub Panda Washer

I've seen several inquiries and google searches about washing cloth diapers in a Twin Tub Panda, I'm no expert, but have been doing this for a year, changing routines, adapting to new situations and battling ammonia, so I'll see if I can answer your doubts to the best of my abilities.

Is it possible to wash diapers in a Twin Tub portable washer?
Yes. It takes more time than doing it on a regular and you have to do it more frequently, but it can be done.

How often should diapers be washed?
Depends on the number of diapers being used and the age of the machine. When it was newer, I could wash 10-12 diapers at a time, which allowed me to go for a couple of days without them accumulating if I had only one child in diapers (I had 2 for several months). Since it has been losing power due to barring and over use (and abuse), I do 7-8 diapers now, so I can wash twice every three days.

Should I spin the diapers inbetween rinses?
I do, just like in a regular machine, because it gets rid of more soap and more ammonia, but if you have good results skipping that step, good for you. This machine is extremely flexible, you control the time, the ammount of water and how many times you wash and rinse, there is no automatic cycle you have to adapt to.

Do diapers come dry out of the spinner?
No. But they dry much faster when you hang them than coming out of a regular washer. Polyester fabrics come almost ready, it takes a couple of hours, natural fibers are usually dry overnight, depending on humidity conditions.

Can I use a different detergent for my regular clothes?
Yes, I do that all the time, just give a rinse to the tub before you start filling it up.

Can I drain the water in the bathtub, will it overflow?
Yes, you can. It fills about 1/5 of the bathtub when you drain and it empties out in a couple of minutes. It is much safer than draining in the bathroom sink and pumping water in the drainage.

Do diapers get ammonia when washing them in a small portable setting?
Like any other devise, they might. In order to wash the ammonia buildup away, you need a combo of temperature, detergent and time washing. I use a ton of soap, hot water and 12 minutes in the wash and that keeps it down. I actually have an easier time dealing with ammonia with the Panda than with a regular Maytag.

Will my diapers get stained?
They might, I get less stains than in a regular washer, but if they do, I just hang them by the window and they are good as new after 2 or 3 washes (stains do not affect the diaper's funcionality).

What do I do if the washer starts walking?
Your spin drier is out of balance, open it and reaccomodate the clothes on top, trying to put them evenly and flat.

I like my puffy prefolds, can I get puff in the spin drier?
No, you need an air based drier for that. Time also helps, sometimes prefolds I haven't used in weeks appear fluffy later on.

How long does it take to get the diapers clean?
50 min to an hour according to my routine. About 2/3 of the time, the machine is doing its job by itself, no need to stay and babysit.

Can I leave the tub filling and come back later?
Yes, the machine has a hole on top that keeps the water draining into the inner tub and out, so it won't overflow (you still need to save water).

Can I leave the tub draining and come back later?
Yes, but there is no timer in the draining pump, so I wouldn't recommend leaving it on for  an undetermined period of time.

Can I leave the washer and/or the spinner working and come back later?
Absolutely!

Will my diapers get damaged if washed in the Panda?
I've been using diapers for more than a year in a very limited stash. The Fuzibunz look good as new and so do the Tots Bots and the Blueberries. The Grovias do look wasted in the leg elastics, but I bought those used already.

How many times should I wash/rinse in the tub to get them clean?
As many as you seem appropiate. I do 4 (3 min hot rinse - 12 min hot wash - 5 min hot rinse - 3 minute cold rinse) and do not spin between 1 and 2. That's the equivalent to 2 cycles in a regular washing machine but with hotter water.

Can I use Dawn or Oxyclean in the Panda?
I do. Much safer to use Dawn in a Panda than in a regular washer.

Do diapers get moldy if left inside the spinner?
Depends on how long, the only times I have had mold issues the diapers were inside a bag damp for several hours, it was only the Grovias. I would still recommend not leaving them overnight in the spinner (no problem with leaving them soaking in the big tub).

I hope this helps, feel free to ask more.

The Ugly Pocketling II

I have a clean freash ready to use orange Fuzzibunz Elite OS in my hand. 48 hours ago that was not the case. After looking at it and feeling it, I must say Thereson Dupuy deserves a monumnet, cause I don't know what other diaper would be like that after what it went through (Grovia AIOs definitely wouldn't).

But let me go back a little bit. I know it will sound gross to you, but among all the little things I've done to accomplish my no-stink life is the no wet bag. You heard it right, I don't use a bag, a pail or any other device to shield the diapers from the outside world. I throw them in the dirty laundry or place them on top of the hanging rack. Sure they smell if you approach too much, but otherwise, the overall odour in the house is safe to breath.

However, poop complicates this arrangement. If there's a poopy diaper (which, thanks to bf, doesn't happen on a daily basis), it gets sprayed with the hand held shower into the toilet and further into the sink until there's practically nothing but stains left. Of course, I'm left with a very dripping diaper that can't go anywhere but a wet bag and a tub. Sometimes I just leave it in the sink and do a load of diapers right after, but anothers, well, it goes into a wet bag and then a hanging tub in the bathroom wall. It hides it pretty well.

As you can imagine, I think I hid it too well, so much that next time I washed diapers, I totally forgot there was a poopy hidden one. And the next time, and... I can't recall.

One day it stroke me I hadn't seen the orange FB for a while. My stash is so varied in color and so small, it's easy to notice when a diaper is missing. And it hit me: I could look inside the white tub. Yep. There was a wet bag there. It was late at night, so I decided to do something next morning.

I took the bag and plain emptied it directly in the washer with another load. Then I left it soaking in Murphy's oil soap. Got it washed with another load of clothes again (I didn't care about detergents or fragances, just wanted the diaper clean!). Rinsed, spinned, I put it in the sun. Inserts, wet bag and all.

Next day: a clean diaper!!! Of course I needed to strip the oil soap, but there were no signs of mold anywhere, or any other residuals of any kind. I tossed it with the regular diaper wash (which includes a couple of drops of Dawn in the rinse cycle) and it was good to go and smeling like a clean diaper smell: nothing.

So, if you happen to forget a dripping diaper, please, make sure it's a Fuzzibunz!

Moldy Grovia: The Real Thing This Time

I traveled back from Mexico with half a stash of diapers soaking wet, due to my Grandma's slow system.

Once I arrived here, I put everything on my spin dryer, I was amazed at the amount of water that my diapers still had after an hour of drying attempts and unfortunately a Grovia AIO could not stand the moist and developed mildew.

So, what to do? Well, I washed it in the regular load, sunned it, washed it again twice with oxy clean added to the detergent and sunned it and sunned it in between those washes. Finally got the courage to use it. No problem. It still looks mildly stained, so I keep sunning it after every wash, getting whiter every time, but I have seen no problem in Tiny Guy, so it is safe to use.

I could have used bleach or boiled it had it been a prefold or an insert, but with AIOs, one has to be more conservative and be aware of the TPU that can delaminate in high temperatures.

But more than anything else, let's keep washing frequently, specially sprayed diapers in this exceedingly warm summer

It's Not Mold,It's Lint!!

2 or 3 weeks ago, I noticed dark spots in one of the FuzzibunzElite. It has a very light color (like eggnogg, cream, vanilla yougurt or something to that effect), much different to the rest, which are much brighter ones.

Anyway, I was washing and asked my husband if he new what it was, it did look like mold, but it was way inside the 3 snap triangles that I could not reach it, just in that place that access is extremely complicated.

So, the first thing I did was hanging it by the window and leaving it there for full 48 hours to get as dry as possible and as much sun as possible, I needed to keep it from growing.

Due to my limited stash, I had to use it at some point, I didn't see the dark matter grow, but it did not go away either. After my experience with Murphy's oil soap and having discovered that it would not ruin the diaper to soak it in, I considered that option, but decided to just keep doing what I was doing and take it from there.

Several times I washed it, it looked clean, but you could see the "dark matter" through the light. I used it as little as possible and always let it dry in the window for at least a couple of days. Same results.

Finally, 2 days ago, I took a different approach and tried to access the dark matter. It turns out it was not between the 2 layers of fleece but between the fleece and the PUL, which makes it much easier to reach. And, once my little finger got a hold of a little and pulled it out...IT WAS LINT!!!!

So I kept it going and got as much as I could out of there. So no, my beautiful Fuzzibunz are not prone to molding.

According to what I've read from Fuzzibunz and other gossip sites, the company has had  lot of manufacturing problems and has moved constantly. The ones I have are from Turkey. That means, that the PUL has very good quality, but the fleece leaves residues all over the place (including the baby). So what happens is that some of that residue gets trapped in this snapped area and, with a light and translucid polyester, it looks dark just for being opaque.

So, if you are as inexperienced as I am, and you are using Turkish Fuzzibunz, don't worry, it's not mold.