Help?!?

Question

Looking for somebody who uses cloth diapers with a very simple (one cycle) wash routine. Is this possible? We have an issue with pushing too much water through our septic tank and I can only CD if I minimize my water use.

Answer

You need two cycles as the first cycle gets out the bulk of the waste then drains away, you then use fresh water for the second cycle to get them properly clean. If you only use one cycle you're washing in poo soup.
Think of it like doing the dishes - if you washed something filthy first and the water was all dark and dirty, would you then wash your crockery and glassware in that water, or would you drain the water and refill the sink?

Answer

In my research on this, it seems like you need an initial rinse cycle to just clear out most of the pee and poo. With only one cycle then the soap is only used when there is also lots of pee and poo in the wash. I do an initial cold quick wash to clear out the pee and poo. Cold is important first to prevent staining poo and pee on the diapers (if that matters to you, you don’t want to bake in that stuff with heat). Then I do a normal wash on hot heavy duty to sanitize and clean it. Both cycles use soap so it’s cleaning it but the second wash has way less poo and pee in the cycle so the soap can really focus on cleaning out the deep dirty stuff. Check out clothdiapersforbeginners.com. She has a lot of really good information on wash routines.

Answer

I have an HE washer that has a sanitize cycle (it heats the water to 158°F) which I used, along with the prewash option. The cycle takes forever, so I usually kick it off before I go to bed and then transfer it to the dryer in the morning. But it gets it all done in one cycle and everything comes out clean. I would guess that with the prewash and rinses it uses about 20 gallons. There's also a steam option that's supposed to use less water, but I don't understand how to use it. 
Some people say that the heat wears out the PUL (water-proofing) on the diaper shells, but my cheapies survived washing every three days through two consecutive kids. My youngest just potty trained.

Answer

Is the septic issue due to flow or due to killing off bacteria with more water than poo. If the second option then you can flush cheap dog food in the toilet and that will feed the bacteria offsetting the extra water usage.

Help?!?

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