I’d always heard that diapers needed to be washed in the hottest water possible. After two years of washing diapers in hot water, a post on Treehugging Family made me think about whether I could wash diapers in cold. Peggy writes about saving 72 pounds of carbon dioxide in one month just by washing four out of five loads in cold water. Keep that up for an entire year and you’ll save $60-100 on your energy bill.
But doesn’t washing in hot water kill germs and bacteria? Everything I read said no–unless your washer has a built-in heater, the hot water in your machine does not get hot enough to kill anything. Most water heaters are set to 120 degrees. You’d need a temperature of 160 to kill anything and 212 to actually sanitize your laundry. Jennifer (Peggy’s co-blogger on Treehugging Family) pointed out that the dryer does get hot enough to kill bacteria.
Armed with all this information, I figured it was worth a try. I loaded the diapers in the machine and set the knob to “cold.” At the last minute, I almost turned the knob back to hot. After years of believing the hot water I was using was beneficial–no, necessary–to the cloth diapering process, it was hard to make the change, even for investigative purposes. Then, in one of the most daring moves of my cloth-diapering career, I pressed the start button and let the cold water gush into the machine.
Now that you are all on the edges of your seats, I’ll break this amazing news: the diapers came out of the dryer white, clean, and fresh-smelling. Now, if anyone has some scientific evidence in favor of the hot-wash, please post a comment. Until I hear advice to the contrary, I am going to wash diapers in cold water. I just wish I’d had the gumption to take the plunge years ago!
April 29th, 2008 at 1:00 pm
Rebecca, Glad you tried it! This is nice to know.
April 29th, 2008 at 8:17 pm
This simple switch can save cloth diaper users so much money, not to mention energy, over the course of a few years. We have switched to cold already and our diapers still come out perfectly clean. Let the cold water revolution begin!
April 30th, 2008 at 2:44 am
Hey, you did it. Very cool. I always thought the hot water washing was a hype after taking all those science classes. You just can’t get washer hot enough to kill germs, so why bother. I’m really glad you ran the experiment. Now we need to write a book
April 30th, 2008 at 4:14 pm
So what did our grandmother’s and great grandmother’s do without the benefit of washers and dryers? We know they used cloth diapers because that’s all there was. I’m curious as to how horrible it is to simply not sanitize the diapers? I mean, diaper services need to because you never know who used the diapers last and what deadly viruses they might have been carrying. But in your own home, what are we worried about that soap won’t take care of? Soap kills a lot of the germs doesn’t it? I’m not asking this rhetorically, I really want to know. We are not having our babies eat out of their diapers, they are going back on their bottoms. The same bottom they sit on the sand at the public beach with. Right?
April 30th, 2008 at 4:35 pm
Eileen, I am not sure what our grandmothers did . . . well, I know MY grandmother dried her diapers out the car window (she posted a comment about this on a previous diaper post!). Can anyone chime in with a tale about the cloth-diaper-washing process without a washing machine?
I would venture to say that it is NOT necessary to sanitize cloth diapers at home, and as I pointed out above, using hot water does not sanitize them anyway. If you wanted to sanitize your diapers at home for some reason, you would need a washer with a built-in heater. These washers would have a “sanitary” cycle. Or you could boil your diapers in a cauldron.
May 2nd, 2008 at 11:24 am
eileen, I’m almost positive that soap doesn’t actually kill germs it just makes a surface slippery so that they slide off. I’m sure there’s a more scientific way to say that but that’s the idea. I’m all for washing the diapers in all cold water. I’m going to have to try that now. I know that hanging them in the sun gets out the stain but I’m not sure if that kills anything or not, anyone know?
May 3rd, 2008 at 12:42 am
YOu are probably right Sara as I have no basis in fact for any of my comments - the are all just hearsay.=) I think I’ve heard that soap “takes care of” a lot of germs. And I think I heard that in reference to why we don’t need anti-bacterial soap as that is just “overkill”. ha ha ha.
My washer does have a heat setting but I don’t think it’s for sanitizing. I remember the salesman said something about using that setting in the winter, I don’t know! Again, all hearsay.
Okay, I just checked my “complete book of MOthercraft” c. 1952. That book says to wash the diapers in very hot water and put them through 4 rinsings. Not the answer we were looking for, eh? I do think by 1952, washing machines were common and nobody at that point worried about water conservation. I think the conventional wisdom among my mom’s age group and older is that “scalding” will take care of germs. Just really good hot water for dishes, laundry, etc. will matter.
So, next question, we obviously don’t wash our dishes in 220 degree water - can they be done in cold too? To me, the dishes DO need to be sanitized because they are going in our mouths and you might be doing something with raw meat, etc. What’s the best way to sanitize the dishes if you don’t have a washing machine?
May 3rd, 2008 at 3:52 am
I’m not a handwasher! BUT we wear our clothes more than once and always use cold water. We also have a HE energy effecient washer. The idea is you don’t have to go extreme (more good karma if you do) but you can make small changes to make a difference. Great post. Informative, well written and researched. You made me think!
May 3rd, 2008 at 9:21 am
I remember looking into the idea of washing dishes in cold water awhile ago and didn’t come to any solid conclusions. Dishwashers DO sanitize dishes because they heat the water to very high temperatures. Handwashing dishes does not sanitize them. However, hot water does a better job at dissolving grease than cold water, so using hot water for dishes does have a purpose.
Any cold-water dish-washers want to assure us that your dishes come out sparkly clean?
Eileen, that is intersting to read the 1952 diaper-washing tips! Machines were certainly less efficient back then. Plus, like you said, people probably didn’t think much about water conservation.
May 3rd, 2008 at 2:32 pm
Well there is the boy scout camping method for washing dishes with the 3 rinse stations and the last or middle will have a capful of bleach in it. I remember from my food service days that a capful of bleach in a bucket of water is enough to sanitize. It seems like that little bit of bleach wouldn’t be so bad right? I mean, our water is already chlorinated. then again, will the bacteria survive on the hard, dry surface of a dish? So many factors! It is so confusing!!!! I wish there was a handbook titled “The Right Way to Live” and all the answers to everything would be laid out for us.
May 5th, 2008 at 8:56 am
Eileen, I would not use bleach to sanitize dishes, since bleach is an environmental toxin. (I know it’s already in our water supply, but I wouldn’t want to add MORE to it.) I would also be more worried about eating bleach than eating whatever germs it was killing off. I personally do not even try to sanitize my dishes. I haven’t had a dishwasher in over fifteen years and I am no worse for the wear. However, if you wanted to remove more germs from your dishes, you could try a hydrogen peroxide or vinegar rinse instead of bleach. I read that a 5% solution of vinegar will kill 99% of bacteria, 82% of mold, and 80% of viruses. Pretty cool!
May 5th, 2008 at 12:55 pm
Wow so now I’m wondering why I’ve been using the hot water setting at all- I thought it was making my towels and sheets extra clean- hmmm another way to pad the pocket book - I love it!
May 6th, 2008 at 12:49 pm
OF course, vinegar in the rinse water! I knew that.
May 6th, 2008 at 7:09 pm
Because everyone is already talking about cloth diapers and washing I have a question that maybe some one could help me with. I use AIO (all in one) cloth diapers. I think they are convenient and love them, but I can’t get them to stop smelling. I’ve used bumgenius spray, baking soda, hot water, drying in the dryer, air drying cold water, warm water, well you get the picture. Is there any ideas or advice that anyone could give me to help get the smell out?
May 6th, 2008 at 7:36 pm
Kamber, did you read Joy’s post about diaper-friendly detergents? http://greenbabyguide.com/2008/04/02/finding-diaper-friendly-earth-friendly-detergent/ (I hope that link works.) She explains there how she solved her stinky-diaper problem by switching detergents. If that is not the issue, I am not sure WHAT the problem is. Anyone else?
May 8th, 2008 at 11:28 am
just how much vinegar equals 5% solution? I’m not too with it in the math dept. I actually just bought vinegar this week to wash my husband’s undershirts to try and degunk the arm pits. oh wait, i just reread the post and it’s for dishwashing. How much is good in the clothes washer?
May 8th, 2008 at 9:15 pm
Sara, a 5% solution would be 19 parts water to one part vinegar. Since there are 16 tablespoons in a cup, you could do one tablespoon vinegar to one cup water and get pretty close. It’s not rocket science though and nothing will explode if the ratio is off.
For the washer - I just put vinegar in the part where it says to put softener. I would guess a half cup to a cup would do just fine, but that is totally off the cuff and not legit advice that you should follow or trust.=) I love math but I am completely incapable of following a recipe.
May 16th, 2008 at 7:47 am
Does anyone know if you can just line dry your diapers after washing them in cold, or should you dry them in the machine to kill the bacteria?
May 16th, 2008 at 8:51 am
Amber, as I mentioned above, the dryer (unlike the washing machine) does actually get hot enough to kill some bacteria. I think that sunlight can also do this. Certainly the greenest way to wash diapers would be to wash in cold and dry in the sun. Maybe someone else can pipe up with a scientific answer to your question!
May 26th, 2008 at 10:59 pm
Actually, soap does kill most but not all germs. For example, staphylococci and typhoid bacilli are highly resistant to many germicides. But not even boiling hot water will kill all germs, in fact not even an autoclave can kill all germs. For example, the prions responsible for madcow disease will survive even autoclave temperatures. But ordinary soap and water will kill most non-resistant bacteria.
Also, UV light is a good germ killer; if you dry your diapers on a clothes line under direct sunlight, that will go a long way towards sterilizing that which survives the wash cycle.