Cloth 201: Do I have hard water?

If you call Cotton Babies customer service for some troubleshooting assistance, many of the questions we will ask revolve around your laundry routine. How often you wash? What detergent are you using? How many cloth diapers do you wash in a load? Do you know if you have hard water?

What is hard water? Hard water is water that has high mineral content. This is different from region to region based on what types of minerals are in the ground where you live and what your water sources are.

Why is it important to cloth diapering? The level of hardness in your water can affect how well soaps, shampoos and detergents work. It can determine how much soap or detergent you need to use to get your dishes, hair and laundry clean.

How do I know if I have hard water? There are a couple of ways to find out. First, there are hard water maps that will tell you generally if you have hard water or not. A more specific way to find out is to check with your local water utility company. My water company has a place on their website where I can fill in my zip code and it will tell me the water hardness in grains per million. I have 7 grains per million, which is considered hard water. If you water company doesn't have a website, the information should be available with a simple phone call. If you have well water, you may need to test it to find out how hard your water is.

If I have hard water, what do I do? If you discover you have hard water and are having issues with stink, we have a few suggestions. First strip your diapers so you have a fresh start. Next, try using a little more than the recommended amount of detergent in each load to make sure your cloth diapers are getting clean. You can also try Rockin' Green Hard Rock laundry detergent, it is specially formulated for hard water conditions.

If you find you have really hard water, adding Calgon water softener to your cloth diaper loads (and other laundry) may help your detergent work more effectively. This is not the type of Calgon that you add to your bath to take you away. Calgon is a laundry additive and you will find it in the laundry detergent aisle of most stores. Simply follow the instructions on the label to add it to your cloth diaper laundry.

I thought I had hard water, but it's really soft! If you find out you have soft water and are having leaks, this may be due to detergent buildup. In this case, you will want to strip your diapers to start fresh and begin using slightly less than the recommended amount of detergent in each wash cycle. There is also a Soft Rock version of Rockin' Green laundry detergent you may want to try. This will help prevent detergent buildup. Soft water may also mean you need to add an extra rinse to your laundry routine to make sure all the detergent is out.

If you have further questions, give us a call at 1-888-332-2243 or email us at contactus@cottonbabies.com.