Hard water - sigh!

Our water is so hard even my lovely soft fluffy bamboo nappies have turned to cardboard. I've tried adding the water softener powders you can buy to the detergent drawer, but haven't noticed much of a difference which I suppose makes sense as I'm still rinsing in hard water. Does anyone have any brilliant suggestions for how to get my nappies soft again without having to pay for a water softener? I know I can tumble dry them but I don't want to do that after every wash. Is there anything I can soak them in every so often to remove the mineral buildup on the fabric?

I have hard water too mine always turned to cardboard too. Apparently the reason a tumble dryer makes them softer is the agitation of the fabric so I ve heard people talk about doing similar to your nappies by shaking and wiggling them around.
I tried it and it does help a little bit. I just used to tumble every now and then.
I mainly used prefolds pad folded when older with a fleece liner so it covered then up or used pockets so the inserts didn t matter.
Xxx

What washing powder do you use?

Bold 3-1 is supposed to be great for nappies especially in a hard water area as it has a clay based softener in it.

What washing powder do you use?

Bold 3-1 is supposed to be great for nappies especially in a hard water area as it has a clay based softener in it.

This. Our water is very hard and bold keeps my nappies nice and soft.

Does it have a very strong scent? Because I really don't like heavily perfumed detergents. I'd probably rather put up with hard nappies than with nappies that reek of perfume ;-)

Does it have a very strong scent? Because I really don't like heavily perfumed detergents. I'd probably rather put up with hard nappies than with nappies that reek of perfume ;-)

It sounds like you'll need to put up with hard nappies then. If nappies smell of detergent then you aren't washing them properly They shouldn't smell of anything at all when they come out of the machine. Yes some of the Bold 2 in 1s have a strong scent but you should be rinsing virtually all of the detergent out so the nappies shouldn't smell.

We have medium water, no amount of rinsing gets rid of detergent smell here and they are still like cardboard if we line dry even with bold !
Yesterday I put about a tbsp of powder in and did 3 washes- 1 with powder and 2 without plus 3 rinses- still detergent smell!

If nappies smell of detergent then you aren't washing them properly They shouldn't smell of anything at all when they come out of the machine. .

I dispute that. Sometimes when I get second-hand nappies or clothes they smell really strongly of detergent and it takes several washes to get the smell out. I once bought Ariel bio liquid and it was so smelly, even after several extra rinses the nappies still reeked of perfume. Also, detergent makers, Bold in particular, make a big deal about the scent persisting "even after 12 hours wear or three weeks of storage". Why would they even bother with the perfume if the idea was that it all washes out again straight away? So it sounds like you and I just have a very different perfume tolerance level, or you have the mother of all washing machines!

We have medium water, no amount of rinsing gets rid of detergent smell here and they are still like cardboard if we line dry even with bold !
Yesterday I put about a tbsp of powder in and did 3 washes- 1 with powder and 2 without plus 3 rinses- still detergent smell!

Yep, same here, with really hard water. I always do two rinses after wash but still some scent remains (I don't mind, I like the smell). I used my Mum's tumble dryer recently and couldn't believe the difference in the nappies, they were so soft.

Banging the nappies together can help, but who has time to do that every wash? I put up with hard nappies and.use fleecy.liners.