What Water Temperature: Cold, Warm or Hot?
Prewashing to remove pee and poo is done in Cold, to prevent stains from setting in. Using the appropriate water temperature can make or break the cloth diapers, especially those made of PUL (polyurethane laminate). The PUL layer can delaminate from the diaper fabric, when the wash temperature is too high and for too many times. Delamination can lead to leakage. See an example of delaminated PUL below: Also, PUL quality defers vastly depending on where the diaper manufacturer sources its fabric from. The most resilient ones can withstand regular hot washes. The weakest that I tried started delaminating after 3 hot washes! Strangely, there seems to be no universal definition of what “cold”, “warm” and “hot” washes mean. It’s much clearer if the exact wash temperature is stated on the laundry label, but this isn’t widely practised. After 2 years of trial and error, here’s my own definition: • Cold: Maximum 30°C • Warm: Maximum 40°C • Hot: Maximum 60°C (i.e. highest quality PUL) Usually,
