When i have such laundry, I put a capful of Pine Sol in the wash cycle. or maybe some other laundry sanitizer; I think Lysol has one. I’m not fond of fabric softener.

Sounds like there might be products trapped in the fibers that aren't getting rinsed out completely. You may be using too much detergent. I would also eliminate all fabric softeners, (liquid and dryer sheets) as they put a thin film over the clothing which may be trapping the smell. You can try dryer balls in place of fabric softener.

Try a free and clear detergent on the hottest cycle possible and add the extra rinse options. all makes one with Odor Relief. Once the detergent cycle is completed, run them through the washer again with Lysol Laundry Sanitizer with a soak, rinse and spin.

The water generally will not go above the bottom of the door's window in a FL washer. Depending on how hard or soft your water supply is, you could be under-dosing or over-dosing. We have "moderately hard" water and I have to use no more than half what any detergent suggests for a given load of laundry. Often two Tablespoons of anything is sufficient for bedding.

Definitely stop using the fabric softener for the reasons wilson853 said. Seriously. It is probably trapping the ammonia inside the fibers. Same goes for dryer sheets. I'm allergic to all formulas and we really don't miss it.

There are cloth diaper (for babies) forums and websites that might be helpful. Just google it. I've found them while looking for hypoallergenic detergents. Dealing with the ammonia based odor of urine is something those ladies know about. Urine + fabric = odors.

The clothing and bedding might even benefit from a good "diaper stripping" to remove all detergent residue, etc. On those websites, I found a product that the cloth diaper mothers like: RLR is a brand amazon sells, that I've bought to remove detergent residue buildup for my skin allergies after the occasional detergent overdose. (yeah, I'm that sensitive. :-p)

I have to strip detergent buildup on our dog's washable diapers and found RLR to be very effective. (the dog is old and occasionally incontinent at night) I know it's time to strip them when a few drops of water roll off the polyester "wicking" fabric inside them.

4 heaping Tablespoons for a load of laundry seems like a lot of detergent for a front-load washer, unless you have really hard water. IF you have one of those 5 cu. ft capacity washers and it is stuffed 7/8 full, that might be the right dose for really dirty laundry. IDK

I tried the Kirkland liquid detergent years ago because a friend liked it. I don't know what type washer she had- TL or FL. The bottle I bought had instructions to use twice as much for a FL washer than a TL washer. I gave that stuff away because using less water in a washer does not need twice the amount of detergent. I never bothered with Kirkland liquid detergent again.

@K SlvJr. Try adding borax with your detergent. And an extra rinse or two. Borax was recommended back in the day of cloth diapers. (If you ever happen to use liquid detergent or other liquid wash additives, don't mix liquids and powders together in the dispenser ... liquids in the dispenser, powders directly in the drum with the clothes.)

Both amount of soil involved and load size are more a factor in detergent dosing for a frontloader (or HE toploader) than is the volume of water. A frontloader adds proportionately less water for increasing load size than does an old-style toploader ... but more detergent is still needed to handle the soil level that also increases (unless mostly-clean clothes are being washed for refreshing). There's no way 1 or 2 tablespoons of detergent could handle the uber-size loads that I run, such as this which may include five or six sets of yardwork socks.

Whoa dadoes, that is one ginormous load of laundry that definitely needs more than 2 Tbsp of detergent! Ours are half that size.

Thank you everyone for your replies! :) I will try the Lysol laundry sanitizer and Borax and go from there! I’ll check out the cloth diaper info too! And no more fabric softener. But if I shouldn’t be using Kirkland detergent, or could be using another detergent, which one? I used Persil Megaperls color a few years back buts it’s gotten so expensive! Oh…and I have been using the maximum amount of extra rinses possible! Should I continue using the white vinegar in the rinse?? And honestly, I’m really not sure if I have hard water or soft water…I guess im kind of a dunce when it comes to that..lol! Not sure if this helps but I live on an island in north Puget Sound in Washington state. Would island water typically be harder water??

I found out that our area’s general water hardness is 25 PPM (mg/L) or 1 gpg. According to what I’m reading it isn’t very hard at all.

Water hardness of a given location may vary from time-to-time. Considering getting a hardness test kit (can be found online) if you want to monitor it, or sending a sample to a lab service. Home test kits may not have much granularity on the hardness reading.

Borax has some function toward water softening, plus odor and stain removal so is useful even if softening isn't a concern.

Detergents are alkaline. Chlorine bleach is strongly alkaline. Vinegar is mildly acidic, functions as a laundry sour to counter detergent alkalinity toward neutral pH (7) which has an effect on reducing fabric "harshness." (Never directly mix chlorine bleach and vinegar.) Commercial laundries that use stronger (more alkaline) detergents than home products may run a laundry sour treatment following the wash. Liquid fabric softener is slightly acidic (less so than vinegar) and has fabric lubricating compounds that aren't in vinegar. pH of urine typically is 4.6 to 8 ... middle of the scale, more toward acidic.

Your water seems soft (others will chime in) and if your laundry load is as large as what dadoes shows in his pic, still two Tablespoons might be enough, especially if you add the Borax. When I add Borax, I sometimes have to hold back on the detergent dose a bit, and never put in more Borax than I do detergent. I think the dosing for that might be based on an old fashioned TL washer? I haven't looked at their label on the box in years.

Our typical laundry load would only be to the top of the rim of the laundry basket dadoes posted. Which is probably why I use a lot less detergent.

20 Mule Team borox package instructions advises 1/2 cup per load, does not differentiate between type of washer. I use 2 to 4 tablespoons (4 tablespoons is 1/4 cup) depending which washer and size of load, plus STPP and detergent.

I looked up suggestions at 20MuleTeamLaundry, which says for detergent booster, dissolve 1 tablespoon in 2 cups of hot water in a sealable jar for storage. Add 1/2 cup of the solution to washer loads.

Those are oddly-conflicting amounts and instructions.

Thank you! Got a box of Borax today due to this post! :) And yes I think I will get the Tide powder as well and use that, and soak during the prewash and perhaps during the main wash as well. I’m also interested in the Lysol laundry sanitizer. Couldn’t find it at my local supermarket but found it on Amazon. But hopefully may not need it if Borax, Tide powder and soaking do the trick! I’ll keep you all posted! Thanks so much folks! :)

This might be helpful as well. Good luck!

https://tide.com/en-us/how-to-wash-clothes/how-to-remove-stains/urine-stains

Lysol Laundry Sanitizer is to be added to the final rinse with no other products involved, and clothes need 16 mins of exposure for it to work. Washers that run a rinse of that duration are rare, typically requires the cycle be paused and some machines nowadays will auto-drain, cancel and shut off if paused for too long.

The issue you are having is that particular Kirkland detergent contains no enzymes. You absolutely must use an enzyme-containing detergent for urine, feces or vomit.

Tide powder is an excellent choice. If you like Costco and want to try a different Kirkland detergent, try the Ultraclean in the red jug (if you like a strong perfume) or white jug (unscented). Both formulas clean comparably to Tide and have a nice mix of enzymes. Costco also sells extra lange boxes of Tide powder. Tide Sport liquid is another excellent choice but it is very strongly perfumed.

Vinegar, RLR and original dawn dish soap. Hang them on the line outside in the sun. Those are the ways we have done it with cloth diapers for the last 20 years.

We have never used any type of sanitizing chemicals and never needed them. Amoinia smells attach to minerals that buildup in the cloth. RLR is essentially really concentrated wahing soda. It acts as a water softener. That water softening action ”strips” the minerals from the cloth.

Vineager acts as a PH adjuster. It has a detergent ”stripping” effect for any retained detergent that may be in the cloth.

Orginal Dawn works as a protein stain stripper. It suspends grease and oil based stains in water and allows them to be washed away.

If you use good detegent and your washing machine rinses well, then stripping is rarely needed. Most top tier laundry detergents have these agents as part of their chemical makeup. The ”cheaper” brands omit one or several of them to reduce cost. Detergents with enzymes also work a lot better to remove organic based stains.

We have used original Tide and the switched to Tide PurClean and use that for virtually all of our cotton/syntheitic based laundry. Wool and Down get Miele’s house brand detergents. Miele WoolCare and Miele DownsCare. The last one has not been available for a while. When we cant get it we use the WoolCare on the Down based items.

If you need to bleach the use Peroxide based agents. Hydrogen Peroxide works well but the water temp needs to be 160F or hotter for it to be most effective. Percarbonate based peroxide works at lower temps, but it takes more of it. This would be OxiClean. Many detergents that say ”with bleach” are just adding percarbonate based peroxide agents.

Percarbonate bleaches work ”better” at higher temps and long wash durations. They wont do much if the express or quick cycle is used.

Hope that helps some. Tide and Persil are expensive, but they are the best we have found. When dosed properly for your water hardness and level of soiling they do an excellent job.

Thank you everyone! I used the Borax today on some of his clothes in the main wash of the Sanitary cycle (2 tbsps of it to be exact)…and results were MUCH better! Barely smelled anything if at all! I had Gain liquid detergent that I used since my local supermarket was out of Tide powder and it still came out fine. But I’ll still get the Tide powder when I check the other stores tomorrow. And this was about 1/4 load so not a large load of laundry. Usually the most I fill this machine of my son’s #1 clothes and bedding is about 2/3rds full of the 4.5 cu ft drum. Still interested in the Lysol laundry sanitizer and the RLR so will give those a go in the future and report back. Anyway, thanks again folks! :)

I have cloth diaper experience and have found that tide original powder is alone is enough to get them clean. I have not had luck with other detergent trials so I now stick with tide powder. Due to the soil level on your son’s clothes I’d recommend line 2 in the prewash and line 4 in the main wash. Use the hottest wash his clothes can handle (allergene cycle if possible) and an extra rinse since you have soft water.

I would also recommend ”stripping“ his clothes that have the smell after being washed. If you do this once and then establish a good wash routine you shouldn’t have to do it again. I like Grovia Mighty Bubbles for this but RLR would also work. You have a build up in the fabric that needs a deep cleaning to get out. No more fabric softener!

I don't have a problem with lingering odors, but I don't use fabric softener or dryer sheets and have never needed them with our coastal water. I might use 1/2 dryer sheet maybe twice a year when washing and machine drying polar fleece outerwear....so they don't snap and crackle at me when removing them from the dryer.

I've tried the Kirkland big bucket of powdered detergent only once. Other family was raving about it. It did not get DHs work clothes - which can be muddy - clean at all. I gave most of the product away and have used Tide original powder purchased at Costco also for more than 20 years.