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Quote:

Originally Posted by Charlee

Rid-X is NOT necessary if you have a septic system. All it is is a form of yeast that naturally forms anyway. Experts will tell you that you really don't need it. What you want to avoid is bleach and other anti-bacterial products, which will kill the bacteria necessary for the breakdown of solids in the septic tank. Adding something like Rid-X after using bleach isn't going to help, because the bleach will kill the bacteria in Rid-X too.

Cotton is not going to hurt your septic, because it is biodegradable. It's going to rot away. The problem would be that until it does, if you do many rag quilts, you could at least temporarily clog your leach field and cause problems. I would think the problem would be if you're not using a 100% natural batting. Polyester fibers are not going to degrade, they WILL cause problems.

All in all, the laundromat is not a bad idea...

I've heard this too. We use very little bleach (maybe 1/2 cup once every other week in the wash) and NO antibacterial soaps at all. I hate that stuff. I've also heard that garbage disposals don't play well with septic but I have no idea if that's true. We don't have a sink disposal and I rinse dishes (and throw away the solids) before I put them in the dishwasher. I use those screen things in my kitchen sink to keep the junk from going down the drain.

CAUTION
I've only read the first page and I agree with most of it. There is only one problem with going to the laundromat. Many people use a lot of bleach and there could be bleach residue in the washer! I washed a king size quilt at a laundromat. The quilt had a lot of black fabric and it got faded quite a bit in the wash! Obviously there was bleach still in the machine!

[quote=Betty K]I am on a septic system - I don't snip the visible seam allowance. When I finish a rag quilt, while I'm watching tv I pull most of the threads from the seam allowance so very little is left to shed in whatever machine I use.

Now that is a good idea - just pull the threads and no painful fingers and wrist after ages with the scissors. Thank you very much - I think I'm much clloser to doing a rag quilt now.

Nothing like Rid-X, etc - a sales gimmick. Bleach can be used, but sparingly. I know of people who use bleach on EVERYTHING - she's a germaphobic or whatever.
I was told never to make rag quilts for babies,especially, nor very small children as they have a habit of putting things in their mouth and sucking on them. Can you imagine the strings that child could pull out.
Take them to a laundromat as strings can jam up a washer, too, before it goes thru the hose. Someone told me all of this a long time ago and guess she had a bad experience, so she researched it.

I take rag quilts to a commercial machine in a laundry mat.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Charlee

Hi Charlee, We live in the country with 2-tanks. We had
them cleaned out and we used Rid-X. The tank peopple said to use a yeast pack for each tank, we've had no trouble, but, with a new rag quilt, it may be wise to go to
the laundry mat.

Thanks for the tip, I'm almost finished with my first rag quilt and I will definetly go to the laundromat. we have a septic tank.

in the desert we got a blue tubing and put it on the hose of the washer and put it out the gargae door to the yard. that way the yatd got watered and saved alot on watering the grass the yard loved it and was always green. any lint piles just got raked up when doing the yard. when we had draught problems others were asking how the grass was green then 3 other families starting doing it on our small block.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Charlee

Charlee is right, the cotton should not hurt the tank. Glenn