Laundry

Oh, laundry...the part of cloth diapering that many people say keeps them from even attempting cloth diapers.  The truth is, once you get a routine down, washing your cloth diapers becomes about the same effort as taking bags of stinky disposable diapers out to the garbage at least daily.  It is true that you have to launder your diapers correctly, or else you will end up with detergent build-up, ammonia, stains, or other nasty problems.  It's also important to strip your diapers every six months, or more often if needed.  Let's talk about pre-wash/pre-rinse, storage of dirty diapers, frequency of washing, cycles, detergent, and drying.

Pre-Wash/Pre-Rinse
Rule number one: poo must go down the toilet!  Never leave it on your diaper expecting it to come out in the wash.  Your diapers will likely not come out clean and will probably be stained.  If you like, you can purchase a bumGenius Diaper Sprayer that attaches to your toilet for the purpose of spraying poopy diapers.  I am blessed to have a child with rather firm poo, so his normally rolls right off.  I then use an old toothbrush to immediately scrub out any marks left on the diaper.  If you don't care about stains, this would not be necessary.
You'll find many methods out there for urine-only diapers.  Some moms choose to place the urine-soaked diaper immediately in a pail and leave it there until wash time.  That was my initial method; however, I began having problems with ammonia and decided to begin rinsing them immediately after a diaper change.  It's not a long process, just 30 seconds or so - long enough until the diaper no longer smells of urine.  This pre-rising (combined with my storage technique described below) have keep away all the stink!

Storage of Dirty Diapers
After reading a lot of reviews, I initially used a large Planet Wise Diaper Pail Liner inside a garbage can.  This combination worked perfectly at containing the stink to the diaper pail and could hold even more diapers than I owned.  Even after a super wash on all my diapers, my ammonia problem persisted, so I switched to storing the dirty diapers in an open laundry basket similar to this one.  I had read that storing them in an open container actually decreases the odor, because the bacteria-causing-odor does not like oxygen.  A wet, closed-up diaper pail is breeding grounds for the bacteria.  To further prevent bacteria/ammonia build-up, I allow the wet diaper to dry until damp on the rim of the laundry basket before tossing it in with the other dirty diapers.  This method is working great for me.  Although there is a minor stench wafting from the baby's bathroom on the day before washing, his diapers no longer smell like ammonia while he is wearing them!

Frequency of Washing
Every other day.  Period.  Leave the urine in the diapers much longer than that and the urea in the urine can turn to ammonia, which takes a bit of work to get out of your diapers.  For a great article on understanding ammonia, see this article by Rock In Green detergent.

Cycles
Initially, I did only one cycle when washing diapers.  This was a big mistake, as they were not getting clean.  The method that works great for me is: pre-rinse (cold), wash (hot) with detergent, and an extra rinse (cold).  Even if you only have a few diapers, it is important to set the fill line to medium or high for all cycles in order to maximize the cleanse.  If you do not pre-rinse your diapers after each diaper change, you may need to do more than one pre-rinse to break up the crystallized urea in the diapers.

Detergent
I tried using an all-natural detergent (Nellie's) recommended to me, but found this was useless in cleaning diapers.  In fact, it doesn't even clean our regular laundry.  All Free & Clear has worked perfectly.  Here is a great web-site for figuring out if the detergent you are using is safe for your diapers.
The key with the detergent is to not use too much.  It is better to err on the side of using too little than using too much.  You should only use about 1/3-1/2 the amount of detergent recommended on the bottle.  Use more than that, and your diapers will get detergent build-up and hold stink.

Drying
Yes, most diaper inserts can be dried with heat in your dryer.  Do I put my diapers in the dryer?  No.  The reason I am using cloth diapers is to keep some money in my pocket and to be kind to the environment.  Running my dryer isn't exactly in line with those objectives.  If you are going to put your diapers in the dryer, be warned that repeatedly using heat on your covers made of PUL can destroy their ability to hold wetness.
Depending on the humidity in the air, my hang dried diapers are normally fully dried 16-24 hours later.  Inserts made with more layers or with natural fibers take longer to dry than the others.  Some of the natural fabrics are more stiff when air dried, but this isn't a problem as long as they aren't touching your babies bum.  Hopefully you have already heard that sun drying your diapers makes breastfed baby poo disappear like magic!

What is your process for washing your diapers?  With which detergents have you had the best luck?