Which is cheaper, cloth or disposable diapers?

    Obviously in the short term, disposables are much cheaper--a whole box of disposables costs roughly the equivalent to just two or three of the most expensive type of cloth diapers.  On the other hand, you can't buy used disposable diapers (ewww) like you can with cloth diapers.  In the long term is where the real cost lies.  
    First, you have to consider how long your child(ren) will be in diapers.  The longer they are in diapers, the higher the cost of disposables and the lower of cloth.  Thus multiple children (not twins, but different aged siblings) will be much cheaper in cloth than disposables.  Anyhow, here are the numbers, thanks to this study.

18 months of diapers for 1 child

Disposable = $2577

Cloth =  $590 - $1887 (includes washing cost)

18 months (or 36 months total) for 2 children

Disposable = $5155

Cloth = $799 - $2096 (includes washing cost)

Disposable Cost

The study used prices from 2 of the least expensive popular disposable diapers at a discount chain store (I'm assuming Walmart or Costco).  They factored in the cost of newborn size through size 6 training pants.  Having never used disposables, (except for a few in newborn size while we were waiting on our cloth diapers to arrive), do not know the cost involved personally, so if those of you that use disposables have different numbers to weigh in, please post!

Cloth Diapers Cost

Cloth diapers generally hold up well for use by two children, after two you'll probably need to buy some replacements in each size (we're using some diaper covers that are still working with our kid as the 3rd to use them!).  I checked out the cloth diaper prices of the study and they are accurate.  I personally wash almost every day but that's because I don't have 36 diaper changes like they account for in the study.  In any case, they came up with $36/gas water heater or $122.40/electrical water heater for 30 months as washing cost...I'm using my own numbers as I also account for detergent cost.

Prefolds + Diaper Cover (Cheapest) = $381

More Expensive Cloth Diaper Options = $1678

Washing Cost = $139/yr
Detergent Cost for an average of 4 loads per week = $33.16/yr

Electrical Cost of a cheapo Top Load Washer ($37) & Dryer ($69.12) = $106.12/year 

**For those of you not familiar with cloth diapers, you generally don't need to buy every size of diaper or even 36 of each size.  You can also buy gently used diapers from online stores or Craigslist for significant savings.  Gently used sometimes works better since they've be washed enough to be the most absorbent (new ones you have to pre-wash them 2-6 times to get them to the most absorbent).



The math is all broken down to all the different kinds of diapers in the study if you'd like to see the details.  If anyone has more specific numbers or corrections, please post!