Playtex Diaper Genie Twist- Away Pail System
by Playtex
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List Price: Category: Baby Product See more product details |
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Baby Products Reviews of Playtex Diaper Genie Twist- Away Pail System
Customer Review: Advice from a Toddler's mother
Summary: 4 Stars
We have owned the original diaper genie since my daughter was born (she is now 2). From the start we only used the diaper genie for poopy diapers. We bought a regular trash can with a lid from Linens & Things (Umbra grand can - $16.99) and used that for non-poopy diapers. Originally we only had to change both trash cans every two weeks or so. We lived in a 2 bedroom loft style apartment and never had an issue with odors even though both diaper pails were in our living room.
Now that my daughter is older I still throw the non-poopy diapers in whatever trash can is closest: kitchen, bathroom, bedroom. I never have a problem with odor, I change the bedrooom, bathroom trash cans out every 2 weeks or so. The kitchen trash gets changed every 2 or 3 days.
I do have some issues with odor now on the poopy diapers with the diaper genie since my daughter has developed some food allergies and intermittently has diarrhea. I just put the poopy diapers in a grocery store produce bag and tie before inserting them into the genie and that has solved the problem. However, on the days that she has 5 BMs, I do get a little irritated with the whole push and twist process. I also have to change the diaper genie bag at least every week and occasionally spray with Lysol.
We are expecting #2 so I am looking for a 2nd diaper pail for the nursery. After reading the reviews of the other products out there I am pretty happy with the diaper genie but may try another product this time around. I agree that the refills are expensive but if you only use it for poopy diapers then you will go through far fewer refills. I only have to change refills every 6 - 8 weeks.
I also wish there was a diaper pail out there that would eliminate the twisting but still find a way to seal each diaper individually and used regular trash bags. I'll keep searching.
Customer Review: RTFM this thing rocks!
Summary: 5 Stars
It makes me sad to see so many negative reviews on such a great product. I can tell by reading the reviews that most of these people are suffering from user error, or they don't like the whole concept of the item itself. So if people were using the product the way it's supposed to be used, reading the instructions, read the box, etc... that would solve most complaints right there. And for people who don't like the diaper sausage idea, get the Genie II instead. Problem solved.
It is NOT hard to turn. I could do it just fine when I was 11 with the older version my mom had for my baby sister's diapers, and it's just fine now with the new & improved twisting mechanism.
People are on here talking about trying to operate the can while mid-diaper change... your squirming infant should have your attention. Just finish changing your baby and THEN throw the diaper away. I've never thrown a diaper away mid-change. You get the old diaper off, clean the baby, put the fresh diaper on, and you do it as quickly as possible before the baby decides to put her hands in it, or get it on you. Why you would stop in the middle of that to go throw the diaper away I don't understand. Even for the stinky diapers. The dirty wipes can be set inside the dirty diaper as you clean off the baby, when you wrap up the dirty diaper the dirty wipes are inside it and so they go in the diaper genie too. It's poop, not rocket science.
The Diaper Genie is only $20 at Babys R Us and Target. The Genie II is $10 more. The scented refills have a nice smell to them, it's not like flowers and poop, and they are "all-ages" refills, not just special stages, and they're $6 at Babys R Us. If you want a neat gadget for a diaper pail, get the diaper genie. If you aren't into neat gadgets and $20 is too much for you, get a trash can, tie your diapers into individual baggies.
Customer Review: Genie v. Champ - the real story
Summary: 4 Stars
After reading the reviews on both, I was undecided whether to buy the Diaper Genie or the Diaper Champ. So I bought both and tried them side-by-side. I got the Genie on sale for $19, plus the an extra insert for $5. I bought the Champ for $25 after a $5 coupon. I brought them home and first set up the Genie for it's two-week test run. I loved it. Since it seals each diaper individually, you don't have to throw out a whole bag for a few days worth of diapers. And yes, you'll want to empty it out every three to four days. But that's no problem: press the cut button, give it a turn, two at the most, take the unit to the garbage and open the bottom. The sausage links fall out and you tie up the top again. Easy, clean, no need to mess with the diapers themselves.
Then I set up the Champ. It almost got boxed up its first day. It did almost nothing to control the smell. So I emptied it out and exchanged it, thinking I must have bought a defective one. Nope. The next one was just as bad. I could smell the first messy diaper immediately. Essentially, it's a trash can with an allegedly smell proof lid, but it can't even accomplish that. Then when it's time to empty it out, you are back to emptying a trash can, which means opening the lid, exposing the diapers to the air, and throwing out an essentially empty garbage bag. You will change the bag every day or two. It smells bad. Very. So it's all well and fine that you can use any suitably sized trash bag in it, but you'll go through them that much faster, too. To sum it up, the Champ made it a week before I returned it.
One caveat: both my kids are eating solid foods. The Champ may be nice for newborns with their odorless diapers, since all you have to do is insert diaper and flip the handle, but in my opinion, by the time your kids get to solid foods and the resulting odor, stick with the Genie.
Customer Review: Expensive and unnecessary
Summary: 1 Stars
The "genie" is flawed in many ways. The basic answer is this product doesn't really work. Smells still leak out, diapers don't seal into their sausage rolls consistently, and the cutting blades quickly become dull causing your little poop sausages to unroll as you try to cut the bag to throw the darn thing away! It's a finicky contraption that only works like it's supposed to about 10% of the time. It's made of plastic which absorbs odors so even after you empty it, it still smells like poop. We were buying a new refill about every 5 days. I got tired of spending $25-$30 a month on trash bags that didn't work.
Don't waste your money on buying any diaper "system." Any time you have poop in a container inside your house, it will smell. There is no way to prevent odors from leaking out. And the longer those diapers sit, the more they ferment. Think about it. If you took the lid off a trash can in your house and did your business in it, put the lid back on and left it for a few days, how do you think it would smell? Why do you think bathrooms have exhaust fans?
What we do in our house is have a small trash can that clips to the side of the changing table. We bought it at IKEA for about $5. Walmart sells 4-gallon vanilla scented trash bags in rolls of 100 for $4. Every time (and I mean every time) we have a poopy diaper, the trash bag gets tied up and thrown in the trash can outside. Our daughter is old enough now that she carries the trash to the door for us. I then pick her up and we go outside and drop the bag in the trash can. The diaper trash gets taken out once or twice a day, and the bag only costs about $.04. We spend much more per diapers. The house has never smelled of diapers since we started doing this 9 months ago! I sold our "genie" on ebay for $20.
Customer Review: Indispensable (but the old one was better)
Summary: 4 Stars
For those of you new to diaper genie-dom, here's the deal:
You fill this contraption with a "diaper genie refill." It's essentially a very long plastic garbage bag loaded into a cylinder. You put the diaper into the genie until you feel something grab it. Then you close the whole thing and turn the lid a couple of times. This wraps the diaper in a piece of plastic. You keep doing this until the genie is full. Then you used an attached cutter to cut off the bag and tie it off. You open the bottom, and out comes what looks like an enormous white sausage -- all the wrapped diapers attached to one another. That goes in your garbage, and you're done.
This is the third diaper genie I've owned (I gave one away, and one broke after almost 5 years of use). I have had no problems with odor. The genie comes smelling somewhat baby powderish, and that smell goes away after a while of use. We found that putting a stick-up air freshener in the bottom was more than sufficient, and even without that the only odor "problem" was when we opened the genie.
Typically we can get 20 or so well used size 2 diapers into it without needing to empty it, so we empty it every 3 or so days. A refill lasts a couple of weeks or more.
The cutter on the new model has a tendency to stay down, so if you forget to jiggle it to bring it back to "neutral" position it winds up cutting the bag when you're not expecting it, and that's annoying. Also, it's very difficult to get the first couple of diapers to wrap properly each time -- we often wind up with two or three diapers in one "sausage link" at the beginning of the strand.
Truth be told, I did like the old version better. But this is still indispensable after 7 years and 2 kids.