Customer Reviews

Playtex Diaper Genie Twist- Away Pail System

5 star:		(80)
4 star:		(66)
3 star:		(24)
2 star:		(45)
1 star:		(156)

 

 

Be advised...many of these reviews are for the OLD Diaper Genie, but the NEW Diaper Genie works great!! My daughter is six and a half months old. After fighting with the Neat Diaper Disposal System by Safety First (Way too wasteful!!!)for six months, we decided upon the Diaper Genie based on the recommendation of my cousin. We LOVE it!! The new version is very easy to use. To refill it, you simply drop the refill in, tie a knot in the bag, and you're ready to use it. Disposing of a diaper couldn't be easier...you just push in a diaper until it is between the clamps, close the lid, and turn the wheel a couple of times (We have found four to be the 'Magic' number.). I love how it 'sausages' the diapers into individual portions of the bag. It keeps in odors as well as anything. Let's face it...poop stinks. Any diaper disposal should be emptied at least two to three times a week, or it will become unbearable. Be advised, if you feed your baby anything other than breastmilk or formula, use the Stage Two bags!! Emptying it is a cinch...just turn the wheel an extra couple of times, push down the cutter button while turning the wheel a half turn, turn the wheel until the button pops up, open, and empty...EASY!! Unlike another reviewer, I see no way that you could reach the blades that cut the bag. They are covered for safety. (I tried every way I could think of before writing this just to be sure.) Another hint of something I have done is to apply restickable stickers to the Diaper Genie to match my daughter's nursery. We used ones you can peel and reuse. They add some 'glam' to an otherwise 'blah' diaper disposal. Overall, we love the Diaper Genie, if you can love a diaper disposal. :) It works great for us!!

Do not waste your money on the Diaper Genie. Even the "new and improved" Diaper Genie can't compare to the Diaper Champ. The Diaper Champ uses regular size trash bags where the Diaper Genie requires special refills. I can't speak for anyone else, but personally, the idea of having to constantly buy expensive refills for my diaper pail, when we already have trash bags in the house, is nuts.

As for the "smell" issue. Let's face it - diapers stink. And regardless of brand, ANY diaper pail still needs to be emptied on a regular basis. As for the Diaper Genie vs the Diaper Champ, I have seen no difference in odor control between the two brands - both work pretty well to contain and control odor better than a regular trash barrel, but neither are odor proof.

I have to say I was very much the stereotypical guy before my daughter was born. "I DON'T WANT TO CHANGE ANY DIAPERS!" To an extent that is still the case, but I'm no doofus - I know I have to, and I do - at least a couple times a day. Anyway, the main reason I didn't want to is the stink. Now there's not much you can do about the diaper when it comes off your kid, but the New & Improved Diaper Genie works wonders! Unless I'm going to empty the thing (which is done outside into the large trash can anyway), the inside of the house is kept stink free by this gadget.

The way it works is you push the diaper down into the bag, twist the top a few times, creating a "diaper sausage". The sausages are kept sealed up, which is where most of the smell prevention comes from, I would imagine. I had a relative back home who swore by this thing, so it went on my wife's and mine baby registry.

I'm glad we did. This thing works great. The only downside I see to it is that you have to buy refills for it. But I consider that a worthwhile expense if it helps keep diaper stink away.

Not sure where all these negative reviews are coming from, unless it's from people who don't know how to properly use the thing.

It appears many of the reviews here are for the OLD Diaper Genie. Please note: These are NOT the same products. As the owner of both the old and new Genies, let me tell you there is a BIG difference! We had to replace our older one because of a broken latch and bought the new version. The new one has improved all of the problems with the original. It is SO much easier to use! You now seal off the diaper using the top knob, instead of turning the inside ring. And the refill just drops right in -- no more hassle trying to get the ring inside the refill. Easy to empty when needed. Night and day difference.

Don't be turned off by the reviews for the old product mistakenly posted here. Even I suggested people look at competing products when I had the old version. But the new one really has corrected the problems.

I have the old model Diaper Genie and the fact that this one has one-handed operation is great - it's the ONLY issue I have with the old one. A few comments on other reviews:

1. Some people claim the refills are too expensive. We get them at WalMart for less than $5 each and each one has lasted more than a month, even with a 7-month-old who poops like it's an Olympic sport. $5 a month is worth it for the convience of not having to change it as much as you would with a garbage bag - which are probably about as expensive.

2. Some people say it smells - I can't believe that. Even with our baby eating solid foods and making hideously stinky poops, there is NO odor in our nursery. Not even a little!! I empty it every 7-10 days and there is never, ever an odor coming from it, even when I am sitting next to it playing on the floor with the baby.

I love that it is easy to use, easy to empty and refill and that there is no smell at all. We don't use it for wet-only diapers and I would recommend it to everyone with an infant.

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.

This thing is really good at eliminating odors in the house. How to conserve the specialty plastic: First:tie a really tight knot when you start, otherwise it can leak. Second, you twist the inner lid after each diaper, but instead of just adding another diaper to make a sausage-link-like chain, untwist and add the next diaper, then twist again. The odors are controlled. All the diapers wind up in a single "bag" you use a LOT less plastic than if you make a chain of diapers.

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.

Our daughter is 7 months old now and we've just started solids. Boy, does here BM's small bad now! ha ha. But the Diaper Genie doesn't leave any smell. You walk into her room and wouldn't even know we keep her diaper can in there! The only thing that is a little confusing about it is after you empty it and put a knot in the bottom it's a little confusing on how to get it to start twisting again. But it only took us about a week to figure it out and after that it's GREAT! I tried the Neat diaper pale and Genie is far better.

Do not waste your money on the genie. Never mind it being a pain to use, the bag untwists itself, when you open the pail to put a diaper in the smell knocks you out and you have to put your hand into the pail and push it down in order to turn the pail....YUCK..... The champ takes regular garbage bags, you simply flip the lid over and you don't have to push down dirty diapers. It holds a good amount of diapers and is very easy to use. Save your money and start out with the champ. Hope this was helpful and good luck..