Diaper Champ - Review from a mom

I'm on a review kick, can you tell?? I guess that's what happens when you are facing a house with two under two....you start evaluating your baby purchases to see if it's worth your while to stick with what you've got or go for a new product.

Today's victim?? The Diaper Champ by Baby Trend.

I chose the Diaper Champ over the Diaper Genie for two big reasons. Bags and hands-on time with the dirty diaper. The Diaper Champ uses standard tall kitchen trash bags. The Diaper Genie requires special Diaper Genie bags. The Diaper Champ has a well that you drop the dirty diaper in and then a handle you use to flip the well and thus dispose of the dirty diaper. The Diaper Genie requires you to use your hands to manually shove the dirty diaper through a tight opening to dispose of it. Something difficult to do with out getting your hands gross sometimes.

Now on to the Diaper Champ's bad side. This diaper disposer stinks. Literally. I use odor neutralizing trash bags and have since day one, but over time, the smell of dirty diapers has permeated the plastic and every time you flip the handle to dispose of a dirty diaper a big waft of dirty diaper smell fills your home. It didn't happen overnight...it took about a year for the plastic to absorb the smell, but now that it has, there's just no getting it out. I have even cloroxed the entire thing several times to no avail.

I had read several reviews prior to purchasing the Diaper Champ that complained of the same thing...apparently if you have an early model Diaper Champ, then this was not a big problem. Rumor had it the plastic they originally used was different and of a higher quality. As with anything though, as the diaper disposer grew in popularity, they outsourced the manufacturing about three years ago and also started using cheaper materials (namely cheaper plastic) and thus the newer models of Diaper Champs stink.

I thought I could outsmart the plastic with the odor neutralizing bags. I even used those blue scented bags for the particularly gross diapers at first, but that got a bit pricey, so I just started using plastic grocery sacks. No luck, though....it looks like I only delayed the inevitable.

I'm really on the fence here...I'm struggling with what to replace our current stink-bomb with. I still think my reasons for not getting a Diaper Genie are valid. I have used friends' Diaper Genies and it really is a pain to have to push the gross diaper through the small opening, but I don't want to spend money on another Diaper Champ that I'll be faced with replacing in a year when it starts to smell. I think what I'm going to do is just get a nice flip-top lidded trash can.

I don't know, though....what do you guys think? Is there anyone out there just LOVES their Diaper Genie and want to try to sell me on it??