Thursday, July 30, 2009

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??

5 comments:

Megan said...

Just wanted to let you know, if you don't want to buy another one, and want to save some money, we have survived 14 months with no Diaper Genie or Diaper Champ. Only teetee diapers get to go in the trashcan, and that is taken out regularly. Poopoo diapers either get dumped into the toilet and then thown in the OUTSIDE trash or just taken straight outside to the trashcan if it is not easily "dumpable"! Since we usually only have one poopie diaper a day, this hasn't been a problem. Also, our outside trashcan is completely outside, not in the garage. :)

Erica said...

Well, it just so happens that I asked all my friends their review on their diaper pail and here's what I got: plastic bags. That's right...peepee diapers in the garbage. Stinky diapers go in a plastic bag (Wal-mart bag, for example) then tie it up at the top to trap in the smell and then either hang on the front door to take out our put in the garbage (if your garbage goes out daily). That was the opinion of all my girlfriends. Hope this helps!

Erica

Anonymous said...

we finally threw ours away at 10 months - STINKY!

so now we put pee diapers in the trash can and poop goes right out.

i will not be purchasing anything for our next child.

The Nall Knoll said...

4 for 4. We did the same, all stinky diapers went to the outside trash after being tightly wrapped in a wal-mart bag.

It's ok to be average! said...

Thanks for the feedback! Diaper champ out, plastic grocery bags in! :)