Playtex Diaper Genie Pail Review

We bought a diaper genie at a yard sale before we had our first child. It was the older version with the smaller opening at the top with replacement bags with the pink stripe. Later, we acquired one of the newer ones with a larger opening with replacement bags with the blue stripe. They also makes one with an even larger opening with replacement bags with a green stripe, but we have never used that one. The Diaper Genie is a large plastic trashlike container with a hinged lid. A circular insert in the top contains a tubular plastic bag.

How it works: 

• To set up, place a replacement set of bags into the top of the Diaper Genie by removing the entire top and pull up the top edge of the plastic bag.
• Place the top of the Diaper Genie back on and pull the top edge of the plastic bag above the top edge of the Genie.
• Place the plastic ring on the inside of the plastic bag and seat it into the Genie.
• Bring the top edge of the plastic bag together and tie in a knot
• Push the knot through the opening and twist the ring.
• Place used diapers into the Diaper Genie until they are well past the twisting part.
• Twist the top ring to close the bag
• Shut the outer lid.
• Once full, use the specially designed cutter to cut the bag and tie and remove the old bag from below--each diaper is in its own separate section of the bag with a twist above and below.
• Repeat steps above to replace the bags.

It sounded like a great idea, but we ended up giving ours away. The pros simply did not outweight the cons for us.

Pros:

• Keeps diapers contained--keeps baby from playing with dirty diapers
• Helps some with odor control (but doesn't eliminate odors entirely)
• Newer ones with larger opening easier to place diapers in
• Newer ones have a place to store the cutter in the lid
• Holds quite a few diapers

Cons:

• EXPENSIVE to replace bags (This was an unnecessary cost that we decided we could do without and was the main reason we gave ours away.)
• When only a few diapers in the Genie, it tended to try to come untwisted and would smell.
• Placing a LOADED, stinky diaper in one might cause the contents to squeeze out when placing in the Diaper Genie--YUCK-O!
• No warning when bags became low (Push the diaper down and poof! Suddenly, the Diaper Genie needed a replacement bag.
• Replacing the bags was a job that intimidated many (I usually kept the instructions in a drawer right by the Diaper Genie because we did not need to replace the bags often, but I tended to be the only one in the house that would readily replace them.)
• It was difficult to tell when the Diaper Genie was full until you try to push a diaper into it and discover that the Genie is too full. This usually happens when you have a LOADED, stinky one halfway through the opening.
• The older ones had a smaller opening and no place to store the cutter, so that was a good improvement in the design. However, the plastic pieces in the lid to enable us to store the cutter broke easily, so we still ended up having to store the cutter in a separate place.

My Viewpoint:

A Diaper Genie does have some good points, like keeping dirty diapers stored and partially controlling odors, but the expensive was not worth it for us. Placing dirty diapers in the trash can works just fine for us for much less money.