I am in the final week of my diaper pail review. Let me remind you where I last left you off HERE. I am comparing two popular diaper pails- The Diaper Genie II Elite (left) and Arm & Hammer Diaper Pail by Munchkin (right). I have two children in diapers so diaper changing occurs often in this home. In the last post, I shared with you some pros and cons to the pails. The size of the two varied greatly. The Diaper Genie was tall and slender while the munchkin was rather short. I appreciated the scent dispenser (Arm & Hammer) on the Munchkin while the Diaper Genie had a nice foot pedal for opening the top.
My Summary
Diaper Genie II Elite ($34.54 on Amazon, Refills are $16.54 for a pack of 3)
- I definitely appreciated ALL BUT ONE feature of this diaper pail. First I liked that it was taller so it held more diapers. It stood in the corner of the room and could go unnoticed. It was very easy to drop a diaper in the container with no hands available because of the foot pedal. The odor in the beginning was not a problem and still remained to fee of isues until a full container yielded a nasty odor when a new diaper was placed in the pail. In other words, when the lid open the lid open and the fumes escaped! There was no way to contain this smell. One final appreciation was that it as easy to throw trash away in addition to diapers. I don’t want to have a trash can AND a diaper pail in my child’s room.
Arm & Hammer Diaper Pail (Priced $29 on Amazon, Refills are $6.99 for 10 bags)
- My favorite feature of this pail was the mouth of the container when it was open. There was never a change for fumes to escape when you were placing a new diaper in the pail. Two features I could not stand about this pail were the height (I was bending over a lot put diaper in) and the latch (It was hard to hold a baby, diaper, and open the pail). I told you earlier how the pail was broken the second I took it out of the box. I called Munchkin and they asked simply that I take a picture of the pail and they would send me a replacement! Very easy and great customer service. That goes for two thumbs up in my book.
All and all there are two features that I don’t like of both of these pails – they require you to buy the refills. I love pails that can utilized kitchen garbage bags. Both refills are pretty reasonable, however, especially for how often you change them. If I had to declare an absolute favorite, though, it would be the Diaper Genie II Elite. The pail held the most diapers, was taller, required me to not have to use my hands ,took trash, and kept the smell out at all times other than when I was placing a new diaper in the pail. To make the Diaper Genie the best, I would advise they change the mouth to be more like the Munchkin – Free of releasing odors. While I did not deal with customer service on the Diaper Genie, Munkchin was very accommodating and that is important to me.
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Do you have either? Tell me your thoughts!
Disclosure: I am a member of the Mom Central community and I wrote this review while participating in a Test Drive campaign by Mom Central, sponsored by Diaper Genie, and received a free Diaper Genie diaper pail and a free Munchkin Arm & Hammer diaper pail to facilitate my review.
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Amy Phillips says
I have the Munchkin Diaper Pail and I really appreciate how it seems to seal in the smell (while closed) and neutralize the odors byway of Arm and Hammer. The refill packs are $5.50 at Target!
Frugal Coupon Living says
The top does a good job keeping the fumes out. I wish the Munchkin was as tall as the Diaper Genie.
Alison Phillips says
I have the Diaper Genie Elite II which we love to use. The scent when you open the pail is a little gross but we have figured out two things around that. First was my idea, a gel air freshner in the bottom to take the edge off (and make the container itself smell better). The second was my husband’s idea so I take no credit. When you start the bag put in a little bit of baby powder and if it gets extra stinky through the week than add a dash more. I guess it is doing the same thing as the Arm and Hammer bags but we didn’t have baking soda in the nursery :) Now that I use re-usable bags for shopping, we don’t have a lot of extra plastic bags around so I like this system.
Frugal Coupon Living says
WOW Alison – I LOVE it!