I don’t know where to start. Maybe with the idea that not a single one of the engineers who made this product could possibly have had children or experience with infants. Who ever made this went so overboard with the design/equipment (trying to make this the end-all-be-all diaper disposal system) that they lost track of the functionality and reality of the product… which then makes me wonder how the folks in their marketing dept. could possibly give this unit the thumbs-up… anyway I digress,
I will make this review simple, detailed and effective.
1. The mechanism used to clamp the plastic bag shut is so loud and startling, that there is no way who ever designed this product has ever changed a diaper on a baby at 3:30am. Let’s put it this way – the first time I used it in the middle of the night, it was so startling to the baby that it’s a good thing she’s wearing a fresh diaper when I closed the lid.
Amazed at how loud something that is to be used in a nursery can be, I used my friend’s decibel meter to measure how loud this noise really was… ready? It peaked at 97 dB (using the decibel scale values)- which puts it at the same noise level of a subway train. Now of course the noise the diaper disposal makes is acute and not sustained like subway train rolling by – but just imagine a split second jolt of noise, infiltrating your nursery, equivalent of that to a subway train. Okay, next.
2. The clamp mechanism is very heavy and situated at the top of the unit. Now I don’t know where they get the “7.4 pounds” listed in the item description above but when I measured the unit (with no bag) it came to 11 pounds 4 ounces. So picture this… you have a very lightweight plastic unit that narrows as it approaches its base with all of its weight located at the top. Why is this important? It’s two-fold.
2a. When you flip open the lid to remove/replace the full bag, the unit falls over backwards every time. Not just some of the times, every time. Which of course makes changing the bag just absolutely ridiculously difficult, awkward and laborious.
2b. Now that our girl is 9 months old and has been mastering crawling and climbing up things for 3 months – we have to remove the diaper disposal unit from her nursery if we’re letting her roam free in there. All it took was one time for her to crawl up to and pull herself up using the unit for it to easily topple over and nearly catch her underneath (again, good thing she was wearing a diaper, if you know what I mean)
3. The auto-cycle fan in the filtration system is so quiet you won’t even believe it’s running…. oh wait, it’s because it’s not running! Yes, after inserting 4 D-cell batteries into the unit nothing happened other than a green light turns on. My father-in-law, who is an electrical and mechanical engineer, couldn’t figure out why the fan wasn’t working and simply stated that, “all that battery power must be to needed to run the green light”
Granted this might just be a problem for the particular unit we happened to purchase, but it’s just another drop in this diaper disposal’s ocean of futility.
4. Lastly, her nursery reeks of human-factory-processed winter squash, peas, carrots, prunes, etc… Now this can easily be attributed to the fact its filtration system has never worked, but then what is the industrial-strength clamp and lid’s function? I have litter boxes for our cats that do a better job of containing the odors and they have open entrances for the felines.
Unfortunately between a massive week-long blizzard preventing us from returning it to Babies R Us and the fact we’re so sick of cheap plastic junk in our society filling our landfills, we’re stuck with this thing. Of course it happens to be sitting in our shed out back not being used.
I’ve never used or experienced any other disposal systems so I can’t recommend any other products to you, but all I can do is persuade you from buying/using this one.
Meanwhile we’re using a good ol’ fashion garbage pail ($5 at most) with a lid (and a couple of steel plates placed on the bottom making it extremely stable) and some kitchen garbage bags and it’s working far better than this overly-engineered and $40 fiasco ever has.
Rating: 1 / 5
The lid broke for the second time. I called Customer Service and they wouldn’t help me. (No thanks to Jennifer and ‘Manager’ Sarah who never returned my call.) So, the top broke again in less than 9 months and they said it was past warranty and that was that.
This item has now broken on me TWICE. Despite my former rave reveiws, I’d love to also give it ZERO stars because now it’s only a receptacle for us–as good as a plain old garbage can.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
OLD, NAIVE REVIEW:
We had a Diaper Genie, it’s a total waste of money and plastic. The Diaper Genie was so hard to use and didn’t do anything to stop odors. My son’s room smelled as if we threw the diapers in an open garbage. We replaced it with THE FIRST YEARS CLEAN AIR DIAPER DISPOSAL SYSTEM. It’s awesome!
The greatest thing about it is that it can store about 6-7 days of my son’s diapers without NO yucky odors. WOW!! It has a “clean air” venting system which is totally 100% silent. I actually though it was broken because it made NO noise! It runs on D batteries that last about 9 months. There is a little light that briefly flashes to let you know that the lid is secure and the vent system is working. It uses regular tall kitchen garbage bags–saving us money.
The only drawback is that occasionally you will shut the lid and it won’t fully secure. You’d know that by two clues, the first being that the little green light won’t flash. Later you’ll get the second clue–your baby’s room will start to smell! I now check to see if the light is on each time I put a diaper in to make sure the lid is secure.
We love this product so much. Our son’s room smells clean with no poopy odors, and we save money by using our own tall kitchen bags. It’s also very easy to change–no confusing bag twisting.
I highly recommend using this diaper holder, it’s the best!
Rating: 5 / 5
I bought this in hopes of curing the problems I had with the diaper genie. With the diaper genie I hated the twisting of the bag and shoving of the diaper. This eliminated that by just dropping it into the the bag. However, the crimping system they talk about is very loud. It is worse than the noise created from the twisting of the diaper genie. It would be very startling to a infant. The other plus I thought it had was the filtration system. But I am taking it back because it is just way to loud for my liking. Also, you have to have 4 D Batteries to operate the fan. I am going to purchase the Graco Diaper Pail that has just been released. It has a lot of the same features. You can use regular garbage bags, and it also has a filter. It has a sensor for hands free diaper dispensing. Hopefully it is not as loud as the First Years one.
Rating: 3 / 5
We’ve had the Clean Air diaper disposal for over a year now and overall, it has done very well. This is the only diaper pail I have tried at home, so I can’t fully compare it to others, but overall I am satisfied with it.
The big success: It uses regular kitchen trash bags and has been good at keeping down the diaper odors. However, I must say that it is hard to tell whether or not it’s working unless it’s -not- working… I don’t know how much the fan and filter do, but I believe the mechanical arm system does a good job of clamping the bag shut to keep odors in. My son is now 13 months old and only recently have I noticed any odor issues – but then again, it may just be time to change the filter…
Pro: I like the arm mechanism that keeps the bag clamped shut. Again, I suspect this does a better job of keeping the odors down than the fan & filter system…
Con: The lid is loud when you close it. Very loud. My son and I have gotten used to the noise (a mechanical clang accompanied by the twang of the springs that hold the arms shut) when using it – but when heard over a baby monitor in the next room, it really is an awful sound.
second con: When we first brought our son home, his newborn diapers were too small to be automatically pushed through the arms. I found myself pushing the diapers between the arms manually until he had gone up a diaper size…
Pro: The lid is nice and tight to keep odors in.
Con: sometimes the lid is too tight, making it difficult to open the pail one-handed. It can also be tricky to get the lid fully closed – you have to listen for that “click” of the plastic lid snapping into place after the mechanical arms have twanged shut. More noise…
Pro: The fan is whisper quiet.I usually can’t tell if it’s on or not.
Con: I can never tell if the fan is actually doing anything.
Pro: It has a little indicator light to tell you that it’s working. (because you can’t hear the fan, I suppose…)
Con: There is a single green LED with 4 modes:
on – the fan in running (I hardly ever see this)
off – the unit is off
flashing – the unit is in standby mode. Unfortunately, the flash is at a long enough interval that I am never sure if it is thinking about flashing or if I’ve managed to accidentally turn it off again.
dim – the batteries are wearing low – Either this is hard to see in a decently lit room, or I completely missed it.
I think the indicator light would have been far more useful with multiple colors – red for off, green for working amber for low battery and flashing or alternating colors for “standby”….
Pro: There is a power button to turn the unit off when you don’t need it.
Con: The button is easy to press when opening the lid. The button does not click or slide – it looks the same whether the power is on or not. You have to sit and wait for the light to get around to blinking to determine whether or not the unit is working. I strongly suspect that the thing has been accidentally turned off for quite a while and I never knew it…
Second con: I’m not sure why you would want to turn off the odor control fan on a diaper pail… If it were a loud fan, perhaps I could understand, but with a fan so quiet you can’t tell that it’s running, I don’t see the point of ever turning it off.
And finally, a big con that has no pro to go with it: the unit is top heavy. The batteries (4 D batteries) and motor for the fan are located in the top part of the pail. Eventually, the weight of full diapers will balance it out – but I have to be careful when opening the lid for those first couple diapers unless I want to send the whole thing backwards. And the unit usually tries to fall over backwards every time I have it open to change the bag out. I wish the batteries could have been located in the bottom to balance the pail out better.
Sure there are some drawbacks, but overall, this diaper pail has served us well. Based on the few times I’ve used other diaper pails (visiting friends) I stand by my selection of this pail.
We purchased this diaper pail in anticipation of our first child. What attracted me to it was the fact that it had the air filter, and since this would be in the baby’s room, having an odor-free room for him was very important to me. Not to mention that where I live, the city requires us all to use their trash bags exclusively. Their small bags fit perfectly into this pail, and can hold a week’s worth of diapers.
I had also tried my cousin’s Diaper Genie out and thought that the person who designed it had no children, and had no idea just how many diapers a baby can go through. It also seemed more expensive in the long run, given how you have to use their bags only. Tack that expense onto trash bags that I have to buy anyways, and I may as well do cloth diapers.
Set-up was simple, even for a pregnant lady. And given that neither hubby or I tend to read instructions, operation was quite easy too. I did worry initially that the loud sound of the crimping system and the lid closing would startle our son as it opened and shut, but he never did, and at 6 months, probably never will.
The pail is top-heavy when it is empty, but where we have ours set up- between his changing table and a wall- there really isn’t a place for it to tip, so for us, this is a moot point.
This is the first time I’ve had to change the batteries and the filter, so I can’t say how easy or difficult that will be yet.
So do I wish that the lid was quieter? Yes. Do I wish that the pail was better balanced? Sure. But for volume, and an odor-free room, my money’s on this.
Rating: 4 / 5
I don’t know where to start. Maybe with the idea that not a single one of the engineers who made this product could possibly have had children or experience with infants. Who ever made this went so overboard with the design/equipment (trying to make this the end-all-be-all diaper disposal system) that they lost track of the functionality and reality of the product… which then makes me wonder how the folks in their marketing dept. could possibly give this unit the thumbs-up… anyway I digress,
I will make this review simple, detailed and effective.
1. The mechanism used to clamp the plastic bag shut is so loud and startling, that there is no way who ever designed this product has ever changed a diaper on a baby at 3:30am. Let’s put it this way – the first time I used it in the middle of the night, it was so startling to the baby that it’s a good thing she’s wearing a fresh diaper when I closed the lid.
Amazed at how loud something that is to be used in a nursery can be, I used my friend’s decibel meter to measure how loud this noise really was… ready? It peaked at 97 dB (using the decibel scale values)- which puts it at the same noise level of a subway train. Now of course the noise the diaper disposal makes is acute and not sustained like subway train rolling by – but just imagine a split second jolt of noise, infiltrating your nursery, equivalent of that to a subway train. Okay, next.
2. The clamp mechanism is very heavy and situated at the top of the unit. Now I don’t know where they get the “7.4 pounds” listed in the item description above but when I measured the unit (with no bag) it came to 11 pounds 4 ounces. So picture this… you have a very lightweight plastic unit that narrows as it approaches its base with all of its weight located at the top. Why is this important? It’s two-fold.
2a. When you flip open the lid to remove/replace the full bag, the unit falls over backwards every time. Not just some of the times, every time. Which of course makes changing the bag just absolutely ridiculously difficult, awkward and laborious.
2b. Now that our girl is 9 months old and has been mastering crawling and climbing up things for 3 months – we have to remove the diaper disposal unit from her nursery if we’re letting her roam free in there. All it took was one time for her to crawl up to and pull herself up using the unit for it to easily topple over and nearly catch her underneath (again, good thing she was wearing a diaper, if you know what I mean)
3. The auto-cycle fan in the filtration system is so quiet you won’t even believe it’s running…. oh wait, it’s because it’s not running! Yes, after inserting 4 D-cell batteries into the unit nothing happened other than a green light turns on. My father-in-law, who is an electrical and mechanical engineer, couldn’t figure out why the fan wasn’t working and simply stated that, “all that battery power must be to needed to run the green light”
Granted this might just be a problem for the particular unit we happened to purchase, but it’s just another drop in this diaper disposal’s ocean of futility.
4. Lastly, her nursery reeks of human-factory-processed winter squash, peas, carrots, prunes, etc… Now this can easily be attributed to the fact its filtration system has never worked, but then what is the industrial-strength clamp and lid’s function? I have litter boxes for our cats that do a better job of containing the odors and they have open entrances for the felines.
Unfortunately between a massive week-long blizzard preventing us from returning it to Babies R Us and the fact we’re so sick of cheap plastic junk in our society filling our landfills, we’re stuck with this thing. Of course it happens to be sitting in our shed out back not being used.
I’ve never used or experienced any other disposal systems so I can’t recommend any other products to you, but all I can do is persuade you from buying/using this one.
Meanwhile we’re using a good ol’ fashion garbage pail ($5 at most) with a lid (and a couple of steel plates placed on the bottom making it extremely stable) and some kitchen garbage bags and it’s working far better than this overly-engineered and $40 fiasco ever has.
Rating: 1 / 5
~~~~Updated Comment~~~~ Oct. 26, 2008
The lid broke for the second time. I called Customer Service and they wouldn’t help me. (No thanks to Jennifer and ‘Manager’ Sarah who never returned my call.) So, the top broke again in less than 9 months and they said it was past warranty and that was that.
This item has now broken on me TWICE. Despite my former rave reveiws, I’d love to also give it ZERO stars because now it’s only a receptacle for us–as good as a plain old garbage can.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
OLD, NAIVE REVIEW:
We had a Diaper Genie, it’s a total waste of money and plastic. The Diaper Genie was so hard to use and didn’t do anything to stop odors. My son’s room smelled as if we threw the diapers in an open garbage. We replaced it with THE FIRST YEARS CLEAN AIR DIAPER DISPOSAL SYSTEM. It’s awesome!
The greatest thing about it is that it can store about 6-7 days of my son’s diapers without NO yucky odors. WOW!! It has a “clean air” venting system which is totally 100% silent. I actually though it was broken because it made NO noise! It runs on D batteries that last about 9 months. There is a little light that briefly flashes to let you know that the lid is secure and the vent system is working. It uses regular tall kitchen garbage bags–saving us money.
The only drawback is that occasionally you will shut the lid and it won’t fully secure. You’d know that by two clues, the first being that the little green light won’t flash. Later you’ll get the second clue–your baby’s room will start to smell! I now check to see if the light is on each time I put a diaper in to make sure the lid is secure.
We love this product so much. Our son’s room smells clean with no poopy odors, and we save money by using our own tall kitchen bags. It’s also very easy to change–no confusing bag twisting.
I highly recommend using this diaper holder, it’s the best!
Rating: 5 / 5
I bought this in hopes of curing the problems I had with the diaper genie. With the diaper genie I hated the twisting of the bag and shoving of the diaper. This eliminated that by just dropping it into the the bag. However, the crimping system they talk about is very loud. It is worse than the noise created from the twisting of the diaper genie. It would be very startling to a infant. The other plus I thought it had was the filtration system. But I am taking it back because it is just way to loud for my liking. Also, you have to have 4 D Batteries to operate the fan. I am going to purchase the Graco Diaper Pail that has just been released. It has a lot of the same features. You can use regular garbage bags, and it also has a filter. It has a sensor for hands free diaper dispensing. Hopefully it is not as loud as the First Years one.
Rating: 3 / 5
We’ve had the Clean Air diaper disposal for over a year now and overall, it has done very well. This is the only diaper pail I have tried at home, so I can’t fully compare it to others, but overall I am satisfied with it.
The big success: It uses regular kitchen trash bags and has been good at keeping down the diaper odors. However, I must say that it is hard to tell whether or not it’s working unless it’s -not- working… I don’t know how much the fan and filter do, but I believe the mechanical arm system does a good job of clamping the bag shut to keep odors in. My son is now 13 months old and only recently have I noticed any odor issues – but then again, it may just be time to change the filter…
Pro: I like the arm mechanism that keeps the bag clamped shut. Again, I suspect this does a better job of keeping the odors down than the fan & filter system…
Con: The lid is loud when you close it. Very loud. My son and I have gotten used to the noise (a mechanical clang accompanied by the twang of the springs that hold the arms shut) when using it – but when heard over a baby monitor in the next room, it really is an awful sound.
second con: When we first brought our son home, his newborn diapers were too small to be automatically pushed through the arms. I found myself pushing the diapers between the arms manually until he had gone up a diaper size…
Pro: The lid is nice and tight to keep odors in.
Con: sometimes the lid is too tight, making it difficult to open the pail one-handed. It can also be tricky to get the lid fully closed – you have to listen for that “click” of the plastic lid snapping into place after the mechanical arms have twanged shut. More noise…
Pro: The fan is whisper quiet.I usually can’t tell if it’s on or not.
Con: I can never tell if the fan is actually doing anything.
Pro: It has a little indicator light to tell you that it’s working. (because you can’t hear the fan, I suppose…)
Con: There is a single green LED with 4 modes:
on – the fan in running (I hardly ever see this)
off – the unit is off
flashing – the unit is in standby mode. Unfortunately, the flash is at a long enough interval that I am never sure if it is thinking about flashing or if I’ve managed to accidentally turn it off again.
dim – the batteries are wearing low – Either this is hard to see in a decently lit room, or I completely missed it.
I think the indicator light would have been far more useful with multiple colors – red for off, green for working amber for low battery and flashing or alternating colors for “standby”….
Pro: There is a power button to turn the unit off when you don’t need it.
Con: The button is easy to press when opening the lid. The button does not click or slide – it looks the same whether the power is on or not. You have to sit and wait for the light to get around to blinking to determine whether or not the unit is working. I strongly suspect that the thing has been accidentally turned off for quite a while and I never knew it…
Second con: I’m not sure why you would want to turn off the odor control fan on a diaper pail… If it were a loud fan, perhaps I could understand, but with a fan so quiet you can’t tell that it’s running, I don’t see the point of ever turning it off.
And finally, a big con that has no pro to go with it: the unit is top heavy. The batteries (4 D batteries) and motor for the fan are located in the top part of the pail. Eventually, the weight of full diapers will balance it out – but I have to be careful when opening the lid for those first couple diapers unless I want to send the whole thing backwards. And the unit usually tries to fall over backwards every time I have it open to change the bag out. I wish the batteries could have been located in the bottom to balance the pail out better.
Sure there are some drawbacks, but overall, this diaper pail has served us well. Based on the few times I’ve used other diaper pails (visiting friends) I stand by my selection of this pail.
Rating: 4 / 5
We purchased this diaper pail in anticipation of our first child. What attracted me to it was the fact that it had the air filter, and since this would be in the baby’s room, having an odor-free room for him was very important to me. Not to mention that where I live, the city requires us all to use their trash bags exclusively. Their small bags fit perfectly into this pail, and can hold a week’s worth of diapers.
I had also tried my cousin’s Diaper Genie out and thought that the person who designed it had no children, and had no idea just how many diapers a baby can go through. It also seemed more expensive in the long run, given how you have to use their bags only. Tack that expense onto trash bags that I have to buy anyways, and I may as well do cloth diapers.
Set-up was simple, even for a pregnant lady. And given that neither hubby or I tend to read instructions, operation was quite easy too. I did worry initially that the loud sound of the crimping system and the lid closing would startle our son as it opened and shut, but he never did, and at 6 months, probably never will.
The pail is top-heavy when it is empty, but where we have ours set up- between his changing table and a wall- there really isn’t a place for it to tip, so for us, this is a moot point.
This is the first time I’ve had to change the batteries and the filter, so I can’t say how easy or difficult that will be yet.
So do I wish that the lid was quieter? Yes. Do I wish that the pail was better balanced? Sure. But for volume, and an odor-free room, my money’s on this.
Rating: 4 / 5