The Best Diaper Pail Review

We put more weight on odor control than any other factor, and even in our tests of things like the ease of changing the bag, differences in the stink involved were a key consideration.

You'll find full details on the nasty hands-on (and nose-on) process we used to test diaper pails in our "How We Tested" section, but we will tell you that we're happy that we won't need to retest them again until next year.

The "Sniff Tests" Divide the Competition
We found that all of the pails did a pretty good job managing odors when they were closed. Each of the pails offers some way to keep the pail relatively tightly sealed up when closed. We observed minor differences between odors coming from closed pails that had not been disturbed for hours. However, the differences in competing products really come out when you open and close them to put a dirty diaper in them. And, you'll be opening and closing your pail a lot in practice, up to every few hours.

Despite various innovative designs which seek to minimize the odors released when placing a diaper in the pail, the stinky wiff coming your way varied from mild to a nasty blast when inserting a dirty diaper inside. The resulting stink bomb can linger in your nursery (or whatever room you normally change diapers in) and become a real buzz kill on your newborn bliss.

Thankfully, the top performing products did a great job at containing odors. Without further adieu, let's break it down for you.

Editors' Choice Winner - Diaper Genie Essentials
Surprisingly, it was not Playtex's top-of-the-line Diaper Genie Elite that won our award, but their lower cost entry, the Diaper Genie Essentials (formerly known as the Diaper Genie II). More than any other product tested, the Diaper Genie Essentials minimized dirty diaper odors. Simple in design, easy-to-use, the Diaper Genie provides a quick drop-in for dirty diapers through a clam-shell shaped flap. You can easily operate it with baby in one hand and the dirty diaper in the other, despite the fact that it lacks a foot pedal like several competing products. Most importantly, the Diaper Genie Essentials was the best pail in our tests at controlling odors.

When closed, the Diaper Genie Essentials is well sealed and even when full of "testing material" we could barely detect any smell even when nose-to-the-pail. When inserting a dirty diaper, all the pails released some odor, but the Diaper Genie Essentials released less than any other, in some cases by a very wide margin. We think their clam-shell insertion flap, which is pretty tightly sprung and requires you to push through the diaper, combined with their proprietary refill bag system, are the two keys to the Diaper Genie's superior odor control.

The Diaper Genie's innovative "Push and Lock" clamp design for inserting a dirty diaper is slightly more complex than competing products, and some parents complain that when you push a leaking diaper into it you can sometimes end up with a bit of poo on your hands (we did find this complaint valid, but we also found a combination of carefully wrapping up a dirty diaper and care in pushing it through mitigates that risk). Nonetheless, day-in and day-out, the Diaper Genie's ability to manage your stinky poopy dirty diapers is unmatched. Simply stated, you can comfortably place the Diaper Genie Essentials in an enclosed room and experience no noticeable smell. We also liked the Diaper Genie's system for changing the bag when full, which allows you to wrap up the dirty diapers like a sausage and never risk touching the diapers.

So, what's the downside? Total cost of ownership. At roughly $35 street price, the Diaper Genie is not expensive at first glance. But, you'll need to add in the cost of enough proprietary refill cartridges for the 5,000 diapers your baby will go through, and we estimate that will add about $95 in cost in the first year, and another $95 over the next 2-3 years of use. That places total cost of ownership at about $225 over four years. Is it worth it? We think so, but you'll want to consider whether the convenience of spending an average of $0.15/day is worth the convenience of avoiding nearly 5,000 trips to the outside garbage can.

Bottom line: the Diaper Genie Essentials is our Editors' Choice for best diaper pail.

Best Value Winner - Diaper Champ Deluxe
Fortunately, for those of you gulping at the prospect of spending over $200 in total cost of ownership on the Diaper Genie, the Diaper Champ Deluxe is an alternative worth considering. While the Diaper Champ does provide proprietary bags as an option, it is compatible with normal kitchen trash bags. In terms of total cost of ownership through the estimated 5,000 diapers you'll go through over four years, we estimate you'll spend about $45 on kitchen trash bags (we estimate you'll need about 215 bags) bringing total cost of ownership to approximately $80 for the Diaper Champ Deluxe. If you use the Diaper Champ proprietary bags which claim to offer superior odor control (we used them in our sniff testing), you'll spend an estimated $145 on bags, bringing your total cost of ownership to about $180. The invisible cost with the Diaper Champ is inferior odor control when compared to the Diaper Genie Essentials. In our tests, the Diaper Champ did a good job with odor control, but the Diaper Genie was noticeably better. Many parents find that the Diaper Champ to be completely satisfactory in use and claim they never notice diaper smells. What we can assure you of based on our tests, is that the Diaper Champ, offering good odor management with normal trash bags, is going to save you over $145 when compared to the cost of getting the best odor management.

Diaper Champ vs. Diaper Genie — the Cagematch
The Diaper Champ versus Diaper Genie debate has raged on for years between newborn parents, with many parents taking a passionate position on one side or the other. And, while there are a number of new products on the market, such as the Munchkin Arm and Hammer pail, in our ratings and rankings we came down to the same two finalists many others have debated about. We decided to put the argument to rest by detailing a point-by-point comparison of the two based on our hands-on tests. You'll find those details and our answer in the related article titled, "Diaper Champ versus Diaper Genie Cagematch."

Conclusion
You can see the full details of our test results in the ratings and comparison table above. There were a number of products which did a good job in our tests, and we've attempted to document our findings on each in detail.

And, while on the subject of changing diapers, you might want to check out our comprehensive The Best Diaper Bag Review. It will give you the straight scoop on the best and most stylish Diaper Bags ranging in cost from less than $30 to $200.