What's so special about a Diaper Genie or similar products?

[cjra]

- ie, as opposed to a regular old trash bin with lid + liner.

We'll be using cloth, so will have to have *something* to put dirty
nappies in for a few days before wash. Are any of these special diaper
pails worthwhile in terms of odor control?

[Gorgon Park]

cjra wrote:
> - ie, as opposed to a regular old trash bin with lid + liner.
>
> We'll be using cloth, so will have to have *something* to put dirty
> nappies in for a few days before wash. Are any of these special diaper
> pails worthwhile in terms of odor control?

Diaper Genie and other products like that produce a long "sausage"
string of diapers in a plastic bag. So, they are not at all suitable
for cloth diapers.

For cloth, you will just need to decide if you are doing a "wet" pail
or a "dry" pail. If you are doing wet (water in the pail, soak the
diapers in the water between washings), you will need a pail that has a
locking lid to avoid having a drowning hazard in your home. If you are
doing a dry pail (just throw the diapers in and wash regularly), any
pail with a lid will do.

We do a dry pail and the one thing that I have found is useful is a
large mesh laundry bag in the pail. It makes hauling the stinky
diapers out of the pail to put in the wash a whole lot less icky!

Odour control with cloth diapers is just a matter of making sure the
pail is closed and washing the diapers every 2 or 3 days. Even when we
had a diaper service that only picked up once a week, as long as the
pail was closed, there was no noticeable smell. By the end of the
week, there was odour that would linger for a bit when you put another
diaper in, but it didn't linger long.

Hope that gives you some ideas!
Stacey

[Sue]

I have no clue, other than enticing people to spend money. I used a regular
ole diaper pail with a lid and had no problems.
--
Sue (mom to three girls)

"cjra" > wrote in message
oups.com...
> - ie, as opposed to a regular old trash bin with lid + liner.
>
> We'll be using cloth, so will have to have *something* to put dirty
> nappies in for a few days before wash. Are any of these special diaper
> pails worthwhile in terms of odor control?
>

[V.]

"cjra" > wrote in message
oups.com...
>- ie, as opposed to a regular old trash bin with lid + liner.
>
> We'll be using cloth, so will have to have *something* to put dirty
> nappies in for a few days before wash. Are any of these special diaper
> pails worthwhile in terms of odor control?
>

I use a Diaper Champ with disposables, and it really works well for odor
ctrl IMO. Diaper Genie wouldn't work for cloth b/c it packages each diaper
in a twist of plastic. The Diaper Champ uses regular trash bags and it's
basically a lid with an "air lock" so you don't expose the dirty diapers to
air when you add a diaper. Would probably work with cloth diapers, but I'm
not sure you'd find it useful if you are taking the dirty diapers away every
couple of days.

Amy

[Anne Rogers]

I thought you were doing cloth...

anyway these fancy devices are for disposibles, they seal each diaper up, so
in theory they shouldn't smell if you aren't able to empty it frequently.

I'm afraid to say it doesn't seem to work that well, our church bought one
for the creche room as before that we were supposed to take our diapers
home, but people forgot and what not and then the room got very smelly. But
it doesn't seem that infrequent that the fancy thing has to be moved outside
as it is smelling! But that is probably as it is in a public place people
are unfamilar with it's usage and do the wrong thing, it may well work fine
in the home where everyone knows exactly how to use it, but I suspect it's
only worth it if you can't take them outside regularly, or have infrequent
collections.


Anne

[Anne Rogers]

> We'll be using cloth, so will have to have *something* to put dirty
> nappies in for a few days before wash. Are any of these special diaper
> pails worthwhile in terms of odor control?

bother, should have read the 2nd paragraph

as far as I know the fancy ones are for disposable only, the oder control is
by sealing each used one into it's own plastic sleeve, you couldn't do that
for reusable. All you need is a tight fitting lid, we've had the diaper
bucket in our bedroom for a year I've never noticed a smell, we dry pail
(some people put the used diaper in to a bucket with water and some kind of
agent in it and store that way prior to washing it, as we never had issues
with not doing that, we never really found out anymore about it).

Anne

[cjra]

Gorgon Park wrote:

>
> Odour control with cloth diapers is just a matter of making sure the
> pail is closed and washing the diapers every 2 or 3 days. Even when we
> had a diaper service that only picked up once a week, as long as the
> pail was closed, there was no noticeable smell. By the end of the
> week, there was odour that would linger for a bit when you put another
> diaper in, but it didn't linger long.


Thanks all for the info. I hadn't looked at them very closely so didn't
realise they were for disposables. That solves any dilema I may have
had. A plain old pail it is then.

Thanks!

[Nikki]

"V." > wrote in message

The Diaper Champ uses regular trash bags and it's
> basically a lid with an "air lock" so you don't expose the dirty diapers
> to air when you add a diaper. Would probably work with cloth diapers, but
> I'm not sure you'd find it useful if you are taking the dirty diapers away
> every couple of days.

I found the diaper champs for $2 so I bought them for my cloth since you
can't buy any other kind of pail for $2! I removed the 'air lock' thing
though. No smell at all but they aren't very big considering how big cloth
diapers are. If you want to wash less often then every three, maybe four
days then you will need something bigger.


--
Nikki, mama to
Hunter 4/99
Luke 4/01
Brock 4/06
Ben 4/06

[Anne Rogers]

> I found the diaper champs for $2 so I bought them for my cloth since you
> can't buy any other kind of pail for $2! I removed the 'air lock' thing
> though. No smell at all but they aren't very big considering how big
> cloth diapers are. If you want to wash less often then every three, maybe
> four days then you will need something bigger.

although you have to check how many you can put in your machine, the ideal
diaper bucket in my mind is one that holds the same amount as you can fit in
your machine! The silly thing we found was that all the ones we saw sold as
diaper buckets didn't as the initial one we had (99p) was annoying as it
didn't fill the machine. So I changed to a random thing our of a bargain
shop at a similarly bargain price.

Anne

[Nikki]

"Anne Rogers" > wrote in message
...
>> I found the diaper champs for $2 so I bought them for my cloth since you
>> can't buy any other kind of pail for $2! I removed the 'air lock' thing
>> though. No smell at all but they aren't very big considering how big
>> cloth diapers are. If you want to wash less often then every three,
>> maybe four days then you will need something bigger.
>
> although you have to check how many you can put in your machine, the ideal
> diaper bucket in my mind is one that holds the same amount as you can fit
> in your machine! The silly thing we found was that all the ones we saw
> sold as diaper buckets didn't as the initial one we had (99p) was annoying
> as it didn't fill the machine. So I changed to a random thing our of a
> bargain shop at a similarly bargain price.

That is a very good point. I have a big machine but you want to use plenty
of water when washing cloth. I should also mention that I have *two* of
those buckets so I wash when they both fill up. I also have two babies. If
I only had one baby I think I could go a week between washings. I
occasionally sprinkle baking soda in there for the odor. I've only smelled
diapers when it has been hot and muggy and then only when I lift the lid.
For some reason I don't think cloth smell quite as bad as disposables which
doesn't really make sense but there it is! ;-)


--
Nikki, mama to
Hunter 4/99
Luke 4/01
Brock 4/06
Ben 4/06

[Anne Rogers]

> For some reason I don't think cloth smell quite as bad as disposables
> which doesn't really make sense but there it is! ;-)

they don't, I presume it is the chemicals, but a dispoable smells almost as
soon as it is wet and it gets worse whereas cloth barely smells initially
and then does break down and release ammonia and after a certain point
doesn't get worse.

We basically had to use disposables when we were in Korea for 4 months, I
think smell was my biggest problem with them. Plus, out there we had to pay
to dispose of them! It was also really annoying to have to continually buy
them!

Anne

[cjra]

Nikki wrote:
> "Anne Rogers" > wrote in message
> ...
> >> I found the diaper champs for $2 so I bought them for my cloth since you
> >> can't buy any other kind of pail for $2! I removed the 'air lock' thing
> >> though. No smell at all but they aren't very big considering how big
> >> cloth diapers are. If you want to wash less often then every three,
> >> maybe four days then you will need something bigger.
> >
> > although you have to check how many you can put in your machine, the ideal
> > diaper bucket in my mind is one that holds the same amount as you can fit
> > in your machine! The silly thing we found was that all the ones we saw
> > sold as diaper buckets didn't as the initial one we had (99p) was annoying
> > as it didn't fill the machine. So I changed to a random thing our of a
> > bargain shop at a similarly bargain price.
>
> That is a very good point. I have a big machine but you want to use plenty
> of water when washing cloth. I should also mention that I have *two* of
> those buckets so I wash when they both fill up. I also have two babies. If
> I only had one baby I think I could go a week between washings.

A whole week? That sounds good... I hadn't thought about the bucket
size. We have a small washer (it's a European model), but it's really
hard to estimate how many diapers it will take....

[Anne Rogers]

> A whole week? That sounds good... I hadn't thought about the bucket
> size. We have a small washer (it's a European model), but it's really
> hard to estimate how many diapers it will take....

unlikely with a newborn, particularly if you have a small machine, we never
got to once a week, I think the furthest we stretched it out was when we
just had a toddler producing 4-5 nappies a day when it was about every 5
days, though I preferred to keep a habit of washing Wednesdays and Sundays,
you do get a better wash with nappies if you don't challenge your machine
too much!

Anne