Review of the Touch Free Diaper Pail by Graco

We have the Diaper Champ from Baby Trend and the Touch Free Diaper Pail by Graco. The Diaper Champ was a baby shower gift and of course, as shown below, I won the Touch Free from DadLabs.

Thanks, DadLabs! You rock!

Here is my honest opinion. Overall, these are both very good diaper pails. If I were going to purchase one of them myself, knowing what I know now and even being the geek that I am, I would spend my money on the Diaper Champ. The Diaper Champ contains the smell better, holds a little more diapers in it at full capacity, is slightly easier to change bags, and doesn't use any consumables like specially-made bags. You buy it, you use it, end of story.

Or, as in our house, you get it as a gift, you use it, you train your toddler to use it and hope they will continue to use it if a sibling comes along. Remember, teach your tots that throwing away dirty diapers is cool! Car keys — NOT COOL!

The Scoop (rhymes with poop)
There is about a $20.00 difference between the two depending on where you shop. The charcoal filters for the Touch Free are hard to find for a good price. Last time I checked, you could only get them through Graco directly or Sears. I have a hack for this though. Keep reading.

The Touch Free on the other hand, looks cooler, functions cooler and our curious toddler has a lot of fun making the lid pop open with the remote sensor. Sometimes we have to trick him by switching the remote sensor off and putting it into manual mode. Then we lay a guilt trip on him and tell him that be broke it.

Just like guilt trips my parents used on me, it didn't work on him either. He still messes with it.

There were some comments and suggestions made that perhaps a remote control could be used to operate the Touch Free. I am a dork so I honestly tried to use the remote that came with my Mac just to rule out for you all that it in fact DOES NOT operate the diaper pail. Besides, the remote sensor is flat on the top of the surface so unless you rig a mirror or something, I'm not sure that a remote would ever work at this angle, but I'd still like to see someone try.

I really like how clean the Touch Free stays. It looks nicer in our son's room and it's a neutral beige that blends in. (They also make it in a pretty lilac color as well. Look at me, I'm a pretty diaper pail. I make poop look pretty.) The Diaper Champ is white with blue trim and sometimes it has a tendency to get a little bit of poop on it if you don't wrap up the diaper tightly enough into a swan shaped origami figure before plopping it in. (ok, trying to chuck it in from a few feet away) (Sorry Dad, I didn't inherit your basketball grace.)

As for the smell, let's face it, sometimes I think our son harbors WOMD in his diaper. (Weapons of Mass Destruction, shhh! Don't tell anyone.) So, even Fort Knox couldn't keep that smell locked in. Although, perhaps a proton pack might do the trick? I think the Diaper Champ holds the smell in best but it's hard to tell because I think it might be that you have to change the Touch Free a little more frequently so maybe not as much stink accumulates.

Diaper Pail Hack
They both use standard kitchen trash bags so you don't have to waste money on those special sausage casing-type bags. The Touch Free does cost you extra in that you have to replace the batteries for the remote sensor AND you have to replace a charcoal filter once a month. That's the price you pay for coolness though. Unless you're cheap like me. When these batteries run out, we'll probably replace them with rechargeables to save a little on that cost. I skip the $3.49 charcoal filters and instead use a .99¢ 'stickup' air freshener in the lid. I just remove the little clippy thing-a-ma-do that holds the charcoal filter and adhere one of those stickups there instead. When the lid opens, the 'aroma' is that of Spring Fresh Poopy Diaper instead of just Fresh Poopy Diaper.

Uploaded with plasq's Skitch!

View the full demo from DadLabs here. There isn't anything these Dads won't do to bring you the "the scoop" — pun intended. For more great comparisons on diaper pales, check out this from their site.

Check out www.dadlabs.com and have a laugh. Drink some beer. Watch parents drink beer. Watch parents drink beer and give really good parenting advice.
Seriously!

How many times did I use the word poop?

There are only 2 times in your life when you get to use the word poop a lot without taking a lot of crap for it: When your ARE a preschooler and when you HAVE a preschooler.