Smell Out of Diaper Pail

MOST plastics are porous to some degree or another, contrary to popular belief. Glass, and some types of ceramic aren't, but who in their right mind wants a 50lb diaper bin? Plastics are particularly vulnerable to airborn solids (otherwise known as smells:, or oilbased things. All one has to do is put spaghetti marinara sauce in a plastic dish for awhile to see it happen.

* * *
Especially on plastic (but also on food burned on pans)I've always used gin...not a traditional cleaner, maybe, but it's had good effect. Particularly on things that you can heat up (like deglazing pans)or that you want the vapors to penetrate (like plastics).
* * *

There are 2 ways I can think of to negate the smell.

1) Sanitize it
2) Re-seal it

After you've done one or another..putting a box o'baking soda in the bottom, or sprinking the can with it after every change could probably help too...because the baking soda absorbs the odors, theoretically before they can absorb into the plastic. I also sacrificed a box of cloves to the bottom of mine.

The best way to have a chance at sanitizing your bin, is just that...to sanitize it...but over a long enough period of time to be able to penetrate the very tight surface of the plastic. Using a cleaner that is fairly unstable and goes airborn may be a good bet...like alcohol or bleach or amonia (umm...I'm guessing though, that ammonia might just make the problem worse). NO. DO NOT USE ALL 3 OR ANY COMBINATION OF THESE PRODUCTS TOGETHER. You may also want to test these products on a similar piece of plastic. The chemicals MAY react with the plastic over a long period of time, but I don't really know. I've done this on items, but I've always just crossed my fingers...figuring it was going to go in the garbage if it didn't work.

Sanitize method #1)
- Try using gin...be careful though...you can get drunk from inhaling the fumes. You could also try pouring a bottle of gin into and on the bin and then following method 2.

Sanitize method #2)

- Place the bin in one of the GINORMOUS ziplock bags that are on the market for holding things like sleeping bags.
- Saturate it, inside & out.
- Seal up the bag and leave it for a few days.
- be careful to open it OUTSIDE, and not to inhale
- wash with soap and water

Sanitize method #3)
- Toss in a DeepFreeze or other freezer for a week

Reseal Method:
- Buy a can of plastic adhering paint from your local hardware store. Lots of brands make them...including Rustoleum.
- Spray it inside & out
- Allow to dry and offgas before bringing it back inside.

Good Luck!

1 mom found this helpful

Dear K.,
Have you tried good old fashioned chlorine bleach? I use it to clean my son's bathroom. As you probably know boys don't always hit the toilet. Also I use to put a dryer sheet in the bottom of my diaper pail then a plastic liner. Good luck! Anne

1 mom found this helpful

In addition to cleaning the diaper pail with lysol each week, I would keep hotel coffee packets in the bottom. They would absorb the odor and give it a slightly coffee smell that cut the odors.

Buy a new one! I finally just tossed my diaper champ. It lasted us 3 years, I used bleach in it every week and let it air outside for a couple of hours every week. And sprayed it with scented licsol before bringing it back in the house. However I think the seal at the top of the diaper champ (the spongy thing)is what went bad on mine. Seems like the seal would hold out enough of the odor even toward the end of the week, but once that went bad it was over. I couldn't even put one diaper in it and it would smell up the whole room. It is too bad, because I really had good luck with this diaper pail. I haven't bought a new one because I am hoping my little guy will start getting interested in the potty soon. We just walk them straight out to the trash now. Oh well.....good luck.

i HAVE THAT BRAND TOO. Someone told me about putting new dryer sheets in the bottom of it before you put in the garbage bags. That seems to work. I also use dryer sheets in the bottom of my kitchen garbage can. So, try that, it doesn't hurt.

I experienced this same problem. I contacted the manufacturer and they sent some new seals for free. We put them on, but honestly, I did not think they worked that well. I still liked the Champ because of the ability to use regular trash bags, so we bought a new one. I has worked pretty well and I have not had to replace the seals. However, sometimes, it does still smell, and I don't put poopy diapers in there either.

We have a Diaper Champ as well. I had to bite the bullet and ended up buying a 2nd one after about 18 months or so. It was so stinky and nothing we did could get the smell out. I looked on-line at other postings and pretty much found the same thing.

With our new one, I just try to clean it once a week with a cleaner containing bleach. If I am in a hurry I just spray in the Lysol everyday cleaner (non-toxic) and wipe up.

Also try sprinkling baby powder in the bag and the Diaper Champ.

We asked at Babies R Us and they pretty much said with any diaper pail you will run into this issue, so we stuck with the Diaper Champ brand since I still like the way it works.

Hi K.,

We have diaper champ too and I always keep a bottle of Oust nearby and that helps so much w/ the stinkiness! I spray when I change the bag and anytime I flip it and it smells bad. Within a few minutes all you smell is oust and then nothing.

What a great post. I am just starting to have this trouble, so I hope someone can give us some good advise. I will keep checking back.
M.

WE aired it out and didn't use it for awhile and it helped some.
Another disinfectant for diaper pails or smelly garbage cans is scented vinegar. Buy a gallon of heinz vinegar add 1/2 teaspoon or 50 drops of tea tree oil (GNC or Trader Joes). Add some to garbage, let sit for a few minutes and scrub and rinse with water.
You can always put some baking soda in the bottom of the can or in with the stinky diapers.

I finally gave up and just bag the poopy ones and put it all in the kitchen trash that goes out everyday. I had ended up buying a 70$ diaper disposal thing that was guaranteed...didn't work a week!

We had the same problem.
At first we used a diaper service which was great because they took all the stinkies away each week and the bags they gave us to line the cans in were thick plastic so the pail never stunk.

Then we tried a diaper champ and after a few months it stunk. We also put the BMs in the toilet and never in the pail. We tried a few of the previously mentioned remedies and found that the baking soda was the only thing that helped--but not for long.

Finally, we just opted for a smaller pail that we empty every other day. We got a small, hard (less porous) plastic, flap top waste basket from the store and line it with plastic shopping bags. When it's full (can't flap the flap) we just toss the bag. We also keep the inside of the basket dusted with baking soda and found it helps prevent the smell from getting into the plastic. The basket is also black--which a friend of mine who is a bio-chemical engineer once told me certain colors of plastics are "more dense" than others, and it might just be that it's less porous than white plastic.

I don't have the diaper champ, but use another can for our cloth diapers. I completely wipe it out twice a week with lysol wipes and then let it sit outside (with no bag) for a couple of hours (between diaper changes). This has greatly cut down the stench! Who knew plastic could absorb such foul odors?

I don't use Diaper Champ, but I use the Playtex Diaper Genie. I pay for the plastic refills, so there may be more cost involved. However, I have not had any problems with the smell, and we have been using it for 2 years. I empty it about every 5 days (when we absolutely can't cram anything else into it). Maybe it's specific to the product design. I like the idea of the dryer sheet to help when we empty the pail (as when you tie a knot in the plastic "tube" of diapers, that's when it smells!). Good luck.

Put it outside in the sunshine. Let mother nature work on it.

Try putting newpaper in the bottom of it. It helps to absorb the odors.

I just had the same problem and cleaned mine with Pine Sol and now it smells great! We soaked ours for about 4-5 hours with steaming hot water and Pine Sol and then let it air out over night. Maybe try soaking it longer.

One thing is to make sure you shake out the poop into the toilet before putting a diaper in, it will keep it smelling better and also not contaminate landfills.

Hi K.. Throw away the bacteria infected poop pail. I did, and just walked the dirty diapers to the outside trash can. Nothing is going to clean the stench from the pail. If I can throw mine away and walk the diaper outside, so can you, and I'm a SAHD!

I have used the bacteria/enzyme based pet mess cleaners with good success in our diaper pail. The effect is not immediate as it takes time (24 hours or so) for the bacteria and enzymes to work. My favorite pet cleaner is the Mister Max Anti-Icky-Poo, but the Get Serious Cleaner is also good. The other thing I had to do (although I have different brand than the you) was be sure to clean all surfaces inside and out including any hidden ones, meaning I took mine apart a bit to get to surfaces that were hard to see much less clean. There was all kinds of stinky stuff there. I think that that made the biggest difference for us.

Good Luck!
S.

Try putting it in the sun all day. Sunshine will kill all bacteria. Plus it will heat the pail up releasing fumes and hopefully the odor. I also love to use Bac Out to clean up odors too.

A white vinegar and water solution neutralizes any smell - even cat urine!

I used to use air wick stick on air fresheners to keep the diaper pail smelling fresh.

Hi,

I found the using tea tree oil in the pail made a huge difference in reducing the smell. I think you could try other oils too like lavender. Just sprinkle a few drops in.

Good luck.

D.