Product Description

Specially-formulated carbon filter with odor eliminator. Uses standard kitchen trash bags instead of costly refills - saves money! No plunging or pushing of messy diapers; simple one-hand operation, and ultra-quiet. Key features:Unique carbon filter/fan system traps and neutralizers odors Uses standard kitchen trash bags - saves $$ versus expensive cartridge refills Auto-cycle fan is ultra-quiet Holds up to 40 diapers (newborn) sSmple one-hand operation First filter included; Requires 4 D-cell batteries, not included (filter and battery life approximately 90 days)

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1813 in Baby Product
• Brand: The First Years
• Model: Y7010
• Released on: 2007-01-01
• Dimensions: 10.80" h x 14.20" w x 18.50" l, 7.40 pounds

Features

• Unique air-filtration feature
• Uses standard kitchen trash bags
• Simple one-hand operation
• 4 D Alkaline batteries required

From the Manufacturer
The Clean Air Odor-Free Diaper Disposal is the only system to both contain and eliminate odors...for the most odor-free solution available! The Clear Air system combines ultimate odor protection with a unique air-filtration feature. It doesn't just trap odors - it eliminates them! Specially-formulated carbon filter with odor eliminator. Uses standard kitchen trash bags instead of costly refills - saves money! No plunging or pushing of messy diapers, simple one-hand operation, and ultra-quiet.

Customer Reviews

Wish they had a zero-star rating option
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.

Not what I expected
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.

BEST Diaper Holder with NO Odors ! ! (NOT ANYMORE!)
~~~~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.

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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!