Arm & Hammer Diaper Pail by Munchkin Review

It seems like the perfect mix of convenience, practicality and style. The ARM & HAMMER™ Diaper Pail by Munchkin looks good in the nursery, it’s sturdy and appears to provide a safe, sanitary system for dirty diapers; and it uses an easy-to-refill baking soda cartridge to neutralize order. Unfortunately, all those plusses don’t outweigh the negatives. The bottom line: the product – which I estimate would cost you a dollar a day based on the cost of replacement bags -- does not live up to its promise and is actually less effective than a $5 diaper pail from your local drugstore used with a recycled grocery bag.

What makes this brand so unique is the built-in baking soda dispenser. The baking soda is supposed to eliminate any orders from your stinky diapers (just like it absorbs odors in your refrigerator every day). You don’t have to buy any special freshener – just refill the cartridge with the ARM & HAMMER™ baking soda you already have at home for cooking or cleaning. Munchkin makes disposable bags specifically for the system, which are able to hold up to 25 size 1 newborn diapers. The bags easily snap in and out of the pail. To feed the bag through, you have to open the lower draw and pull the bag all the way down into place.

You don’t drop a diaper into this pail. Instead, you push it through a flexible inner lid, a “self-sealing system” patented by Munchkin. When you close the outer lid, the bag twists a bit to push the diaper down and lock it away. The diapers are never visible even when the outer lid is open. The outer lid locks in place and is released by pushing and pulling up with one hand.

The fact that this system uses baking soda – a safe household staple -- to combat diaper odors was very appealing. I wouldn’t have to buy any special deodorizer or worry about toxins or sensitivity. It works great in my fridge so I assumed it would be just as effective in the nursery. Wrong.

That seemingly powerful powder did nothing to eliminate a strong-smelling urine diaper from my 18-month old. As for a Pamper full of #2, after a very bad (and all too common) teething diaper I had to throw out the entire bag even though it was the only diaper in the pail. I thought at least the structure of the pail itself would mask the odor even if the baking soda had little effect – but it did nothing. You would have thought I’d left the thing out on the changing pad.

The pail design is truly flawed. The flexible inner lid is supposed to keep the contents locked in and out of sight. But in order to get the diaper through the seal, you have to give it a good push; the pressure of your hand against the diaper can cause it to squish and, well, it could be pretty messy depending on the contents of that diaper.

My biggest problem with the entire system, though, was the lower door, which you use to access the disposable bag and feed it into the body of the pail. The “lock” on the door is a large knob that actually looks like it was engineered for a toddler’s hand. After catching my son and daughter playing “hide the toy” behind the bag of dirty diapers in the pail, I had to move it the top of a dresser. Definitely not convenient.

Disclosure: Review samples were provided by the manufacturer. For more information, please see our Ethics Policy.