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Scent is probably the most powerful memory trigger there is. A single tickle of a childhood fragrance across the old olfactory glands can easily send you back to being five years old, sitting at your grandmother’s kitchen table eating chocolate chip cookies fresh from the oven. Now from Febreze, makers of sprays designed to magically remove smelly smells from fabrics in your home comes Scentstories, an air freshener “player” that uses discs with five different scents per disc to smell your house back up again! (The irony) So how does this “player” work, and is there really a difference between the way “creamy vanilla” and “french vanilla” smell?
(All images in this review can be clicked on for larger resolution photos)
What’s in the Box?
The Febreze Scentstories Air Freshener Player, the AC adaptor, and one fragrance disc: “exploring a mountain trail.” (yes, that really is the name.)
What’s Good about it?
The player is well-constructed and looks funk-o-liciously hi-tech for being an air freshener. After removing the foil freshness seal from the disc, I plugged in the unit, slapped in the disc, closed the lid and hit “play.” The Scentstories has a surprisingly powerful little fan that shoots the lovely scents from the disc out of the front of the unit. Scent titles are circulated 1 every 30 minutes, over the course of 2 and a half hours. After that the unit automatically shuts itself off. A little window on the side shows you the number of the scent you be smellin, and some of the names are…well….judge for yourself. From “exploring a mountain trail” we have
1) following the winding creek
2) walking besides wildflowers
3) exploring the mountains
4) high in the mountain pass
5) gazing at the tall firs
Whew. I was all “natured out” so I popped in the extra disc I picked up, the quite aptly named “shades of vanilla.” There actually is a difference between all five of the vanilla scents on this disc, which genuinely surprised me. You can manually step through the different scents by pressing the play/next button, and there are three levels of “smell-o-intensity” to choose from. I REALLY wanted to take in the whole vanilla experience you know what I’m sayin, so I cranked the intensity up to the high level and within minutes my office smelled like a vanilla wildnerness full of vanilla nut cake wildflowers and tall firs. Pressing stop on the unit will stop the scent madness and power the unit off.
So what do the different scents smell like? Yummy! Out of the ten to assail my nostrils, there was not a one I found offensive. I liked a few of them better than others of course, but there was not a single scent that caused me to instantly yak.
What could be improved?
When inserting the discs, I expected them to lay flat or snap in. When actually inserted they kind of sit at an angle, and even when I tried to press them flat they would pop up again. They do go flat when you close the lid – perhaps adding this information to the instructions would help those like me who expect a “console cartridge” tight fit. Also, the unit resets the discs back to the first scent on the disc each time it finished playing them all – that’s how it can keep track of where it is on the playlist. This stop process, if you press stop on say scent number two or another in the middle of the disc can take a REALLY LONG TIME. Keep in mind I am a gadget maniac who expects the DVD tray to eject immediatly when I press the eject button. After what seemed like an eternity, the unit reset itself back to number one (creamy vanilla – yum!) and I could eject the disc. You cannot eject a disc until the unit stops and resets the disc to one, so switching discs can take up to a minute or more. The numbers that display what scent is being played are small and the same color as the background they are on, if there is a Scentstories Part II we would suggest coloring in the numbers so they are more visible and even putting a small magnifying screen over them to make them easier to read.
PLEASE keep in mind that the scentstories player does not actually play music. (It slays me that Febreze ACTUALLY had to create a FAQ for this question.) If you could download new scents from iScents SmellTunes for 99 cents a smell, THOUGH, now that would be something….
Interesting. But how many times can you play one scent disk? Is it good only for one use or can it be played multiple times? And how many times?
i own one of these and they work great.. only thing is, the scent discs are nearly impossible to find. walmart doesn’t carry them at all and target has had the vanilla one.. when they have them at all.
I am having the same problem as the person above. I can’t find them any where I really like the machine but if you can’t find the disc what do you do. Can you let me know where to find them so I can continue to use it. I really don’t care what the fragrence is.
I found one place online that still sells them:
http://tinyurl.com/34zsfa
You can now buy discs through Yankee Candle shops. At this time, you can order them through the shop or go online at yankeecandle.com. I just bought my Scentstories yesterday and it’s great. If the Yankee Candle discs are as great as their candles – I’m buying stock in the company.
I bought 2 Scentstories for Christmas gifts for my family last year and now I cannot find the scent discs. WalMart & CVS carried the machine & the discs. Yesterday WalMart doesn’t carry the machine or disc anymor and CVS had their machines on clearance for $10 and carry no discs.
I did go to http://www.yankeecandle.com and they have them for $7.50…haven’t ordered any yet. This disappoints me … did I get suckered by another gadget??
I just got the scentstories player at Walmart last week for $5!! But they had no discs…so it does make me wonder if they are not going to carry these in stores any longer. I love this thing, and I have one of the discs from Yankee in it right now and it smells awesome!!
I TOO HAVE A SCENT STORY THAT I CAN NO LONGER FIND THE DISK FOR. THIS IS REALLY UPSETTING AFTER JUST PURCHASING IT AND WANTED TOO BE ABLE TOO ENJOY THE MACHINE, WHICH I AM THROUGHLY HAPPY WITH. WHAT IS THE POSSIBILTIY OF YOU HELPING ME TO FIND A DEALER OTHER THAN WALMART IN KEMP TEXAS,75143,A SURROUNDING OUTSIDE COMMUNITY OF DALLAS TX.
GOOD NEWS!!!! TRY YOUR LOCAL CVS, WALGREENS, RITEAID STORES HAVE PLENTY OF SCENTSTORIES REFILL DISC. ALSO MY LOCAL KROGER AND FOOD LION STOCK THEM.
My Walgreens, CVS, or Riteaid does not have the discs. I have just started my search but so far the only thing I have found is online with the Yankee Candle ones.
I’m very upset with your company! I purchased 10 Febreze scent story machines as Christmas gifts for each home in our family I have spent $250.00, All to discover the refill discs are not available in stores. Our families are not very happy with this situation
I purchased a scent stories last week and love it.I socialize cats for a local rescue group and have up to 30 cats or kittens at one time and i have not had a problem with odor since I started using the machine. My problem now is I can’t find the refill discs. PLEASE HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I to have had trouble finding the disks to purchase. i have found them in the past at walmart until recently and cant find them there now. i bought 2 machines at my local cvs and only paid 5dollars for them and now they are gone and no disks. I have seen the disks at menards, kmart and krogers. when i try to find them on the febreze website it just takes me to the yankee candle ones. i really dont want to pay 7.50 for a disk when im not a HUGE yankee candle fan to begin with. They should at least have all the disks on their website available for purchase. I to have bought machines for most of my family and friends for gifts becuase with small children you dont have to worry about them burning themselves on it. I intend to contact the company and voice my opinions and i encourage everyone to do the same. They come out with a wonderful product then make it difficult to find the disks you have to have to even use it!!!!!!!!!!
You can buy more discs from Yankee Candle.There signature fragrances.And they have lots of choices,great scents.
I too Love my machine. And especially loved the holiday fragrances last year. I now need some new disc and can not find them anywhere. I have been to Walmart, K-mart, Meijers and Big Lots. I am not a real fan of paying 7.50 when at K-mart they was only 6.99. I know only .51 difference but on a budget it adds up.
I received a scent stories for Christmas last year and I love it, but can’t seem to find the machines anywhere. Can someone let me know where I can find another one? I’ve seen them on e-bay but would much rather go to a retail location.
The Scent story collection and machine was sold by P&G to Yankee Candle. Here is the web address.On the front page left had side you will see a list of Yankee Candle products. Scentstories is the next to last one. There are new scents as well as the old ones. The disks are costing $7.50. Hope this helps
Debbie
Wow. I thought this product bombed and was being discotinued. I don’t see it being advertisted *at all* and don’t see the refills in major stores. I’m glad it’s still going strong. It’s just a matter of FINDING a store to buy more disks.
The yankee candle disks are $7.50…. but the shipping is $8.00. Way to rip us all off. Thanks febreze, guess which brand i am NO LONGER using
I have had my machine for about a year now. Once I received this as a gift, I immediately went out and bought discs for this machine, because I could not find them before I received this gift. Rite-Aid is where I was lucky to find the discs, but very rare do they get them in.
I love my scentstories machine. I got the Yankee Candel Christmas disc at Halloween (ther only place I could find them) and I’m still using it. BUT I cannot find the replacement disc’s ANYWHERE!! This is so dissapointing..I spent $25.00 on my scentstories and now I cannot find the disc’s anywhere. If I buy them through Yankee Candle they charge $5.0o to ship them. This is very frustrating. I really think that Febreze should do somthing about this fast!
I have been dying to try the scenstories machine. I bought one yesterday at a resale shop. It came with 4 disc,how do I tell if they are still good? The unit runs fine, there is a little note on the inside that says caution this may be hot, I dont think anything is getting that hot in there tho.It blows cool air and I get a very light scent. Does it sound like this unit is working fine?
I found the discs on Drugstore.com 4.99 each
I am disappointed in not being able to find the refills easily. Great product but what’s the point if you have to order to get a refill?
I am so glad I am not the only one haveing problems finding the refills for this machine.I can’t find them anywhere ,I was thinking of takeing a trip to the states and looking there but looks like your in the same boat as I am.
I ALSO HAD A HARD TIME FINDING THEM AND THOUGHT IT WAS JUST THE AREA i WAS IN. ARE THEY REMOVING THIS PRODUCT FROM THE MARKET? I CAN’T FIND THEM ANYWHERE AND BELIEVE ME I HAVE BEEN EVERYWHERE. I ALWAYS USED TO PURCHASE THEM FROM WALMART AND NOTICED THEY NO LONGER CARRIED THEM AND HAVE SINCE BEEN EVERYWHERE LOOKING FOR THEM.I REALLY LIKE THE SCENTSTORIES:( I MIGHT JUST SELL MINE ON EBAY AND TRY TO MAKE SOME MONEY BEFORE EVERYONE REALIZES THEY’RE DOING AWAY WITH THEM ALL TOGETHER.
I just found them on drugstore.com for 4.99 a piece with 5.99 s+h which comes out to 10.98 a piece. They only have 2 scents available though.
i love my scent stories and like so many before me cannot find the discs. i live in canada and therefore not feasable to drive to the states. i wonder does the maker know there are so many of us in need of the discs. how can they be reached, i guess the 800 number. ok i just wanted to let everyone know that i too am upset by the disappearance of this wonderful device.
I have had the scentstories player for a few of years now, and could never find the disc’s. I was NOT going to throw it away when it cost me $25.00 to purchase!! They have been tucked away and now I figured it was time to find the disc. Yankee Candle has them for $9.99!!! Plus S&H on top of that!! That’s just ridiculous!! Right now it’s buy 2 get 1 free. When I first bought my player, I could buy the discs for like $5.99 each. I guess YC wants to make the money back on the rights they purchased. They do have a store locator search on the website and I am going to go check out the price at the store. Maybe they will have a better deal instore than online. I’ll keep you posted on the price. Good luck everyone
I have 2 of the scentstorie players and now find out walmart no lonfer carries them or the disk.I called Proctor and Gamble to find out why, only to be informed they had sold that product to Yankee candle. They gave me a number at Yankee to call, which I did and they infomed me there are only 2 places here in Cincinnati I can purchase them, and both places are quite a distance from me. I was also informed the disk are now 9.99.This is ridculous!!! I told Proctor and Gamble I was tired of buying their plugins etc only to find out later I could no longer get refills and I will no longer buy anything like that if it is from Proctor and Gamble.I did see on one of these sites where someone is offering to buy the machines. Makes me wonder if they have figured out a way to use the old disk by refilling the little pods?? Makes you wonder…
Hello everyone. I made a comment in november of last year. I was lucky to find a few of the vanilla disks at my local menards store and cant find them anywhere now. all that is available is thru yankee. i didnt know p&g sold it to yankee. I am going to check with a yankee candle store and see if they carry the disks rather than having to order them online. My cousin was nice enough to have found a thing and sent it to me that tells you exactly how to take a old used disk and refill it with scents of your choice. It takes gauze and oils or wax. If you are interested in this you may email me and put “response to ur febreze on gadget.com” so that i know what its for and that you are serious. I am more than willing to share this because im a huge fan of the machine and the disks. I will post my thoughts when im able to get my hands on a yankee disk. I totally understand the aggravation of the whole thing. its always my luck everything i find that i totally love either gets discontinued or canceled. I will always use febreze products i just wish they hadnt sold out a good product to a candle company im not fond of because they are not a clean burning candle company!!!!!!!!!GO BEANPOD!!! Ok here is my email address. just please only email me if you are serious about learning how to refill them. shelton_christina@hotmail.com i am being trusting here that i will not receive spam or annoying emails. If you are interested i am willing to pass along the information. it doesn contain pictures as well!!!!!!!!!!
I don’t buy the discs anymore. For several years now, I’ve reused the ones I have. Just Google “reuse scentstories discs” to find out how.
I was having the same problem but then I was a Polairs Mall, Columbus Ohio and low and behold in the yankee candle store and they had them for $6.50 I think … So if you go to the candle store… you don’t have to pay shipping….
Great thought to re-use. Also just look on eBay there are hundreds!