simplehuman 18 Liter / 4.8 Gallon Butterfly Lid Kitchen Step Trash Can, Brushed Stainless Steel

Never thought I'd spend this much on trash cans, and my husband thought I had gone mad. However, once the 2 cans I ordered arrived securely packed in SimpleHuman boxes and also within larger Amazon boxes (they were massive packages!) and I set them up in the kitchen (one for recycling and one for garbage) we were both convinced I'd made the right purchase. The 13 gallon bags I buy in bulk from Costco or Sam's Club fit fine, but since each can came with 3 packages of sample bags (I think 2 or 3 bags per package), I'm using those for now. I've only had the cans a few days, but so far we really like them--and we only had to take the trash out ONCE in two days! We usually fill up our old can at least twice a day. The butterfly feature is the reason I purchased these particular cans, and the quiet close (they close slowly, they don't slap down!) is very nice. To change the bag, you only have to lift the back of the can and tilt it forward so that it stays propped up a bit, and pull the old bag out. No need to take out the entire plastic liner can. In other words, there is no lifting (other than the actual bag of trash). To keep the top open to peel carrots or whatnot, you just move the metal bars holding each side up into a little grooves and presto!--the can stays open for you. These have a 10 year warranty, for which I plan to register online. I purposely chose not to buy a motion sensor can because there seems to be too much chance it will fail. But these don't have any fancy mechanisms, as far as I can tell, so should hold up pretty well. The reviews seem to suggest this will be the case. The reason we replaced our little $10 plastic under-the-sink open trashcan is because the one year old cat we just adopted kept sneaking in the cabinet and dumping the trash all over the kitchen and dragging it out into the rest of the house! This TOTALLY solved our problem (though somewhat expensively--but that's neither here nor there!). And our recycling was going into an old plastic gallon ice cream tub and had to be taken out several times a day (and was gross to look at). Now we have this HUGE enclosed can and can put everything in there and take it out far less often. Everyone in the family is very happy with these can. So worth the money!!! If you are considering these and they fit your budget (I used birthday money, but I'm a little embarrassed to say this in my thank you note to mom :-), go for it. If all you are looking for is a trashcan, go to Walmart and spend $10-20. But if you want a trashcan that looks good, works really well, holds a lot, fits normal 13 gallon bags and will supposedly last for years, spend the extra bucks and be done with it. You'll be glad you did!

TLDR: ***IF*** this is the right size and color for you.... You will love this slim, white, quiet, discreet and soft-closing 18l butterfly bin from SimpleHuman. Love. Love. Love. Engineering of the soft-close butterfly lid cannot be beat by any other product on the market (and I've tried them all). Classy and incredibly long lasting. Full disclosure: I am a SimpleHuman fan of ONE style (Butterfly). But, I hate how huge most of their bins are. I had a BigBox sold version in stainless steel version for 10-11yrs. in the 'butterfly' style. Loved it to death and it survived several movers until the last one. Was still going strong until it was dropped upside down, hard, with the doors open. Hunting for a replacement, I realized that the versions made for bigbox stores are always slightly different -- the ones available directly from SH are MASSIVE. Good if you have a 5-8 person household living on a ranch, not so good if you are tiny condo/apt living in tight quarters. I tried the 45, then the 40 gallon. Way too big and, in stainless steel, it was the first thing your eye was drawn to upon entering a very open concept space. I didn't want the trash bin to be the first thing everyone noticed in our new home. In desperation I tried a few other brands/styles, but here's the thing --- once you experience the beauty and genius of the compact (space saving) Simple Human butterfly style---nothing else feels right. Just as I was about to give up, I noticed a random listing on Amazon for a "diaper" bin! What!? How is this a "diaper" bin? Simply because it is smaller (perfect!) and white (double perfect!!)?? However, I wasn't sure if it was going to be big enough. I decided one last attempt was worth it. OMG -- I"m in LOVE with this bin! Nothing about it says "diaper" so I think SH was just attempting to expand their market share with some intern's idea about how to sell this product! STOP IT. Market it alongside your other bins! It is a PERFECT size for a small/open apt/condo (common in urban areas) and definitely large enough for 1-2 people who plan to empty their trash at least once a week! See pics. The ONLY downside... 13gallon trash bags are too big but can be rigged to fit, but need to be tightly wound around the top of the bin liner and then poked through the hole in the back. I do NOT like SH trash bags. They are grossly overpriced and remarkably thin (I'd say thinner than the average off the shelf g-bag). You do get a 20-pack of their bags with this bin. In case you care, SH g-bags for this are style "L" and measure 17" (wide) by 24" (long). Still on the hunt for generic, lower cost bags but willing to keep using the bigger ones if necessary. If you need a COMPACT, WHITE bin, with a SLIM profile, for a small household, and love you a gorgeously engineered slow-close perfect butterfly lid -- this one's for you! :-)

I waited 3 years to buy this can, and I couldn't be more happy with it. It's beautiful and functional. I FINALLY have a trash bin is not a point of shame in my kitchen! It's pretty much a work of art, only better because it serves a purpose! The soft-close lid gives you enough time to drop in whatever refuse you need to, without having to keep your foot on the step. The butterfly lid closes flush with the can, leaving no leverage for dogs to be able to nose into the can—a problem we've had with every other trash can. No more having to remember to orient the can in a certain direction before leaving home in order to keep the dogs out. The interior plastic can lifts out easily and smoothly. The matching can liners fit the plastic can liner perfectly. As with any product, how satisfied you will be with the product depends on what you were looking for. One 1-star reviewer complained that this can doesn't contain odors, but nothing in the product description makes any claim that the can WOULD contain odors. That said, it does so far better than my old trash can did. If you regularly have stinky trash that you know will be sitting around for a few days before you remove it, you should exercise the same caution as you would with any other large can, and not put stinky stuff into it until you're ready to take out the trash. OR, buy a smaller can that forces you to take out the trash more frequently—this can comes in several sizes and this one is the largest-capacity model. Simple common sense. I don't clean out leftovers from my fridge until the trash is ready to go out anyway. This product is the answer to everything I hate about dealing with my trash, and could only be improved upon if it took out the trash itself. It comes with a 10 year warranty, and I'm sure I will have this can for longer than that—or a replacement if this one fails. I saved up for this to be able to afford the luxury, and it is worth ever penny. You won't be sorry you made this purchase. CUSTOMER SERVICE NOTE: the customer service for this vendor was incredible. I ordered my can, and it arrived slightly dented, even though the packaging was completely in tact. I groaned and was so disappointed, thinking that the return process was going to be such a pain in the butt. I even considered just living with the dent, except it was on the side that would not be facing a wall, and I paid so much for it I really felt I should have a new can in perfect condition. When I got on to Amazon and initiated the return/exchange process it was COMPLETELY PAINLESS! I stated what was wrong. I had the option of exchanging or returning with options to have a driver bring a label to my house and pick up the return! (Or to drop off someplace if I preferred.) And I didn't have to wait for my returned item to arrive before they sent a new one. I received my replacement can the next DAY! And the driver that dropped it off picked up my return and hauled it away. For an exchange, it was the most painless and convenient exchange I've ever had to deal with.

Great trash can with slow, quiet closing lid, fits snug against side of sink area and double opening of lids keeps it close to wall without hitting the wall. Even husband thought I made a great purchase. A little pricey for a trash can but works great, solid construction, the dual containers is brilliant! Ordinary kitchen trash bags work great. We use one side for the food scraps in a “covered plastic” container. We are required to be separate out food scraps as per state regulations. The separate plastic container fits perfectly and there is no garbage smell from the whole trash can!

I had an earlier version of this can -- I think the only difference is that the older one had a black plastic lid. It cost an outrageous amount when I bought it about 8 years ago, but I'd forgotten how exorbitant these things are until the tabs on the lids broke off and we had to buy a new one.* It's far more expensive, and far more beautiful, than any trash can has a right to be. As much of a splurge as this is, it's so worth it if it's going anywhere where anyone will see it. Because let me tell you, this thing is gorgeous in person. The quality is as obvious not only when you look at it, but when you use it. It just doesn't make sense to furnish your kitchen beautifully, carefully select the countertop material, the faucet, the sink, etc, and then cheap out on a plastic monstrosity from Wally World that'll get stained in a gross rainbow of uncleanable browns after a few months of use. This lovely item will hold its beauty for at least 8 years of hard use -- ours certainly did -- and it works whisper-quietly, closing with surgical precision that muffles virtually all kitchen-waste stench. I do have one complaint. The item comes with sample "simplehuman" kitchen trash bags. They're lovely, but why on earth would I buy them when I can get excellent trash bags at Costco for a fraction of the price? Well, (they're probably hoping), because regular tall kitchen can bags are a little shallow for this can. They fit fine, but they're a bit "short-sheeted" -- they don't quite reach the bottom of the can. Nevertheless, they work okay, and that's what we use. Maybe you can recoup a bit of the exorbitant cost that way too... *After dealing with simplehuman recently to get replacement parts for an old item of theirs, I have since realized that I could probably have simply bought replacement lids and kept the old can, and saved a C-note. Oh well. Perhaps someone reading this can learn from my mistake.

My favorite trash can! Love the butterfly opening, slim enough to fit at the end of a counter and feel like it’s not impeding your space. Be careful using on hardwood floors as the mechanism for the foot lever can scratch if not level. I have purchased 3 of these in the past 10 years not because anything was wrong but because I moved and left it for the next person. The previous 2 are still in use.

As with most simplehuman products, this garbage can is well made. I've owned this particular one for five years now, and it's showing no signs of quitting--the pedal still works, the lid opens as it should...and that's saying something, given that mechanical breakdown is one of the chief complaints of a lot of garbage cans out there, and the stainless ones are so expensive that breakage like that in a short window of time is unacceptable. Another thing that's great about this is the slim design. I chose it specifically for that reason. I keep mine on the side of my kitchen island, in a kitchen that doesn't otherwise have tons of clearance room for walking, so I didn't want to take it up with garbage can square-footage. The pedal in the front is great, and the butterfly doors are really nice if you use it like I do, alongside an island where you do all your work. The lids can be propped open by moving the lever found just inside the lid, and scraps created while prepping for dinner can be pushed off the edge of the counter and directly into the open can. The lid doors are very low profile, and do not protrude past the height of the counter, so they are not in the way of any operation, and I would imagine that this design puts much less stress on the hinges and opening mechanisms than with single-lid pails that hinge at the far end of the pail. Less weight on the hinges. So no doubt, this is why my particular pail has lasted so long. I bought this one because I needed both garbage and recycle bins, but having now used it for this long, I will say that I regret getting this particular one. Each of the two pails is far too small to be practical. My son has garbage duty, and bemoans the fact that he has to go sometimes multiple times in a day to empty the garbage, because it fills so quickly. One typcial dinner prep will fill the can to overflowing. Recyclables fill almost as quickly. So unless you're an apartment dweller with ABSOLUTELY no space but for this, I'd recommend getting a full-sized garbage pail (simplehuman makes a pail exactly like this one, but with one large pail inside instead of two smaller ones) and putting recyclables elsewhere...or getting a second pail for them. This can doesn't come with any sort of odor filter, but we have not had issues with odor. Even though there's a visible gap where the two doors meet, smell has not been a large issue for us...although, that may purely be a function of the quick turnaround time in filling the pails. It's possible it never stinks because we empty it too quickly for things to get out of hand. We do also use scented, deodorizing liners, FWIW. Plan for us going forward is to buy a second butterfly-lidded pail, but one that doesn't have divided pails like this one. That'll be dedicated to garbage, and I'll take this one and put it on the other side of the island. We'll put recyclables in the blue recycle side, and refundable bottles and cans in the black one.

This is by far the favorite can of trash we've had in our family, and we've had a few. I remember when I used to walk up hill to school in the snow and Simple Human just made a name for themselves in the store that shall not be named. Not Beyond Beds and Baths or Baths Beyond the Bed, but the other one. Most of those trash cans are still in use somewhere else in the house, but when we acquired an Australian Shepherd Poodle Mix (Shephoodle) the old designs proved to be worthless for keeping out nosy dogs. She could easily lift the edge of a trash can with her nose and pretend she was an elderly quadruped in line at Western Sizzlin'. After cleaning up the resulting mess more than once it was time to shop for a new trash can. The Butterfly Lid Simplehuman came to the top of the usual search results, and sorting by review seemed to solidify the choice. Durability remains to be seen, but so far the dog has not gotten in this one, the action is smooth, it looks great and the kids fingerprints don't show up nearly as much as other stainless objects in the kitchen. Capacity for the 30 gallon is adequate. Removing the trash bag once it's compacted from a few days of use is a bit of a challenge for our 3 year old, so I let our 12 year old take out the trash for now. My 3 year old is currently on a regimen of light weight and high reps and should be ready to take over trash duty in a few months. As for the dog, she read the manual for the trash can the day I opened it (Didn't realize she could read then.), but she doesn't have the weight to push down on the foot pedal yet. Ha! Take that smart dog. The cans a winner. A bit steep in price, but certainly dog proof at this point. Again, the 30 liter size is fine for our family of 4, but that may be because our Cockatiel Macaw Parrot mix (Cockacaw) taught us about composting. Thanks Rocky! Good luck in your quest for a trash can, and give this one a try before brushing it off due to the cost. Should reliability prove inadequate I will post a follow-up to this review.