Honest Reviews

Honest reviews from dog owners who have bought and tried products.
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Simple Human Butterfly Lid Trashcan

The age old dilemma with huskies and other northern breeds is: How do you keep them from getting into the garbage?

We tried the flip lid trash cans, and even a heavy duty garbage can with a screw lid, and it was either too easy for them to break into, inconvenient for us to throw stuff into it, or a decorating nightmare. At one point we caught Meeshka rolling the screw top lid trash bin into the living room in an attempt to get it open.

After rearranging our kitchen, we were in need for a thin trash can that would fit between a chest freezer and some shelving, so off to Bed Bath and Beyond we went. Sure enough, there was the Simple Human Butterfly Trash can. It was the perfect size for fitting where we needed to, and the amazing butterfly lid didn’t become apparent to us as the perfect anti-husky garbage can until we got it home.

Stainless steel outside with a plastic container inside that you can use regular kitchen garbage bags in with ease, you just step on the pedal, the doors softly open, you can pull the plastic container with the trash out, throw out the bag and put a new one in, and place the plastic container back inside. Very easy to wash out the plastic container if the bag leaks. The best part (we soon learned) was that the butterfly lid closes slowly and silently (no clanging) and that there is absolutely, positively nothing a husky can do to get it open.

Pricey? Oh yep it is. We paid about $180 for ours, but its one of the best garbage cans we’ve ever had as far as matching our kitchen appliances, looking nice, fitting where we needed it, and no cleaning up a ton of garbage or running a dog to the ER Vet when they get into cooked chicken bones.

While the finger-proof version wasn’t available when we bought ours, we’ve had very little problem keeping ours clean thanks to a trick we learned about cleaning stainless steel: use a soft, non-scratch pad to get off the gunk, then take a paper towel and a bit of olive oil and rub the olive oil all over the stainless steel. The olive oil gives it back its shine, and its non-toxic to the dogs... but you may get some tongue prints on the trash can when they lick it.

So, in all, its pricey, but well worth it!

We give it:

21 comments:

Brie said...

I have a sammy, and he's learned to step on the foot pedal. Do yours not do that?

The Army of Four said...

I hate our $200 trash can! It's the Fort Knox of trash cans! I can't knock it over and I can't open the lid! It's EVIL!
Mom seems to love it, though. Woo.
Luv,
Dave

JustWrite said...

Thank you, thank. I know this blog is six months old, but it's the only one I could find about this trash can!!! I'm going out (with me 20% off coupon) and buying this now.

... and you'd be surprised how tricky the cats are with trash cans too!

JustWrite said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
L. Ottaviano said...

I have this can as well. Purchased it from Williams-Sonoma in 2002 for $179. About 1 year after owning it, the damper that allows the lid to close softly with no clanging broke. I believe there is a lifetime warranty? In any case, I am planning to return it to Williams-Sonoma for a replacement next month. Has anyone had a similar experience?

Misty461 said...

Love the trash can, but is starting to make a squeaky noise when closing. Have had it for only 2 months, any suggestions?

t h e O b s e r v er said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
t h e O b s e r v er said...

We bought this garbage can about two months ago and its making a squeaking noise that sounds almost like a soft cry/moaning sound. kind of disturbing. My mom has kicked it and tried to oil the springs and everything but nothing works. is there anything we can do?

Unknown said...

The crying/moaning sound is coming from the bottom of the can, not from the top hinges as I first thought. Turning the can upside down and spraying some WD-40 in the bottom hinges/slots stopped the squeaking in our can in about a minute or two.

Good luck!

Eileen Daly-Boas said...

I've had the same moaning noise for months! It's a great trash can otherwise...mine's a simple human plastic one that was only about $30 and awesome. I'm going to try the WD-40, and I'll be a hero in my house if it works!

Unknown said...

Hey Folks,

I'm a retailer of these, please return it to the store you bought it at. If they give you any problems contact Simplehuman directly, they are by far one of the best and accommodating companies when it comes to their warranty.

Cheers

Unknown said...

Sprayed some bike lube on the bottom hinges of my can. No more adult film noises from the can! :)

Unknown said...

For my trash can the oiling didn't seem to permanently fix the noise problem. What eventually seemed to work was that I removed two of the three screws from the bottom area near the hinge. It looks like the metal rod connecting the bottom to the lid was rubbing against the metal bottom piece. Removing the screws moved it further away. So far, so good.

Unknown said...

The update is that everything I tried did not work. It seemed to work for just a few hours, but the moaning is back as it was before.

I really like the trash can. This particular model or production run seems to have a problem.

Laraine said...

Thank you all.
We thought our house was haunted until we finally realized it was this pail!

Anonymous said...

I took our can outside and washed it off and ended up with what sounds like the same thing. Oil or WD-40 didn't do it. On our model there is a small white cap held down with two screws. Remove that white cap and inside is a plunger. Put some baby powder on it and inside the white cap the plunger goes in.

Problem solved now for months.

Bill Kight said...

My Simple Human squeak was also caused by the plunger in the damper. It's an easy fix, at least on my model.

The dampner is approx 1.5" diameter vertical cylinder located inside the can on at the bottom rear. On my can, there are two screws that hold it down. Remove those screws and remove the black outer cover by sliding it up. Then slide the white damper cylinder off the plunger. I lubricated the inside with spray white lithium grease and then reassembled. Problem solved.

Anonymous said...

Lithium Grease on the Air Dampener to the rescue!

Unknown said...

I had the same moaning problem. I agree with the solution to remove the white can held down by 2 screws and dust the inside with baby powder (corn starch) - it worked. I tried wet lube (olive oil, WD-40) and totally clean and dry, but it only made worse. With baby powder - quiet as a sleeping baby.

Ilysi said...

What a good idea! Lid Trash can is an important tool. Really its pricey, but well worth it. I would like to add this trash with my kitchen cabinet.

Anonymous said...

Noise Fix:

If your simple human can squeaks when the lid goes down, on the bottom there are two pegs held in by a clip on both sides. It has a push down area so you can slide the pegs out. Apply some silicon grease on the peg rod and voila, reinsert pegs and hear the click, noise should be gone.